You are not in control of what you buy. You think you're making rational purchases, but you're not. Marketers are controlling you like a puppet. You cannot escape.
How sure am I of all this? Two words: Brain Scans.
There is a new science out there folks, and it's called Neuromarketing. It's Science and Marketing combined. Basically, they scan people's brains using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging or fMRI to find out how we react to certain brands and products. And yes, companies are now beginning to use this new science to improve their marketing.
If you thought marketers of old were quite convincing, they now have a more potent weapon at their disposal to control your every single purchase. It's scary, but if you know how it works, then you can avoid it and you can even make it work your way, like Neo seeing the fabric of The Matrix.
The book is called Buyology, written by Martin Lindstrom. This guy is at the cutting edge of marketing and brand development. He's so good at what he does that TIME Magazine named Lindstrom as one of the world's 100 most influential due to his work on science and marketing, so this guy is like Morpheus who's offering you the red pill.
I don't want to give away too much about this book, because I really think anyone who cares about their shopping expenses should read this, but I will share with you some of the revelations I discovered that's related to clothing and fashion.
Lindstrom talked about something in our brains called Mirror Neurons. Basically, these Mirror Neurons are responsible for our copycat behavior, especially when it comes to imitating our favorite endorsers and celebrities. We cannot help but imitate other people who we think highly of. I don't know about you, but this... disturbed me.
Think about it. A huge part of who you are today, is not because of your own choice, but because you have been imitating other people. You are an identity thief. You don't mean it, but you subconsciously pretend to be somebody else. How frightening is that?
I talk a lot about being true to yourself and having your own identity, but what if we can never have control after all? You think you're buying that shirt because it fits who you are, but maybe your subconscious mind is trying to imitate that latest catalog you saw online? It's insane!
But after I had some time to process this new revelation, I realize that we do have control at the end of the day. You have to have better self-awareness, and you need to be in touch with your own behavior. This is a good thing, because it forces you to look deeper and see the depth in your surroundings. You cannot just look at the surface level. That shirt, is not just a shirt. There's a lot more to it, and it's up to us to think what it means to us. In a way, this book teaches us to be better consumers, and we can thank Mr. Lindstrom for liberating us from The Matrix.
So after you've read this book, and the next time you're about to buy something, ask yourself a simple question: What's the Buyology of this purchase?
