The Today Show did a nice segment with Martin Lindstrom, author of Buyology. Lindstrom reveals several tricky things that retailers do to get you to buy more, even in a depressed economy. No brain scans here, just clever retailing informed by a neuromarketing view of how we are influenced by subliminal cues. View it here:
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This post was written by:

Roger Dooley (author of 559 posts on Neuromarketing.)
Roger Dooley writes and speaks about marketing, and in particular the use of neuroscience and behavioral research to make advertising, marketing, and products better. He is the primary author at Neuromarketing, and founder of Dooley Direct LLC, a marketing consultancy.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:08 am
Hahaha, I adore the simply mind tricks! Personally, the strawberry one has worked on me multiple times. Have you read his book, buy.ology? It didn’t receive great reviews on amazon. I’m little hesitant to spend another $15 on something that points out the obvious.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:13 am
Thanks for stopping by, Yuki, my comments on Buyology are here: http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/buyology-by-martin-lindstrom.htm
That book gets into quite a bit of research findings from brain studies vs. the kind of simple experiments described in the video. A useful read if you are interested in neuromarketing, though it is not packed with “news you can use” on every page.
Roger
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:46 am
It must be a challenge to summarize a whole book in a 5 minute segment for the Today Show! I cover similar research in my latest book, but applied to designing web sites.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:49 am
Save your money on Buy.Ology, get it from the library or the $1 bin.
Buy.Ology may be important because of the water-cooler or rather ‘Trivial Persuit’ value.
Is this harsh? Depends on how you value your time.
When I sell something I always ask how will it help compress the processes or process time of the buyers. This works even if the buyers want to feel good as hopefully what I provide will make them feel good faster.
What does Buy.Ology do for you?
Cheers,
Nick
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I remember learning about marketing tricks like these YEARS ago in middle school home ec. class. Companies have been using the same psychological ideas for years to get consumers to buy more.
I do find the newer ones quite interesting though. Who knew stores were using scents these days? What’s next, B.O. spray in gyms…
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I noticed that you can smell your way to Hollister, Abercrombie, Aveda, and Tommy Bahamas before you actually see them. So beyond grass, I would also say that ’smell branding” is also in full swing.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Subconsciously I think you already know but never question these types of thing! But very interesting I want to know more
April 1st, 2009 at 10:55 pm
I am actually in the middle of reading the book and think it is fascinating. However, I got it from the library, but am still thinking about buying it. I am in the marketing field of work so it has a little more value to me than to someone who just wants an interesting read. But whether you are a marketing or just an interested reader, you should definitely pick up the book, it will have you looking at things a little differently!