Book review: BRANDWASHED
Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy
Genres:
- Marketing
- Consumer Behavior
- Psychology
Review posted on:
29.07.2016
The number of pages:
304 pages
Book rating:
4/5
Year the book was published:
First edition published 2011
Who should read this book:
- People in Marketing, Entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in how companies influence their customers.
Why did I pick up this book and what did I expect to get out of it:
I picked up Brandwashed because I have heard a lot of good things about Martin Lindstrom’s books so far. Since I’m interested in marketing and branding a title like Brandwashed, Tricks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy definitely got my attention. After looking at the table of content and reviews online I believe that Marting Lindstrom will deliver many interesting things in Brandwashed that will help me understand more how companies influence you, me, and everyone else. I expect to read real-life examples of what tricks companies use on us, and why and how do they do it. By why I mean is there any research done that will back up the findings Martin Lindstrom might share, and by how I mean what kind of tools and measures do they take to implement those tricks.
My thoughts about the book:
So many tricks are played on us (the consumers) by so many brands, and companies that it’s mind-blowing. On one hand, the tricks companies, and brands use to sell to us make us feel good about what we buy, so they empower us. But on the other hand, did we really want to buy what we bought, or even more troublesome, did we really need to buy what we bought? In the book you will read, that companies start targeting you even before you are born through the senses of your mother. Later as a child, you are targeted by cartoons and cartoon characters, jingles, peer pressure, and so on. Research also showed that if you start to use a certain brand at a younger age you are more likely to use it longer as you grow up. In Brandwashed you will also read how stores are set up to give you a feeling of fresh food, or a certain vibe with which you wish to identify yourself with. You will also find examples of how they use hope, fear, and other emotions to push your buy buttons. Where you buy, what you buy, listen to and so on is your ID of who you are, and companies know that. That is why they constantly observe and study you and your buying habits with the help of loyalty programs, in cooperation with banks and credit card companies (especially in the USA). Remember that the only goal a brand or a company has is to get the biggest share of your wallet.
The crazy part of Brandwashe is the ending, where Martin Lindstrom shares with you an experiment they made. It involved infiltrating a family into a community with the intent to influence the community on which brands they buy. You can check out a short video about it and then decide if you want to read more about it in the book – link to the video (YouTube).
Brandwashed is full of great examples of how companies and brands try to get your attention and persuade you to buy their products and services. Some examples are almost unbelievable, but in the end, if reading the book gives you at least 1% of an edge in business, it is a lot in the long run. With so many tips and tricks you can stack up an advantage and get ahead, if not right now in the future. By reading Brandwashed I have become even more alert to the tactics and tricks stores, companies and brands use to get my attention and persuade me to buy from them. I have become more alert to my actual needs and to the impulsive needs and wants that are triggered by marketing strategies. I’m not saying I don’t fall for them anymore, of course I do, but I have started noticing these tricks and sometimes I stop myself from impulsively buying something I don’t want or need at that time. Just for that Brandwasahed was worth the read, and I will be looking into more books like this in the future.
If you picked up this book please let me know what you think about it in the comment section.
My notes from the book:
- Everything we use, watch and listen to is a form of ID. A statement to the world about who we are or who we wish to become.
- Most of our adult tastes and preferences (food, drink, clothes, shoes, cosmetics,…) are actually rooted in our early childhood. Studies have shown that a majority of our brand and product preferences are pretty firmly embedded in us by the age of seven.
- Smell is the most powerful, the most primitive, the most directly hard-wired sense in our brain.
- When the mother frequently listens to music, the fetus will learn to recognize and prefer that same music compared to other music. The fetus will build the same musical taste as his/her mother automatically since all the hormones of the mother are shared by the fetus.
- Pregnancy is among the most primal, emotional periods in women’s lives. Between the hormonal changes and the nervous anticipation of bringing another life into the world, they are most vulnerable to suggestion.
- Companies of all stripes know full well that advertisements also begin to shape children’s lasting preferences at an alarmingly young age and that the younger we are when we begin using a product, the more likely we are to keep using it for the rest of our lives.
- Children can be a marketing tool in and of themselves, thanks to their “pester power” – their ability to influence their parents’ purchases. One of two mothers will buy food simply because her child requests it. To Trigger a desire in a child is to trigger a desire in the whole family.
- Nostalgia is one of the most powerful hidden persuaders around, and it’s being used in all kinds of ways to brandwash us.
- Nostalgia is one of the most powerful hidden persuaders around, and it’s being used in all kinds of ways to brandwash us.
- Fear of failure drives consumers far more than the promise of success.
- Sometimes advertisers prey on our fears of our worst selves by activating insecurities that we didn’t even know we had.
- Studies have shown that women are more prone to fear and guilt than men are. No one is more vulnerable to fear and guilt than mothers, particularly new mothers.
- Once something is part of our routine, it becomes almost impossible to shake. – think about how you can make your product or service a part of your customer's routine.
- Cravings may seem to come out of nowhere, but in reality, they are often triggered by some physical and emotional cues in our surroundings, whether we realize it or not. Sounds are incredibly effective at triggering cravings. For example the sound of the sizzle of a frying steak, or the crackle and fizz of a beverage being poured into a glass filled with ice cubes.
- Near misses increase the desire to play the game. Win or lose, our brains just want to keep playing. How can you implement this in your business model or loyalty program?
- In general, women tend to be more easily persuaded by ads that are more romantic than sexual, ones that emphasize commitment, devotion, and partnership. On the other side, men respond to sexual innuendo and women in bikinis, especially when the ads or commercials have a heaping dose of adolescent humor.
- An experiment conducted in 2008 by researchers at Leeds University suggests that humans flock like sheep and birds, subconsciously following a minority of individuals (about 5% of the group) who appeared to have some idea of what they were doing / where they were going. The rest of the 95% of the group trail along without even being aware of it.
- When you show people a pile of photos from a party, the first thing they do is pause and look at the pictures of themselves. The second thing they do is pause and look at the pictures of people surrounding them. Once they have taken note of how they appear, they need to analyze how they appear compared with others. We as human beings never assess ourselves, our behavior, or our decisions in a vacuum – we assess them in relation to everyone else.
- The most persuasive marketing messages aren’t magazine ads, TV commercials, or billboards, but are the ones that come from or at least seem to come from our peers.
- When it comes to the things we buy, what other people think matters a lot. Even when these people are complete strangers.
- In the end what we buy really has little to do with what we want and more to do with what we think we should want.
- People love to achieve top member status in organizations' loyalty programs.
- More choice often leaves consumers less satisfied and less likely to buy something. We are paralyzed by the fear of making a wrong and expensive choice. The fewer choices and selections we face, the more likely we are to pick up and buy something.
- A study in 2009 in Emory University School of Medicine Scientists led by Gregory Berns showed that receiving “expert” advice shuts down the areas of our brains that are responsible for decision-making processes, especially when the situation involves risk. The brain relinquishes responsibility when a trusted authority provides expertise.
- Competitive altruism – people do socially responsible things not so much to do good but rather to show off and enhance their social reputation.
- Our price sensitivity varies across the day, week, month, and year. You are less price-sensitive on vacation than on any other ordinary day.
- The most powerful hidden persuader of them all are your very own friends and neighbors.
- Today the most powerful force in marketing is not a corporation, it’s not a big budget marketing department, but the people who are hyper-connected, mouse-clicking consumers and their wide circles of virtual and real-life friends and acquaintances.
