Small Data

Starred review from January 1, 2016
A leading marketing guru recounts his firsthand experiences investigating the lives of consumers to develop global branding strategies. "A great brand promises hope, the contagion of coolness, or desirability, or love, or romance, or acceptance, or luxury, or youth, or sophistication, or high-quality technology," writes Lindstrom (Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy, 2011, etc.), who has traveled in more than 75 countries on behalf of the world's top companies. In an engaging, highly readable book filled with wonderful, surprising stories, he recalls spending time in people's homes "watching, listening, noticing, and teasing out clues" to what consumers really want. In Russia, disparate clues (the lack of mirrors, the abundance of refrigerator magnets, and the brightly painted lips of housewives) allowed him to recognize women's need to express their feminine sides, which he helped a wealthy businessman meet by creating an online company devoted to mothers and children. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, certain clues tipped him off to people's longing for new shopping experiences: he helped his client, a supermarket chain, make itself over into an exciting destination, where everyone dances to a "Chicken Dance" song whenever a barbecued chicken comes out of the oven. Elsewhere, he gathers "small data" on the rituals, habits, gestures, and preferences of consumers to help develop a loyalty-building charm bracelet for Jenny Craig, finds ways to boost sales for a Swiss-French fashion label by appealing to both "the teddy bear and the sophisticated Victoria's Secret model" sides of young women, and guides a cereal manufacturer in methods to attract both sides of a love-hate relationship (daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law) in India. Always focusing on "what people didn't do," rather than what they did, the author writes at length on the importance of aspiration and superstition in shaping people's desires. Lindstrom's uncanny ability to detect and decipher seemingly unrelated clues will inspire reporters and detectives as well as companies looking for ways to develop new products and ideas.

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February 1, 2016

In terms of sales and media attention, branding consultant Lindstrom (Buyology) is a publishing rock star. In a business environment enamored with reliance on big data, however, Lindstrom's argument for the significance of ethnographic observation of consumers echoes the views of other naysayers among marketing practitioners. Chock-full of case studies from well-known clients around the globe (including Lego, Lowe's, McDonald's, Nestle, and Jenny Craig, among others), his book presents ideas about how to extrapolate effective marketing strategies from human behavior in living rooms, bedrooms, shopping venues, and other private and public spaces. The final chapter unveils the framework for Lindstrom's methodology. Despite interesting examples, some readers will wish for a more straightforward narrative that, when describing his identification of the meaning of quality in China, does not take one through a digression touching on the cultural identities of London, Paris, Dubai, Australia, Vietnam, Columbia, New Zealand, Japan, and Switzerland before explaining how to market domestic automobiles to the Chinese populous. VERDICT This volume will attract readers who value observation and intuition in balancing data-driven marketing decisions.--Elizabeth Wood, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2016
The brand-building author of Buyology (2008) is back with a book that will make a big splash, and you'll want copies of it on your shelf when that happens. This time, Lindstrom shares how tiny details, which would have been missed if it weren't for in-person interviews and in-home research (in many homes across the globe), have made big impacts on businesses around the world. He's not writing for marketing executives. Rather, he hopes that the book will inspire the general reader to become even more aware than you are already of the clues around you, and to become conscious of the similarities that exist among humans. Lindstrom weaves stories that combine our most obscure habits and popular corporate names, international intrigue, and even a bit of suspense. After reading the details he has uncovered, readers may take a closer look at themselves, their homes, and their neighbors. They may also pay attention to how they behave with family members, grocers, even a child's LEGO set. Readers who enjoy Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Pollan, and Barbara Ehrenreich are sure to appreciate this volume.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)