Lindstrom's Buyology business gets backing

US-- Fresh from the success of his book Buyology, author Martin Lindstrom's neuromarketing firm of the same name has received financial backing from a Japanese marketing services group.

Details of Hakuhodo's investment in Buyology Inc have not been disclosed. Lindstrom is chairman while Gary Stringer is CEO of the business, which boasts the world's largest proprietary database of brain scans.

“Hakuhodo's investment demonstrates the strategic alignment between the two companies to rapidly expand the application of non-conscious tools to measure and manage the emotional dimensions of decision making,” said Stringer.

“Neuroscience is rapidly understanding that emotion trumps logic in buying decisions and today business is not effectively tapping into 85% of what really drives customers', employees', shareholders' and other key influencers' choices and decisions.”

Buyology's database is the result of a three-year, $7m study to measure the neurological reactions of 2,000 people across five countries as they were exposed to advertising and marketing messages.

The findings of the study formed the basis of Lindstrom's book, which made a number of surprising claims – chief among them that health warnings on cigarette packets have become so recognisable that they have a similar effect on the subconscious mind to an advertisement.

Author: Brian Tarran