Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy

In this groundbreaking book Phil Barden reveals what decision science explains about people’s purchase behaviour, and specifically demonstrates its value to marketing.

He shares the latest research on the motivations behind consumers’ choices and what happens in the human brain as buyers make their decisions. He deciphers the ‘secret codes’ of products, services and brands to explain why people buy them. And finally he shows how to apply this knowledge in day to day marketing to great effect by dramatically improving key factors such as relevance, differentiation and credibility.

• Shows how the latest insights from the fields of Behavioural Economics, psychology and neuro-economics explain why we buy what we buy
• Offers a pragmatic framework and guidelines for day-to-day marketing practice on how to employ this knowledge for more effective brand management – from strategy to implementation and NPD.
• The first book to apply Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel Prize-winning work to marketing and advertising
• Packed with case studies, this is a must-read for marketers, advertising professionals, web designers, R&D managers, industrial designers, graphic designers in fact anyone whose role or interest focuses on the ‘why’ behind consumer behaviour.
• Foreword by Rory Sutherland, Executive Creative Director and Vice-Chairman, OgilvyOne London and Vice-Chairman,Ogilvy Group UK
• Full colour throughout

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Decoded is a brilliant book for anyone in business; communication, marketing, sales, research, etc. It is a vivid translation of the latest findings of neuroscience, behavioral economics, cognitive and social psychology, and decision science into marketing. The balance of science, application, and examples, across a wide range of product and service categories, is just right. Decoded helps resolve many of the dilemmas people in business face; reason vs. emotions, product vs. brand, biology (global) vs. culture (local), and more. This book will also give you many tools to use in the future; concepts, mental models, new vocabulary, metaphors, case studies, and references. The variety of examples, pictures, and exercises make it an enjoyable reading. But the book’s main benefit for practitioners is that it is a simple, but not simplistic, clear, and practical guide to action.