Nick Pateras | Brandwashed
BOOK REVIEW
Brandwashed – Martin Lindstrom
A barely redressed presentation of old content
It took me just fifty pages of Martin Lindstrom’s sequel to his bestseller Buyology to conclude that this effort was no more than a shameful attempt to capitalize on his earlier publication’s success without doing a great deal more work. Though his approach is consistent in that he has a litter of examples to reference, at times it seems exactly that: a disorganized, name-dropping (brand-dropping) information puke that is strung together with barely original themes, such as the power of celebrities in portraying products as glamorous or fashionable.
"One out of two mothers will buy a good simply because her child requests it. To trigger desire in a child is to trigger desire in the whole family."
While some of the examples are certainly interesting and illustrative of certain branding techniques, most marketers would learn very little from this read. In fact, many may actually harbor frustration at Lindstrom’s omission of deeper consumer insights and business objectives, as I found he over-simplified many of the tactical executions he references. Perhaps the totally oblivious consumer would find some of the content amongst these pages novel, but even that would stun me – who doesn’t already know that companies access and analyze your social media activity, credit purchasing history and online search behavior? While Lindstrom’s first book taught me about brands’ furtive marketing practices, or at least reinforced what I already suspected, the lesson from Brandwashed is that sometimes it’s best to cut your losses at fifty pages in.
-NP, March 2014