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Martin Lindstrom’s Buy•ology and Paco Underhill’s Why we Buy should be required reading for all business related major students. In Paco Underhill’s book he really digs in to and investigates that will make a person purchase on product from another. Paco Underhill is like the frontline specialist. On the sales floor is where he rules changing and adapting to consumers needs and wants. He is able to tell you why a product in one store is selling but not in another. Or why products that have huge advertisement budget have not really left the shelf. Now where Underhill is on the sales floor in his book, Martin Lindstrom digs into the minds of the consumers in his book
Buy•ology. By doing this Lindstrom is able to identify why we purchase the products/ services we do.
Now one thing that I really learned in Lindstrom’s book is that we lie. Consumers lie time and time again, not only are we lying to each other or surveys but to are selfs.
Either that or we are to scared to tell the truth to anyone. In one of Lindstrom’s studies he was testing a new show for a U.S. audience that was already doing great in the U.K.
The show was called Quizmania, to see how the audience was going to react to this show before it was even aired Lindstrom arranged at test of two hundred people. They had three shows for the group of two hundred to watch Quizmania, The Swan, and How
Clean Is Your House? Now going into this study Lindstrom already new what people thought of both How Clean Is Your House? and The Swan. This way he would have something to compare the new show too. How Clean Is Your House? was a success with viewers, where as The Swan had not been that popular. If the U.S. was like the
U.K. then Quizmania should fall somewhere in between the two other shows. Geting the surveys back from the group of two hundred it seemed that Quizmania was their least

Page 2 favorite show out of everyone in the group. When Lindstrom went and check the SST scans of when they were watching the show, he found that in reality the test showed that like the U.K. the show Quizmania fell in between The Swan and How Clean Is Your
House? This just shows that we as consumers are lying more about what we want.
This brings me to a problem that Lindstrom keeps coming up against. The ethics of using neuro - biology in marketing and advertising. If companies are able to know what you want better then yourself then we as consumers going to be defenseless to prevent are selfs from overspending. Right now you see people sending way more then they can afford. Lindstrom thinks that people will moral not do this to consumers and as consumers if we lean the companies tricks to get us to buy then we can notice them and check to see if we really need the product/service. The problem with Lindstrom’s thoughts are. First, people want more, companies are going to always try and get as much out of the consumers they can. Second, most of the consumers are stupid, we are not going to learn the companies tricks we have not tried to as a society yet and we are not going to start now.
One trick that companies use is subliminal messaging. Tobacco companies are notorious for using this. Sense they can not put ads on TV or sporting events they use tricks to get people wanting cigarets without realizing it. Many smokers can not see camels or a country sunset without thinking it would be nice to have a cigaret. Marlboro pays bars to set up their place to give off subliminal messaging, having the same color red or a floor pattern that looks like their logo. Anything to get you in the mood for another smoke. One company before most advertising for tobacco was banned put a slick looking purple behind their logo. For months before tobacco advertising was

Page 3 banned they had that show up everywhere. When the banned was infect the tobacco company just put up a billboard of that purple. That was the only thing on it so they were not breaking any laws but it maybe people think without even know why that they wanted a cigaret.
The most surprising thing I learned from Buy•ology is smokers subconscious thinking about anti-smoking ads. Not only did every little thing set off smoker to want to smoke but anti-smoking ads had the exact same effect. If smoking ads where still allowed the would effect the smoker in the same part of the brain where we associate rewards with as anti-smoking ads. Now Windstorm did not have any of these test done with non smokers so the anti-smoking ads might have a positive effect on them to not smoke. For smokers its negative, on top of that its like giving money to smoking companies we are triggering smokers to go smoke with these ads and tobacco companies do not have to pay a dime out of their pockets for it.
You might be wondering if so much happens outside of the store what is there left for people like Paco Underhill to do. Well as you will see there is many things that
Underhill does to make sure that you stay in the store longer and leave more happy.
That way companies squeeze every dollar they can out of you. The whole time with a smile on your face.
The first thing is product placement. Where on the shelfs are you putting products and what products are you sectioning together. Now it is not in the best interest to have all products at eye level. You have to know who is buying the product and also who is picking the product out. One example in Why We Buy is about dog treats. This store had all of their dog treats near the top shelf but their sales were not

Page 4 doing that well. The problem was elderly people who spoil their dogs where among the highest buyers and they could not reach the products. The next problem was that kids had the biggest say when it came to what dog treats to buy. With them on the top shelf kids could past right by without even noticing them. By putting them about three feet off the ground kids and elderly could easily see and reach the product. Also by having products that kids enjoyed to get made it easier to grab in put right in the cart without the parents noticing. Parents were catching on if they did not go to aisles like the cookie section there was no fighting and no hidden items in their carts. So store managers started to put cookies near grocery essentials like bread.
The next big thing that Paco Underhill does is keep the customers happy. Many things can be don to keep a customer happy and continue shopping. First one is easy leave shopping basket stacks around the store. Many time people go in thinking they only need one or two things which turns to three then they are forced to go pay because they can not care anymore. If you basket stacks around the store then people can unload in them and fill it up more that way they are shopping longer and are more happy they do not have to juggle all of their products. Another trick that stores use is that they made the shopping carts bigger. That way you can keep shopping longer. A big thing for shopper to be happy is space. Shoppers hate to feel like they are being crowded or rushed in any way. By making the aisles bigger it allows shoppers to linger more and hopeful purchase more products in that time. The last thing you want to make sure is that your transactions at the register are quick. The register is the least enjoyable part of the whole shopping experience. Its at this point that you must part with your money. You want it to go fast as possible like ripping off a bandaid. The last thing you want is for

Page 5 shoppers to get so fed up with how long it’s taking that they leave their carts and just go home. Many stores will try to save money by having less works on hand but Underhill found that counter productive and many of the times they lose money this way. If you are understaffed then you want have to call in floor works to run the register. Then if no one is there to answer question on the floor people might give up and leave. Or by the time the get to the register they are already in a bad mood. Underlie believe that having the few extra works to make that transaction fast makes a big difference.
Now unlike Lindstrom’s book Buy•ology Underhill’s Why We Buy can be used more widely by any business. Any mom or dad store can implement the practices from
Underhill’s book. With Lindstorm's book the little stores can not afford to do studies to figure out what people are saying is what they are actually thinking. The must rely on good advertisement and great product placement and service.

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Leslie Hart decided to take Martin Lindstrom’s ideas and apply them to selling kitchen and bath items. After reading Lindstrom’s book Buy•ology she learned that most peoples buy chooses are emotional not rational. People will take a lesser deal if they can get it right now. People are into instant gratification/satisfaction, we do not want to have to wait to get are deal. The counter part of that is people also have great enjoyment at purchasing items the saw as expensive. Now the hard part is knowing when to give the deal and when to keep the price high. What I would suggest is to keep the main product at the same price like if Leslie Hart was selling a sink she might throw in a set of towels in with it. This way the customer gets that great feeling that they can afford an expensive sink but they also get the instant satisfaction of getting the towels for free. The next tool she goes to talk about and use is mirroring. This is the act of seeing someone or something that makes you feel and think you are doing it yourself. It helps to drive home the product to the consumers. The last one she uses is rituals, lucky for Leslie Hart bathrooms and kitchens are where we do most of are rituals. You might be getting ready for bed or just waking up, or even just having breakfast in the morning. Lets say your razor breaks in the morning you are not going to wait to get a new one it would mess up your ritual. In Graeme Neil article about Buy•ology and
Esther Pan’s interview with Underhill both talks a lot about the senses of the human body and how they effect buying. In Underhill’s interview he is in a Macy’s store, in it he is standing next to a coffee shop. He tells Pan that they should be getting that great coffee smell all the way to the coffee makers. Smelling the sent of coffee is stronger indicator to buy a coffee maker then just seeing it. In Neil’s article he goes on to talk

Page 7 about book stores and how you use four of you senses there and the store should try and increase all of them.
Miley’s article, Ad Experts Not So Quick To Buy Into Buyology was the most interesting out of all of the articles. It was the only one that really went against what
Linstrom was saying in his book Buy•ology. In this you find the Advertising Research
Foundation will not review Lindstrom’s book because to them it falls under a pop book.
The CEO of ARF went on to say that Lindstrom is a little behind in terms of neuromarkingting measurement technology. Lindstrom came to his own defense and said that the only reason his book is written with out all the big terminology is so that everyday readers could understand what he was saying. If what she says is true then many people wasted money on what they believe to be like a text book and got got a boring story. The only way to know for sure is to do more research on this article.
In this next article Underhill talks a lot about the same ideas he covered in his book. Why We Buy. The new thing he talked about in this interview is the power of teens and tweens. They control a large out of how the house hold money will be spent. From everyday grocery list to the big purchases that mom and dad bring them along to help make. Not to mention the countless products that they need to stay cool and in the it crowd. Products that have been in lately only having a cool factor for about two years then changing to a different company. When asked in this interview how to design a bestselling book cover. Underlie clearly just points out how his book cover looks like the pack of a Marlboro box. That this was done on because it is a familiar image to people even if they could not pin point where they had seen it before.

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This article The science of shopping, they take Underhill’s practices and relate them to a furniture store. He starts off by giving a brief description to a persons life.
They get married, they have a kid, they buy a new house, they get divorced, they sell the house. What do all of these things have in common besides the people, is they are life events. That is what Underhill wants to be sold at furniture stores. One example he gives is selling to a resent divorced person having an advertisement say something like,
“trade in your ex for a goodnight’s sleep”. They are selling to your life event of breaking up with someone, you might have already been in the market for a new bed but by having this out their they made a deeper connection with you then most other companies. In this article they talk again about the power of your senses. Now imaging you had your eyes close for the previews of a movie. In the previews you hear a lion roar.
You can picture everything about it in your head the moment of the lion what color he looks like all by the sound you heard and remembering seeing and hearing it before.
Liongate how many times have you seen that in the start of the movie countless. I bet if you think about it overtime you have seen a movie you can picture yourself seeing that first if asked about it. Does that mean you have, no but thats how strong the sense of sight an sound is used in this advertisement.

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Paco Underhill writes in a way that if anybody was to pick up his book and read it they could understand his meaning behind everything. It is written in a easy informal tone that allows the reader to feel like they are almost reading a story or talking to a friend, when in truth it is a book stuffed with information upon information about the shopping world. Underhill’s transitions from one subject to the next are almost seamless. Having each section build off the one before it until it is all combined in to the information tool you can use.
The first four parts of this book are absolutely fascinating. It's an in depth look at the psychology behind shopping and it is exactly what the title promises. Underhill's company gets paid to spy on people in stores and see what they are doing wrong and right. One good example for doing something right is a manager at a store would come out when it was busy and make the wait the customers were feeling not as long. He would do this by answering any questions they had before the got to the cash register and by giving little reminders on how to be prepared before they were next. Not only was he making their time in line feel short but also shorting the time at the register by answering questions and getting them ready. One bad example is a store was keeping dog treats on the top shelf, when most of the people picking it out is the children and elderly. Having it on the top shelf made it difficult for the little kids to see and the elderly to reach. By moving it down to more eye level for kids it was easier for children and elderly to get their hands on it. The best parts in this book are the real life stories and specific revelations about how any obstacle you put in the way of a shopper drops your sales figures. Any way you can make life easier for the consumer raises your sales. This

Page 10 all seems sort of obvious, but most people running the businesses do not think it through. Those that fail to understand this concept tend to fail at running their business.
In Underhill’s book I can tell he maintains a special dislike for CEOs. I believe that he feels that they are too detached from the stores themselves. He often ridicules them on not ever going to the store to see what the problems are and how the can be easily fixed. He gives an example of Mexican blockbuster and how they have never set foot in the stores on a Saturday. I see Underhill’s point in this a little bit. It is important to know what your stores are like and for that on particular store above their busiest day is
Saturday so to understand your store you must visit it once in a while. To me that is not what the CEO is for. Yes they should check it out but to expect them to go to it more then a couple times a year is unrealistic to me. They have people under them to deal with those sorts of problems. These people are better suited for this work anyways they are at they store every day they know whats going on. How to help the customers have a better shopping time. Now it is their job to replace these people if the job the are preforming is not meeting the standards of the company. Right now the U.S. is flooded with not enough jobs for all the workers. You just have to find the right person for the job. The main thing I took away from this book is that the “obvious” is not always that obvious to everyone. Paco Underhill has a way to point put out simply what problems the customers are faced with everyday but no stores really want to address the issue.
Most stores Underhill investigates do not even realize that their problem is something so simple like handing out shopping baskets to anyone that looks like they could use one.
This allows the shopper to keep shopping with out worrying about dropping anything.

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Many times I found myself saying, “Well duh! Thats clear as day everyone should be doing that!” When I really got to thinking about it I have been a shopper most of my life but never really thought of many of these problems. Here is an example at my aunts and grandmothers store where I work we put all of are notice signs on the door. Every time the notice is coming into effect we have to explain what is going on. Until I read this book I did not realize that the reason no one saw the sign is because they were looking for the door handle.
Through a customers point of view you can really see the stores that implement some of his theories. How it makes the life of the shopper easier which makes them when to continue shopping there and spend more. One store that I believe does this very well is Hannifords. The have baggers which help make your transaction at the cash register go faster. Which through Underhill’s book Why We Buy we learn is the lest enjoyably part of the whole shopping experience. They also have nice big aisles for the shopping carts and strollers if needed. This is so that no one feels like they are being rushed by other customers. There is enough room for everyone to move with out getting bumped. Which allows shoppers to stay in an aisle longer and shop more. Basically if you make my shopping experience more enjoyably like Underhill said people/I will spend more at your store.
Looking at this as a worker at my Aunts and Grandmothers store I can see many different things that we could do differently. Little things that would make are customers more happy. Something as simple as making sure to greet customers when the walk in the store, I did not realize made that big of a difference on how much they would spend.
One marketing idea that I plain on taking from this book is the mirror idea that Underhill

Page 12 saw in the elevator. In the elevator there was a mirror and below it said “You look famished” and under that was a list of a restaurants. I plain on using that idea at my aunts and grandmothers store but under the mirror it will say something like, Looking hot. and then under that it will point you towards the ice cream and cold drinks. I will set it up so it is the first thing you see when you walk in. I was thinking having that in the summer then something else in the winter to point to the coffee and soup.
Throughout his whole book Underhill sounds a little conceited. He believes that no one can really figure any of this stuff out without the help of his team. It’s clear that
Underhill knows what he is doing, and is doing it well, but his clients are bigger businesses. The small guys could never afford to have Underhill come in to their store.
What I would say to them is not to worry about it just read this book and it will help you in countless ways. What his team can do that most people would struggle over without his training is watching the customers read signs. They are able to tel if people are actually reading them or just glancing. That can save company thousands of dollars if they find this out.
I understand that he does not think this book will effect his business, that to really fix and learn about the problems you need him and his specially trained members to go out in the field and examine people shopping. I believe that you can use everything that
Underhill taught us in his book and apply it yourself to your store. Yes Underhill’s team might be a little more efficient with it, but unlike him I think you could figure out most of the problems with your store by sending employees out to observe and by watching the cameras. One thing I would do if I owned a business is to have all my employees read this book. Ultimately, your employees are the people who will be dealing with customers

Page 13 the most. They will see the everyday challenges that come across you when shopping.
If you have an open business where you allow ideas to flow freely throughout the business from anyone, then problems will be shown to you with solutions that you did not even realize, even when there did’t appear to be a problem in the first place.
I was disappointed in was Underhill’s ending in the book. For about two hundred and twenty pages he had me pondering every little thing he said. But towards the end it felt like he was just promoting his company and scratching the back of his clients.
Combined that with the almost bashing like feel of the internet chapter and I think he left a few readers unsatisfied. In the chapter about the internet Underhill was under the impression that no one really bought online they just went there to look. This book was updated and revised in 2009 when buying online still was not that big of a thing I believe that if Underhill did more research that he would find that people are more will to buy online now without ever having to touch the product. I think he just added the last section for promotional gains and that he felt he needed to add a chapter about the internet. I think he would have been far better off if he left those two sections out. His book is all about customers in the store I believe he did not need the internet chapter that it is a little out of his element. Taking off the last 60 pages or so I would say this is my favorite (text book) I have had to read for school.