Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customers Brain [Hardcover]

If it's news to you to you that "The latest breakthoughs
in brain research suggest that people make EMOTIONAL decisions, which
they later RATIONALIZE" you'll love the lightweight treatment of
the art/science of persuasion put forth in "Neuromarketing".

This book is derivative and lacks a bibliography. It refers to "studies"
with phrases like "a study found" but doesn't tell us when, where,
and who conducted the research and how to find out more about it.

It claims to be based on the latest research yet in refering to source
material mentions such dated sources as Dale Carnegie's book
"How To Win Friends and Influence People," which was published in 1936.

Dale Carnegie is great, but not "the latest breakthroughs in
brain research".

If you're familiar with some of the core literature on persuasion,
marketing, selling, and especially direct-response marketing -
ie: Cialdini, Hogan, Caples, Ogilvy, and so forth, I don't think
you'll find anything here you're not aware of as relevant factors
in successful marketing. You may, as I did, experience some "duh"
moments.

If you're unfamiliar with sales, nlp concepts, and persuasion
you may enjoy this book and have some revelations.

Mostly the authors reframe established stuff in terms of appealing
to "the old brain". Since they offer no specific citations in the
current editions, just a reading list at the end, the notion that
this is somehow a scientific work is dubious. In science writing,
sources are generally cited. Here we get a reading list at the
back. No index. No bibliography.

I don't feel this book lives up to it's book jacket promise:
"Neuromarketing is the only book to combine the latest brain research
with cutting-edge sales, marketing and communication techniques"

If it's so up on the latest brain research, where are the citations?

That said, it's not a lame book. It has some good information in
it, but little in the way of new ideas. Not a waste of time
but not something I'll likely read again.

If you are in marketing or advertising this book will help you craft better ads and copy. It is an easy read, that some may find too basic, but I loved how it explained why people buy on emotion and 'rationalize' purchases. Great basic guidelines for helping you improve your marketing communications and better understand reader reactions. I believe it is one of those books you will want to keep around for reference.

This book's title was simply disappointing. It does not go into any depth on cognitive science, simply a brief overview of what the author calls "old brain" and "new brain" along with a mishmash of strategies for reaching customers more effectively. The problem is that none of these strategies are novel or revolutionary. The content of this book can be found far better described in books like Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization, and other sales books. This is a watered down version of a lot of much better books.