Small Data – by Martin Lindstrom – Paid by the world’s leading brands to find out what makes their customers tick, Martin Lindstrom spends 300 nights a year in strangers’ homes, carefully observing every detail in order to uncover their hidden desires, and, ultimately, the clues to a multi-million dollar product.

Lindstrom connects the dots in this globetrotting narrative that will enthrall enterprising marketers, as well as anyone with a curiosity about the endless variations of human behavior.

Interesting parts for me –

** America and Russia share similar social cues. The uniformity of housing. Lack of physical contact in public. People escaping into iPhones or Vodka. A hope in children that has been abandoned for adults.

** We are on the constant quest for transformation. That first cup of coffee, that shower, our smartphone. Suntans in Germany, skin-lightening in Indonesia. Everyone aspires to be something just a bit different than they actually are.

** Color preferences often form based on the colors in your childhood bedroom.

** Brazil is so class-conscious, it has entire product ranges that exist to help consumers blend into the class just above them.

** “Enclothed Cognition” is a psychological phenomenon that refers to the influences our clothing has on cognitive and decision-making processes, and the ways we unconsciously adapt our behavior to the people and symbols around us.

GET THE BOOK –>Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends