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specialtopicsincalamityphysics 's review for:
Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains
by Matt Johnson, Prince Ghuman
The book is a "deep dive into the surprising relationship between brains and brands" and aimed at consumers. The authors want to give readers "the ability to see the unseeable when it comes to marketing, so you can consume on your own terms." Most of us are all for finding out the way we are potentially 'tricked' in marketing and advertising and this book presents these findings in a fun, interesting and funky way.
The title, Blindsight refers to an ability that a very rare group of people have. People with blindsight cannot see, they are legally blind, but they can still process visual information and are able to navigate around obstacles. The authors use this example to relate to the way we as consumers unconsciously receive information from the word around us, including brand logos, ads on news feeds, as well as other deeper ways we absorb marketing messages.
The book draws strongly on explaining the neuroscience of marketing and it's a fascinating education. Learning how our experience of reality is directly influenced using mental models influenced by our beliefs can have a somewhat unstabling effect on first reading, to realise how little we are actually in control of ourselves. And this is what brands depend on, our beliefs in them and the whole psychological associations they build up in our minds, such as the example given of Coca-Cola with 'happiness'.
Another aspect explored is the importance for brands of getting the experiences they create for the consumer into our memories - their connection with us becomes a part of our own past, and is called encoding. We can all relate to this, childhood memories of ad jingles or a particular name or logo of a product from when we were younger that arouses surprising emotions that have been deeply lodged into our memories.
There is a great chapter titled 'Addiction 2.0: Monetizing Compulsive Behavior in the Digital Age' with detailed explanation of the dopamine rewards of popular guilty pleasures in music "like "Despacito", Nickleback, Backstreet Boys and Drake", Oprah's use of over-delivery and anticipation, social media and electro house music with the authors hilarious re-naming of dopamine as the "drop-the-bass molecule"!
My favourite section was 'New and Safe' (NaS) in Chapter 8 - 'Why We Like What We Like', with its breakdown of NaS in pop culture, film and the music industry. Examples of the use of the familiar with "just the right amount of novelty" are given for all these industries and reading this is like a penny-drop moment to see how manipulated our human needs are.
Closing with a look into the future of marketing, the authors highlight the importance consumers start to understand that their value is being traded and how data and psychology to define marketing today. Buyers providing value by sharing and providing data freely online 'buyer-generated content' is an area the authors feel strongly about. The ethics of marketing where consumers are unaware of the extent of the value exchange taking place and a new world with the buyer taking power and are briefly explored and could make a book of it's own in this interesting topical subject.
The conclusion that a realisation of our deep relationship with the consumer world can be an empowering awareness, and that with that knowledge we could see a new way to consider our value is a really exciting idea and one that needs to be discussed more widely and shared by readers of this excellent book.
The title, Blindsight refers to an ability that a very rare group of people have. People with blindsight cannot see, they are legally blind, but they can still process visual information and are able to navigate around obstacles. The authors use this example to relate to the way we as consumers unconsciously receive information from the word around us, including brand logos, ads on news feeds, as well as other deeper ways we absorb marketing messages.
The book draws strongly on explaining the neuroscience of marketing and it's a fascinating education. Learning how our experience of reality is directly influenced using mental models influenced by our beliefs can have a somewhat unstabling effect on first reading, to realise how little we are actually in control of ourselves. And this is what brands depend on, our beliefs in them and the whole psychological associations they build up in our minds, such as the example given of Coca-Cola with 'happiness'.
Another aspect explored is the importance for brands of getting the experiences they create for the consumer into our memories - their connection with us becomes a part of our own past, and is called encoding. We can all relate to this, childhood memories of ad jingles or a particular name or logo of a product from when we were younger that arouses surprising emotions that have been deeply lodged into our memories.
There is a great chapter titled 'Addiction 2.0: Monetizing Compulsive Behavior in the Digital Age' with detailed explanation of the dopamine rewards of popular guilty pleasures in music "like "Despacito", Nickleback, Backstreet Boys and Drake", Oprah's use of over-delivery and anticipation, social media and electro house music with the authors hilarious re-naming of dopamine as the "drop-the-bass molecule"!
My favourite section was 'New and Safe' (NaS) in Chapter 8 - 'Why We Like What We Like', with its breakdown of NaS in pop culture, film and the music industry. Examples of the use of the familiar with "just the right amount of novelty" are given for all these industries and reading this is like a penny-drop moment to see how manipulated our human needs are.
Closing with a look into the future of marketing, the authors highlight the importance consumers start to understand that their value is being traded and how data and psychology to define marketing today. Buyers providing value by sharing and providing data freely online 'buyer-generated content' is an area the authors feel strongly about. The ethics of marketing where consumers are unaware of the extent of the value exchange taking place and a new world with the buyer taking power and are briefly explored and could make a book of it's own in this interesting topical subject.
The conclusion that a realisation of our deep relationship with the consumer world can be an empowering awareness, and that with that knowledge we could see a new way to consider our value is a really exciting idea and one that needs to be discussed more widely and shared by readers of this excellent book.