Required Reading
If you want to understand neuromarketing from the bottom up, here are the books you need to read to build a solid foundation. From time to time, we'll add to this list as new favorites appear on the scene. (Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission if you order any book from this list. Clicking on a book image will take you to the book's Amazon page.)
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Kahneman, along with his late colleague Amos Tversky, is the father of modern behavioral economics. He has done more than any other scholar to lay out the landscape of the nonconscious and chart how it operates in predictable, if not rational, ways.
Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious, by Timothy Wilson
One of the best books around for understanding the differences between Freud's unconscious and the unconscious of modern experimental psychology.
Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, by Leonard Mlodinow
When not writing books with Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist Mlodinow spent five years hanging out with neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers at Cal Tech, trying to understand not only how the nonconscious mind operates, but also why our minds are organized in such an interesting way.
Decoding the Irrational Consumer, by Darren Bridger
Subtitled "How to commission, run and generate insights from heuromarketing research," this book is is the first practical, how-to guide to appear in the neuromarkeitng field. An excellent overview of all the most popular methods in use today.
Seducing the Subconscious: The Psychology of Emotional Influence in Advertising, by Robert Heath
Former ad man Heath re-directed into an academic career to follow his hypothesis that advertising does not change our behavior through the classic persuasion process of attention-information-desire-action, but uses low attention processing and nonconscious processes to leave its mark.
Introduction to Neuromarketing and Consumer Neuroscience, by Thomas Ramsøy
This is probably the most thorough yet accessible introduction to neuromarketing available today. Dr. Ramsøy is both an academic neuroscientist with a long list of peer-reviewed publications, and the CEO of a commercial neuromarketing consultancy, Neurons, Inc. If you want to peer into the brains of consumers, this is where to start.
Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing, by Douglas Van Praet
Van Praet is an advertising executive who takes neuromarketing and the science underlying it seriously.
Neurobranding, by Peter Steidl
Peter's book remains one of the most insightful treatments of branding strategy from a neuromarketing perspective. This new second edition contains extensive updates, a new chapter, and the addition of introductory exercises to demonstrate some of the key elements underlying the neuroscience behind heurobranding.
Neuromarketing for Dummies, by Stephen Genco, Andrew Pohlmann, and Peter Steidl
N4D remains the consensus "Bible" of neuromarketing. Thousands have read it and you should too. Still the most accessible introduction to neuromarketing out there. If you want to know what this new field is all about, you can save your pennies by starting here.
