Foreword
Introduction
1. A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD
The Largest Neuromarketing Study Ever Conducted
2. THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
Product Placement, American Idol , and Ford’s Multimillion-Dollar Mistake
3. I’LL HAVE WHAT SHE’S HAVING
Mirror Neurons at Work
4. I CAN’T SEE CLEARLY NOW
Subliminal Messaging, Alive and Well
5. DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?
Ritual, Superstition, and Why We Buy
6. I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER
Faith, Religion, and Brands
7. WHY DID I CHOOSE YOU?
The Power of Somatic Markers
8. A SENSE OF WONDER
Selling to Our Senses
9. AND THE ANSWER IS…
Neuromarketing and Predicting the Future
10. LET’S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER
Sex in Advertising
11. CONCLUSION
Brand New Day
Appendix
Foreword
It was a brisk September night. I was unprepared for the weather that day, wearing only a tan cashmere sweater underneath my sports jacket. I was still cold from the walk from my hotel to the pier as I boarded the crowded cruise ship on which I was going to meet Martin Lindstrom for the first time. He had spoken that day at a food service conference held by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, the venerable Swiss think tank, and David Bosshart, the conference organizer, was eager for us to meet. I had never heard of Martin before. We moved in different circles. However, I had seen BRANDchild, Martin’s latest book, in the JFK airport bookstore before I flew into Zurich.
Anyone seeing Martin from twenty feet away might mistake him for someone’s fourteen-year-old son, being dragged reluctantly to meeting after meeting with his father’s overweight graying business associates. The second impression is that somehow this slight blond creature has just stepped into the spotlight—you wait for the light to fade, but it doesn’t. Like a Pre-Raphaelite painting there is a glow that emanates from Martin as if he was destined to be on stage. No, not as a matinee idol, but as some god waif. The man exudes virtue. Close up,