Learn The Truth, Lies About ‘Buyology’

“Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy” by Martin Lindstrom, 2008, Doubleday, $24.95/$27.95 Canada, 256 pages: What – exactly – were you thinking?
You bought that latest gadget, the whoozit, a thingamajig, that whatchamacallit, knowing full well you didn’t need it. You have one already, equally useless.
It was fun to plunk down money when you bought it, but now you’re wondering: what you were thinking?
In a way, you weren’t. Your emotions overrode your thoughts, which means the gadget’s seller did his homework.
Hmm. Can that research help your business?
Maybe. Read more in “Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy” by Martin Lindstrom, the new book about the newest science.
We are a society of shoppers, Lindstrom points out in the beginning of this fascinating study. It’s a rare day that we don’t buy something, even if it’s coffee or a soda from a vending machine. But when you bought that java or the cola, why did you choose the brand you drank?
Researchers know why. While you’re doing business, drinking cola and shopping until you’re dropping, laboratory volunteers are wearing swim-cap-like devices and subjecting themselves to brain scans. The scans tell researchers what products and commercials delight volunteers’ brains. Data also indicates what turns consumers off.
Emotions, as it turns out, will win a buyer over every time, Lindstrom says, which happens long before any conscious decision is reached. Before you’ve made a thoughtful and (you think) careful buying decision, your brain has practically paid for the purchase. Lindstrom calls it your “Buyology.”
So how can this intriguing new science help your business? 
Because we’re inundated by ads, you want your message to stand out. Lindstrom says product placement needs careful consideration. The wrong use of placement may actually weaken consumer recall. Getting people to think about using your product is key because of “mirror neurons.” If they imagine using the product, their brains are tricked into believing it’s a done deal.
Lindstrom discusses the use of subliminal advertising (despite the furor of years past, it happens); why logos often don’t work but “gimmicky” ads sometimes do; how memories are made; why smart marketers prefer to advertise to your nose; the reason traditional research often yields wrong results; and how, in the future, political campaigns may be run by neuroscience.
When someone tells you that a book is a “page-turner,” you probably think of the latest top-list best-seller. Now you’ll think of “Buyology.”
Author Lindstrom is fun and lighthearted, but his research (expensive, as you can imagine, but funded by various entities) is hard-core. It seemed to me that every page has three or four “aha!” moments on it, all of which can only make your ad dollars work better and may help your sales team in the field.
The last book I read that was this intriguing was, I think, “Why We Buy” by the brilliant researcher Paco Underhill. I’m sure it’s no accident that Underhill wrote the foreword here.
Pick up a copy of this book and get one of those highlighting thingamajiggies before you fix your ad budget for the new year. “Buyology” is definitely money well-spent.

‘PRESSURE’ REVIEW
“Pressure is a Privilege” by Billie Jean King with Christine Brennan, 2008, LifeTime Media, $19.95/$21.95 Canada, 192 pages: Once upon a time, women were expected to be demure. It was unthinkable for a woman to have an opinion on world events and even more unbelievable that she might voice it in the presence of a male.
Less than 100 years ago, many women weren’t allowed to vote. In the not-so-distant past, a woman couldn’t get credit without a man as co-signer. And just two generations ago, only boys’ sports were funded in school.
And then, along came Billie Jean King. In her new book “Pressure is a Privilege” (written with Christine Brennan), she writes about her life, her beliefs, her family and how she helped pave the way for Mia Hamm, Michelle Wie, Venus and Serena Williams and millions of little girls who yearned for equality in their games.
Almost everyone over 40 remembers “The Battle of the Sexes.”
Sports-minded girls were cheering for King.
Swagger-filled boys were sure Bobby Riggs could beat King in a best-of-five tennis match. What many kids didn’t know was that the way they’d play school sports was about to change.
King says that Riggs had been asking her for a match for months. He was eager to go head-to-head with one of tennis’ top women players. He had, in fact, challenged several women to a match.
Finally, top-ranked (in 1973) Margaret Court agreed to a televised match and was trounced in 57 minutes.
Knowing that Court’s loss could affect America’s opinion of women in sports, as well as the acceptance of Title IX (legislation that required high schools, colleges, and universities to spend federal funds equally between boys and girls), King agreed to Rigg’s challenge.
Riggs – no pun intended – met his match.
In this book, King writes about her family and her parents, who sacrificed and supported their childrens’ passions.
She writes about wonderful friendships with other athletes and with Hollywood and music stars, reminding readers that making and nurturing relationships is “everything.”
King says to give your all in whatever you do (but give yourself time to celebrate victories); visualize what you want to happen to ensure that it does; avoid labeling people before you get to know them; keep life in perspective; maintain your integrity; and always consider pressure a privilege. Without it, you can’t grow.
Has it been 35 years already since King beat Riggs? 
Sure enough, and this book brings it all back.
Partly about that monumental game, partly about her life and partly a gentle book of advice, “Pressure is a Privilege” is thoughtful and surprisingly humble.
Author King writes with a quiet voice that is proud of her accomplishments but not filled with bragging.
After a summer of books packed with boasting, I thought this skinny tome was very refreshing in its lack of look-at-me.
Don’t think that this book is for the sports-minded only. “Pressure is a Privilege” is more about how to live with grace.
Ask for it at your local bookstore, and make a racquet until you get it.

TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book.