Martin Lindstrom is a World Famous Marketing expert and a keynote speaker at BRAND MINDS 2020.
Read on to learn more about him.
World-Renowned Consumer Expert and Brand Consultant
When you are passionate about a hobby, a science field or an artist, you read everything there is available on that particular topic. Focused passion turns into an obsession (the good kind of an obsession): you breathe and live it, you know everything there is to know about it, you are an expert on it.
Martin Lindstrom is one of the world’s most respected consumer branding experts and a pioneer in the fields of consumer psychology, marketing, and neuro-marketing research.
He experienced the power of the brand from both sides: as a consumer and as a branding expert.
Here is his story.
Lego, my love
As a child growing up in Denmark, Martin loved Lego, the famous toy manufacturer. He loved the practicality of the toy. He slept in a bed which he handbuilt himself of Lego parts. He wore clothes in Lego’s colours. Yes, Martin was obsessed with Lego.
Success Story: LEGO – Building the skills of tomorrow
At 11 years old, Martin wished to share his Lego love with the world and built his own Legoland, a miniature village complete with trees, canals, houses and ships constructed entirely out of Lego parts.
11-year old Martin Lindstrom in his Legoland / bandt.com.au
His first lesson in advertising
When he opened the doors of his Legoland, expecting visitors, to his disappointment no one came. He quickly realized his mistake: he hadn’t advertised. So he rushed to the local newspaper and persuaded them to run his ad touting his amazing Legoland. That’s when he learned a very important lesson: the power of advertising. In the following week, he received over 100 visitors.
A year later, at the age of 12, Martin Lindstrom opened his own marketing agency thus embarking on a very successful life journey through the ups and downs of branding, marketing and consumer psychology.
Embarking on a new mission
By the age of 30, Martin Lindstrom had become one of the most respected names in the industry having worked for BBDO, the renowned international advertising agency.
In 2009 he changed direction turning from brand consultant to consumer advocate.
He embarked on a new mission: to help consumers make smarter, more informed buying decisions and to help brands transform their business culture by placing the customer at the heart of everything.
How would he achieve his mission?
- By exposing the many ways brands manipulate and deceive us, the consumers;
- By raising the covers of the best-kept tricks and secrets of the marketing and advertising world;
- By helping brands challenge established thinking and drive business and culture transformation.
That’s why Martin Lindstrom is a #worldchanger.
When we brand things, our brains perceive them as more special and valuable than they actually are.
Martin Lindstrom
Author of 7 brand and consumer-focused books
Martin Lindstrom authored seven books which have been translated into more than 50 languages and published in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends The New York Times Bestseller
The book presents a rare behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to create global brands, and along the way, reveals surprising and counterintuitive truths about what connects us all as humans.
A modern-day Sherlock Holmes. An original and inquisitive mind harnesses the power of “Small Data” in his quest to discover the next big thing.
Time Magazine
Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy The New York Times & Wall Street Journal Bestseller
What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world?
This book is based on Martin’s $7 million neuromarketing study, the largest ever done.
The study is a cutting-edge three-year experiment which explores the truth and lies about why we buy. Using fMRI to peer inside the brains of 2000 volunteers while being shown various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products, the experiment’s findings were astonishing.
One of the campaigns tested in this experiment was the tobacco packaging warning messages. Even if you are not a smoker, you have certainly seen the disturbing images of tobacco-related harms (i.e. lung cancer, rotting teeth or premature birth etc) printed on the cigarette packs. Do these images achieve the intended goal? Do they influence smokers to give up smoking?
As Martin’s extensive experiment showed, the answer is NO. When asked if they smoked less as a result of seeing the warnings, participants answered YES, but the brain scans told a different story: they were not actually smoking less. They only said they did because this was the answer expected of them. People lie, but their brains tell the truth.
BrandWashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy
In this book, Martin exposes for the first time the full extent of the psychological tricks and traps that companies devise to win our hard-earned money.
BrandSense: Sensory secrets behind the stuff we buy The New York Times Bestseller
…one of the 5 best marketing books ever published.
Wall Street Journal
What role do human senses play in the decision-making process?
In ‘Brandsense’, Lindstrom explores this subject looking for answers and shows how marketers, armed with this knowledge are able to push the purchase buttons – stronger than ever before.
Brandchild: Remarkable insights into the minds of today’s global kids and their relationship with brands
Your name may be on the card but your kid is actually buying what you’re paying for. Teens and younger children are the consumers of tomorrow. In ‘Brandchild’, Lindstrom reveals the findings of the biggest research study ever conducted on kids. He also shows how brands cater to the needs of the next generations by establishing early relationships.
Clicks, Bricks & Brands
Is traditional retailing drawing its last breath? Have online retailers figured everything out? Do all offline retailers need to transition to online? Do e-retailers need to have brick-and-mortar shops?
In his book, Lindstrom explores the challenges of retail with an intriguing mix of theory, case study and practical advice.
Brand building on the internet
The book features reviews of over 70 international websites and 40 case studies on world-famous companies (Pepsi, LEGO, Yellow Pages, M&Ms, FedEx, Kodak, Volkswagen, Visa). In it, Lindstrom shows how to build brands online based on a strategic way of thinking.
Products are produced in the factory; brands are produced in our minds.
Martin Lindstrom
Advisor to numerous Fortune 100 companies
He is a trusted brand-and-innovation advisor to numerous Fortune 100 companies, including McDonald’s Corporation, PepsiCo, American Express, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Walt Disney Company and GlaxoSmithKline.
100 Most Influential People
In 2009, TIME Magazine named Lindstrom one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People for his groundbreaking work on neuroscience and branding.
In 2015, Thinkers50 ranked Martin number 18 amongst the world’s most influential management thinkers.
Martin Lindstrom and Tyra Banks / YouTube
Featured on major TV Networks, shows and publications
He is the anchor and producer of NBC’s popular TV show; ‘Main Street Makeover’ on TODAY; a columnist for Fast Company and TIME Magazine – and continues to feature in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Economist, New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Washington Post, USA Today, and numerous publications and television channels worldwide.
Lindstrom has also been interviewed by David Frost, Tyra Banks – with whom he was a celebrity guest on her America’s Next Top Model Show – and the legendary Deepak Chopra on his YouTube show, One World.
MARTIN LINDSTROM ABOUT from Martin Lindstrom on Vimeo.
Join BRAND MINDS 2020 – The Growth Weekend on September 25th and watch Martin Lindstrom speak about Discovering global trends!
