Customer Reviews

Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer's Brain

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If it's news to you to you that "The latest breakthoughs
in brain research suggest that people make EMOTIONAL decisions, which
they later RATIONALIZE" you'll love the lightweight treatment of
the art/science of persuasion put forth in "Neuromarketing".

This book is derivative and lacks a bibliography. It refers to "studies"
with phrases like "a study found" but doesn't tell us when, where,
and who conducted the research and how to find out more about it.

It claims to be based on the latest research yet in refering to source
material mentions such dated sources as Dale Carnegie's book
"How To Win Friends and Influence People," which was published in 1936.

Dale Carnegie is great, but not "the latest breakthroughs in
brain research".

If you're familiar with some of the core literature on persuasion,
marketing, selling, and especially direct-response marketing -
ie: Cialdini, Hogan, Caples, Ogilvy, and so forth, I don't think
you'll find anything here you're not aware of as relevant factors
in successful marketing. You may, as I did, experience some "duh"
moments.

If you're unfamiliar with sales, nlp concepts, and persuasion
you may enjoy this book and have some revelations.

Mostly the authors reframe established stuff in terms of appealing
to "the old brain". Since they offer no specific citations in the
current editions, just a reading list at the end, the notion that
this is somehow a scientific work is dubious. In science writing,
sources are generally cited. Here we get a reading list at the
back. No index. No bibliography.

I don't feel this book lives up to it's book jacket promise:
"Neuromarketing is the only book to combine the latest brain research
with cutting-edge sales, marketing and communication techniques"

If it's so up on the latest brain research, where are the citations?

That said, it's not a lame book. It has some good information in
it, but little in the way of new ideas. Not a waste of time
but not something I'll likely read again.

If you are in marketing or advertising this book will help you craft better ads and copy. It is an easy read, that some may find too basic, but I loved how it explained why people buy on emotion and 'rationalize' purchases. Great basic guidelines for helping you improve your marketing communications and better understand reader reactions. I believe it is one of those books you will want to keep around for reference.

This book's title was simply disappointing. It does not go into any depth on cognitive science, simply a brief overview of what the author calls "old brain" and "new brain" along with a mishmash of strategies for reaching customers more effectively. The problem is that none of these strategies are novel or revolutionary. The content of this book can be found far better described in books like Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization, and other sales books. This is a watered down version of a lot of much better books.

This book covers a lot of ground, but is essentially a sales manual that will teach you how to be persuasive - in presentations, marketing materials, meetings, on the phone, and online. What's especially interesting is how the authors explain why their techniques work, in terms of their appeal to our "old brains". Their research shows that decisions are made in the most primitive part of our brains. Therefore, to sell effectively, we need to -

1. Appeal to emotion
2. Present information in a variety of media
3. Be brief
4. Tell stories
5. Talk from the buyer's point of view

These ideas, along with many others, are tried and true. If all the authors did was regurgitate them, this book wouldn't be much different from lots of others out there. But they provide a number of real life examples of how neuromarketing techniques were used to obtain incredible results. Their various case studies of imaginative presentations incorporating the storytelling method were extremely enlightening.

The book covers big picture communication principles and tips on details as small as leaving a voice mail message. It should stimulate your old brain, your new brain, and everything in between!

If we take the term "neuromarketing" to mean "the application of neuroscientific methods to analyse and understand human behaviour in relation to markets and marketing exchanges" (Lee et al 2006); then this has to be the most disappointing of books.

With hardly any scientific data or comparative theory to substantiate its claims; this book is little more than a capitalization by the authors on the newness of the term "neuromarketing". In other words - a new container to a package already well established marketing insights. Moreover, after claiming insight into the error of Descartes ways by referring to the work of Damasio; these authors continue to lay out what can best be described as the epitome of Cartesian reductionism. A philosophical perspective that social neuroscientists, depth psychologists and others, are at pains to move away from.

In contrast to what these authors would have you believe, the brain is a complex system that is part of a complex system (including mind-brain-body in relationship with others and environmental conditions). Furthermore, it is sometimes held that the decision making / control centre of the brain is actually the prefrontal cortex, which was the latest (not the oldest) part of the brain to develop. It is this part of the brain that has contact with virtually every other part of the brain - including the sensory regions and the old brain. See Wilkinson's (2006) chapter on "Brain Basics".

In my opinion this book is more a regurgitation of game theory than what it has to do with understanding anything at all about human behaviour in relation to neuroscientific research. Dreadful!

I have no words to explain the incredible progress Patrick and Christophe have done in writing this new version of Neuromarketing with respect their previous one written few years ago.
Concepts are smartly reviewed under the light of the latest discoveries of neuroscience and the daily practice and success they obtained and resounds in the market. The concepts are simple and concrete and can be metabolized right away and be used practically in all aspects of our professional and personal life.
Thank you for this new oxigen and being always at the edge in helping people to sell differently and better than before.
Thank you for serving your audience.
Fabio

This book is fantastic.

I have a team of business builders I teach and I find myself referencing this material often!

This is a book that really helps you understand the core psychology behind why someone buys and why they feel skeptical.

If you have a lot of "on the fence" leads, and you're wondering what you need to say or do to get them to make the leap.

This is THE book for you.

I've implemented these concepts in my sales funnel and have seen a serious increase in sales.

This is worth every penny and then some.

I found the information in this book valuable for two reasons: 1) it added to my general knowledge of how the brain works and 2) it gave me excellent ideas for how to write persuasive website copy.

If you want to know why we respond more to pictures than words, read this book now!
-- Phyllis Zimbler Miller, [...]

Ever wonder how the human brain works when making purchasing decisions? This is a great resource for marketers that want to learn more about why people buy things and how their brain works.
It is an easy read and very informative. I love the comparisons between how the old brain and new brain work together to compel people to buy or not to buy. Read it twice and take notes!

The average adult is exposed to 10,000 advertisements each and every day. Because of this continuous onslaught of marketing messages, we have trained our subconscious minds to filter out all but the most important messages. This book is a great resource to understanding how to get your message through to 'the old brain' of your prospect.

At the base-level, people choose to buy based on emotions. Emotions are controlled by our 'old brain', the one that has been evolving for a few million years. If you don't know how to talk to your prospect's 'old brain' in the language it understands, you are just wasting your time and energy.

The concepts addressed in the book are valuable whether you are in sales, marketing or advertising. It contains many concepts that I have seen in other books, but this book presents a lot of these ideas in just this one book. Buy the book, read it and do what it says. You'll be glad you did.