The Blog of Ross C Brown

For the last hour or so I’ve been reading Martin Lindstrom’s “Buyology”. In his book, Lindstrom details his research into neuromarketing and how science can provide a better insight into our purchasing decisions.

Lindstrom explains that a lot of our purchasing decisions are made subconsciously and that when asked to explain why we purchase something our rational mind takes over and offers up, often weak, justifications for the purchase. In a television interview posted on his website he offers an example where a woman purchases a Louis Vuitton bag. She justifies this purchasing by referencing the bags superior styling and craftsmanship. Aided by a fMRI study, Lindstrom suggests that the purchase was motivated no by superior craftsmanship but by a desire to show the world here newly acquired wealth and by extension status in society.

Emotional brands are awesome
Going back to the book, Lindstrom spends a chapter talking about product placement in American Idol and why Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the program has been so much more effective than Ford’s. He argues that in being part of the show’s narrative (the judges drink from Coca-cola branded cups, sit on Coke inspired furniture,etc), Coca-cola has established a much stronger emotional connection with consumers than Ford has been able to achieve with traditional advertising spots at the beginning and end of each advertising break.

This got me thinking about product placement in the hit Fox television show 24. The television show follows Jack Bauer, a federal agent working for the “Counter Terrorism Unit”, in ‘real-time’ over the course of one day as a Terrorist plot against the United States unfolds. Many products, from cars and cellphone to those Cisco telephones that are showing up everywhere these days (look, here’s one my desk!), are featured on 24 with differing degrees of success.

During the show the main characters of the show jump in and out of a variety of different cars and trucks. On closer inspection all the cars come from the same family of brands. Product placement at it’s best, right? Not really. Just as Lindstrom has discovered, when there isn’t an emotional connection with the product the placement isn’t all that effective. None of the cars featured in 24 have ever been pivotal to the progression of the story line. That’s why I can’t quite remember the brand/brand family featured.

The self defending network
On the other hand Cisco and Cisco products have proven vital to the plot line. On one episode the terrorists attempting to hack into the CTU computer network. Alarms and the like are going off. CTU is the final line of defense, if the terrorist’s take CTU, they take America. High stakes end of the world stuff, you get the idea. Anyway, the resident computer boffin, Chloe, steps into frame and mutters something along the lines of, “Not to worry guys, we have the latest and greatest Cisco Self-Defending switches. We’ll be fine!”. And with that one little line of dialogue the 24 writers (or maybe the Cisco copywriters) managed to establish an emotional connection connection in my mind. Next time I come to buy a router or an overpriced phone I’ll be thinking Cisco and how they kick terrorist butt. Sexy or what!?

I’m only sixty pages into “Buyology” and so far I’m enjoying it and finding many parallels between Lindstrom’s research and my experience as a consumer. That being said, I don’t really think you need to spend $8m and 100+ hours of fMRI time to work out that I bought a Louis Vuitton laptop cover because I’m a smarmy git. I could have told you that for half the price! I’ll keep reading and give you an update once I’m done.