Martin Lindstrom’s bestseller, Brandwashed.
You might not expect anyone in my position to ever recommend a scathing exposé on branding, but Martin Lindstrom’s latest bestseller, Brandwashed, is one of the most fascinating books I’ve read all year. In 255 pages (that go by all too fast), Lindstrom explains how today’s brands employ a remarkable range of psychological traps “to obscure the truth, manipulate our minds, and persuade us to buy.”
Lindstrom has been in the business for a very long while; his first job was with Lego, helping to develop new product lines at the early age of 13. He’s advised some of the largest global organizations on how to build their brands and, grow marketshare. Lindstrom spent a vast amount of time behind closed doors with CEOs, brand managers, and research directors learning the darkest secrets of the world’s most powerful marketers. Now, as consumer advocate, he’s revealing many of them, and answering questions we’d have never thought to ask:
Why is lip balm so addictive? There’s an eye-opening story of highly-addictive ingredients, and, an “inactive” ingredient one manufacturer has been using for decades to erode our lips so we’ll keep buying more. Did your most recent shopping trip make you think you’re losing weight? Lindstrom lets you in on “vanity sizing”, a new pitfall that makes consumers think they’ve gone down a pant size. And, what about your weekly trip to the grocery store — do you find you spend more in some stores than others? Learn about data that proves shoppers who enter a store with a right-side entrance, and then move counterclockwise through the store spend more money than those who enter stores from the left and do their shopping in the other direction.
If you’re in marketing, this is a must-read. How else are you going to find out how sex sells, what makes celebrities such powerful persuaders, and, why a royal family needs brand strategists.
