I have spent months trying to write a book review for a book by Martin Lindstrom called buy.ology. My difficulties are many, so I am going to share some of them with you!
First of all the book is written in the style of an airport book, in other words, easy reading for managers on the move. It is well written in that it is a compelling read and the fact that it is "true" makes it even better. However as an academic this style is frustrating, as an academic I want to see the objective, method, results and conclusion in a clear way, easily seen.
The basic story is that Lindstrom is a respected marketer and he raised loads of money from multinationals to fund research. The research was to look at brain activity in conjunction with use or thoughts of brands. This is a case of metrics and measurement, so that is why I mention it here. His conclusions come thick and fast before we see the method, another reason why I find it annoying. Some highlights are:
- cigarette packet warnings create craving rather that warnings.
- Product placement may be a waste of time
Another difficulty I have is to trace how these things come from the data... I am still searching. Judge for yourself, you can see the author describe the book, download a PDF chapter free etc. Just go to his
web site here
