Brandwashed: Tricks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy

Abstract

According to Lindstrom, "everything on earth" is a brand and a form of identification, and companies exploit the immense knowledge they acquire about us, the consumers, to sell their brands through successful marketing campaigns. According to Lindstrom, fear "is a powerful persuader, and you'd better believe that marketers and advertisers know it and aren't afraid to exploit it to the fullest" (p. 34).

Book Details Lindstrom, M. (2011). Brandwashed: Tricks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy. Crown Business, 291 pages, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-385-53173-3.

Synopsis and Evaluation

Martin Lindstrom is chairman and founder of Buyology, Inc., author of six major branding bestsellers, and adviser to global consumer companies such as Pepsico, Procter & Gamble, Nokia, Microsoft, and Disney. Voted one of the world's 100 most influential people of 2009 by Time magazine, Martin Lindstrom is considered a marketing "tour de force" among global branding experts. In his latest book Brandwashed: Tucks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy, Lindstrom (2011) exposes the sophisticated techniques today's global consumer product giants use to persuade us to buy. He provides us with an insider's look at how companies we know and trust conspire to manipulate consumer behavior. According to Lindstrom, "everything on earth" is a brand and a form of identification, and companies exploit the immense knowledge they acquire about us, the consumers, to sell their brands through successful marketing campaigns.

In Brandwashed, readers will learn how marketers try to develop our preferences for specific tastes and flavors when we are still in the womb, while catering to pregnant women, and continue to shape our brand preferences from childhood throughout adulthood. We learn that Shell Oil has a long-standing agreement with LEGO to affix the Shell label to their toys, helping imprint their logo and brand in young minds. We also learn how companies use scares such as the swine flu or SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) to scare us into spending billions of dollars on overpriced germ killers. According to Lindstrom, fear "is a powerful persuader, and you'd better believe that marketers and advertisers know it and aren't afraid to exploit it to the fullest" (p. 34).

Lindstrom takes us behind the scene where grocery brands try diligently to "alter our perception of everything from freshness to value or even quality" (p. 49). Stores such as Whole Foods put fresh flowers at the entrance in order to create a "fresh" image in the mind of consumers; supermarkets spray vegetables with water as a symbol of purity and freshness.

We also learn how marketers use the power of craving to create addictive products such as lip balms, snacks, and sodas by spiking their products with addictive quantities of habit forming substances like MSG, caffeine, corn syrup, and sugar (p. 66).

The reader also learns how Unilever's Axe (deodorant brand) used clever marketing to probe and plug into consumers sexual fantasies and in the process became a major global brand, or how, due to upsurge in male vanity, retailers make clothes bigger so men think they fit into a smaller size. A recent study found 36-inch waist pants size ranging in size from 37 to 41 inches. Lindstrom brings many other interesting anecdotes from branding royalty, celebrity marketing to how marketers influence consumers' behavior with the type of music they play in stores.

Lindstrom asserts that marketers are very much aware of our collective consciousness of our peers, friends, and family, and when it comes to things we buy, what other people think matters (p. 113).According to Lindstrom, the most powerful persuader of all is our friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and peer-pressure advertising such as that on Facebook works wonders.

Brandwashed is an insider account that exposes the very latest marketing techniques consumer companies use to influence our behavior. It is packed with personal and interesting stories from the consumer product industry and the branding world. Lindstrom use real life anecdotes, while revealing some of the best-kept secrets of the marketing world. Thought provoking and smart, this book is entertaining and educating, empowering readers to become informed and smarter consumers and make smarter, sounder, more informed decisions about what we're buying and why (p. 8). In essence, Lindstrom making readers brand smart.

In the Author's Own Words

As consumers, we may think that brands own us-but in reality it's the other way around. So the good news I want to leave you with is this: In our hyperconnected world of Twitter and YouTube and WikiLeaks a world in which a single trick or deception or secret can be immediately broadcast to the world with a click of a mouse the consumer is more empowered than ever. As result, brands of the future simply must be transparent and live up to their promises. Trust me..., any brand that doesn't will be instantly and painfully exposed and reviled. That, in the end, is what this book is all about (p. 252).

Reviewer's Details

Hagai Gringarten's doctoral research is in Global Leadership with a specialization in Branding. His research interest includes branding, international business, and marketing. He has authored a non-fiction bestselling book Over a Cup of Coffee (Shiram Shachar, 2000). He also pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard Graduate School of Business and the Kellogg School of Management. He currently teaches branding, marketing, and other business courses at St. Thomas University, and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Multidisciplinary Research.