Martin Lindstrom has been selected as one of the world's 100 most influential people of 2009

TIME magazine, arguably one of the world's most respected publications, today announced that brand futurist and author Martin Lindstrom has been selected as one of the world's 100 most influential people of 2009. The announcement will be made public in the next global edition of TIME magazine appearing on newsstands May 1st 2009.

Lindstrom has been selected in the category of Scientists & Thinkers for his groundbreaking work on neuroscience and branding. His latest book; Buyology — Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Random House Doubleday, New York) a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best–selling book has been translated into 37 languages and is on almost all major best–seller lists worldwide. Buyology is based on the world's largest neuroscience study on brands and advertising peering into the brains of 2,000 consumers across 5 countries. The results from the $7 million study question a range of conventional thinking within the advertising and marketing community.

"I am absolutely thrilled to bits about the TIME honor" Martin Lindstrom says. He continued, "Since I began this amazing journey some 4 years ago my mission has been to introduce a new and more reliable way to understand our unconscious mind in a commercial context. Today 9 out of 10 new brands fail and the main reason they fail is because conventional research simply no longer works. Something new is required, and that 'something' is a combination of science and marketing. The fact that TIME feels my work has had such strong influence on the world gives me hope that we're on the right path to uncovering the next generation of branding and advertising"

Why Martin Lindstrom?

You know the old saw about half our advertising being wasted but we don't know which half? Well, now we do, thanks to Martin Lindstrom, a Danish brand consultant and the author of the book Buyology, who took a brave leap into neuroscience to figure out why we buy — or don't. Using functional MRI and other brain-scanning techniques, he went beyond the flimflam of the Mad Men and measured the minds of more than 2,000 consumers, all observed under the influence of marketing.

What Lindstrom, 39, found was that many ads are not only ineffective but also have a sort of reverse effect. Huge health warnings on cigarette packs may actually encourage smokers to light up because they trigger a mental echo of the desirable product. Ford spent $26 million sponsoring American Idol, yet Lindstrom found that consumers came to think less of the company, mostly because its ads interrupted the show.

It was in 2003 that Lindstrom started reading about brain-imaging tools and realized they could be applied to marketing. He raised research money, brought scientists on board and helped recruit subjects. He's one of the first brand experts to understand the biology of consumer desire.

When you look past what people say and measure what their brains say, you realize the subconscious controls purchasing. Pepsi, for example, always won the Pepsi Challenge, but Coke won in the marketplace, because it's not about which tastes better but about which we think tastes better. That's an emotional reaction, not a rational (or even gustatory) one, and the brain scans reveal how it happens.

As a generation grows up online, the tools of persuasion will have to be as measurable as the medium. Google does it with clicks and links, and Lindstrom does it with neurons and blood flow. Somewhere between the eye and the mouse finger is the secret to selling.

By Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine and author of: The Long Tail



The TIME 100 list is an annual event which over the past decade has included personalities such as U.S. president Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, the Dali Lama, Pope Benedict XVI, Steve Jobs, Hillary Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Nelson Mandela. The honor is given to people recognized for changing the world within one of five categories: Leaders & Revolutionaries, Builders & Titans, Artists & Entertainers, Scientists & Thinkers, and Heroes & Icons. Within each category, the 20 most influential people (sometimes pairs or small groups) are selected, for a grand total of 100 each year. Managing editor of TIME magazine; Richard Strengelis says: "Influence is hard to measure, and what we look for is people whose ideas, whose example, whose talent, whose discoveries transform the world we live in. Influence is less about the hard power of force than the soft power of ideas and example."

Fonte:

http://www.martinlindstrom.com/index.php/cmsid__buyology_TIME100

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1893209_1893463,00.html