Brand expert Martin Lindstrom calls Apple a religion

NPR recently ran a 30 minute segment with brand expert Martin Lindstrom. Martin conducted a 3 year, 7 million dollar study on marketing and its affect on the brain using an FMRI or “functional” magnetic resonance imaging machine. The results from the scans of more than 2,000 volunteers were very interesting—and astounding, in some cases.

Martin explains that when we are thinking of buying a big ticket item such as a computer or television, we are loyal to a brand until they sell us three bad products. For example, the majority of people will buy cars from GM until they get the third bad one. At that point, most of the people scanned would try a different brand (in this case, Toyota) until they are disappointed in the same fashion. Using the same methods, it was discovered that the warning labels on cigarette packs actually cause people to smoke 13% more than packs that do not have the label. How ridiculous is that?

So, how does Apple play into all of this? Simple…