Martin Lindstrom on the Buyology of Stores

Martin Lindstrom, author of BRANDsense and BRANDchild, released a new book yesterday called Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. Spending 3 years and more than 7 million dollars Lindstrom found that shoppers are not motivated by the indicators of traditional marketing wisdom. According to Buyology, shoppers are in fact motivated by subconscious triggers that, once identified and tapped, can make a dramatic difference in brand profitability. I had the opportunity to talk with Lindstrom for a few minutes yesterday about the power of integrating the subconscious motivations of shoppers into the design of retail store environments.

“The customer has 5 senses. Most retailers forget this.” Martin Lindstrom

Bright lights, the smell of plastic and cleaning fluids, noise from loudspeakers and restocking activities — all these things are distractions for shoppers which neutralize in-store marketing strategies. What retail stores need to do, according to Lindstrom, is seduce the shopper. The store should be a truly rich experience that sells to our senses.

Lindstrom and his team of scientists scanned the brains of over 2,000 people from all over the world as they were exposed to various marketing and advertising strategies. Based on their analysis, Lindstrom surmised that appealing to the shopper’s hardwired brain responses through sight, sound, touch, taste and even smell, is significantly more effective than typical marketing strategies including sale signage and other visual communication. In Buyology Lindstrom identifies strategies that stimulate those innate sensory responses and can help marketers effectively influence consumer behavior time and time again.

“Create attention in the store with something dramatic.” Martin Lindstrom

Shoppers are easily overwhelmed with too many choices and as a result, will not buy. Lindstrom recommends focusing the customer on just a few choices with attention-grabbing displays. He gave an example from his study where women were offered chocolate samples. When women were offered a choice of 20 samples, they often chose just one. However, when they were offered just 6 choices they often chose 3. Proving out the old adage that less is more.

One of the worlds most respected marketing experts, Lindstrom is a wealth of information. Buyology charts new territory, delving deep into neuromarketing. The analysis presented in Buyology is going to be invaluable in the impending retail market when stores will have to get serious about finding new ways to motivate shoppers to buy.