Martin Lindstrom

Like it or not, businesses are slowly drifting away from the consumer. Only 1 in 3,000 executives have spent time in the homes of their consumers the last year. Instead of being in touch with the consumer, we’ve become reliant on BIG data — reports, databases, and statistics — in order to understand the emotions of our most important asset.

A cluster of technological forces has changed marketing and branding more in the last 5 years than it changed in the previous 50! Any tools we’ve previously used in order to understand and communicate with consumers is now a relic of the past. But as we’ve come to rely on BIG data, a major vacuum has emerged, blinding businesses, but allowing the opportunity of Small Data to help those who seek it out.

Emerging in its place is a new approach: Small Data. Small Data is what Lindstrom defines as seemingly insignificant consumer observations which completely transform the way businesses are built and run. As he did in his New York Times best seller Buyology, Lindstrom lays out the science for his counterintuitive insights, offering vivid hands-on tools to make brands more effective.

You will learn:

• Why Big Data no longer stands alone and how your organization should prepare for the next step in data revolution
• How to read and understand the consumer in a completely different and overlooked manner will lead to a complete turnaround of your company
• How to balance Big and Small Data in the future, by adding a new dimension to the way you capture, mine, and assess your data
• Which concrete steps your company should take in order to address this new data evolution

We’ve all been there. Your business is struggling, great initiatives are constantly killed, and there’s no sign of hope on the horizon. It’s like every attempt to turn things around fails in bureaucracy, visions killed by fear and budgets so restrictive, there’s no oxygen left in the company for anything.

The siren call of big, dramatic change is seductive—a major advertising campaign, brand makeover or product release. But the reality of how organizations really transform is more complicated, says one of the foremost branding experts in the world, New York Times best-selling author Martin Lindstrom.

In his provocative and entertaining presentation, Lindstrom draws on his experience revitalizing businesses from LEGO to Pepsi, Lowes and Disney, a wealth of social science evidence, and vivid examples from his ground-breaking methodologies. Lindstrom shows that the most effective path to change is through small experiments that reveal larger truths and small wins that cascade to broader transformation.

You will learn:

• Why conventional ways of building brands are obsolete and are being replaced by transformation and contextual branding
• How advanced neuroscience can help disrupt people’s “default behaviors” through novelty and surprise
• How to appeal not just to the consumer’s intellects, but also to their senses
• How just 2 consumer visits can teach you more about your customers than your past 100 research reports
• Which steps your company should take in order to get out of a crisis quickly — no matter how big the organization

In a blink of an eye, new technologies come to the force and become the bright, shiny object of the moment. But how can you identify which to pay attention to, and which you can safely can ignore? If you knew everything about tomorrow, what would you do differently today? Few people are as well-equipped to answer this question as Martin Lindstrom.

Lindstrom — who predicted the arrival of Facebook two years ahead of time, described Google’s revenue model 2 years before the search engine revealed it, and pioneered the role of brands on the Internet months after the world wide web went live in 1994 — takes the audience through a fast-paced look into the future before pulling the hand brake and asking the toughest questions of them all.

What should your company do in order to create a future-proof brand and social strategy reflecting the fast changing needs as generation Z and Y push social media to completely new boundaries?

This speech is designed to educate and prepare you for the necessary transformative action. Lindstrom explores underlying technologies that drive trends and create a solid framework arming your organization with a social roadmap for the future.

You will learn:

• The five surprising steps brands needs to take in order to stay relevant as Old School Social Media transforms
• Why an average teen takes 17 selfies every morning before they head to school and what this means for your brand
• How social media has become the new bedroom wall and what it takes for your brand to secure a role on the new digital wall
• Why the Screenagers have destroyed their bedroom desk and what this fundamental lifestyle change means for every consumer business
• Why a smart social media strategy is all about establishing transition points in consumer’s lives

A murder scene would be worth little if the ability to analyze DNA didn’t exist. A hair, a finger print, or a piece of fingernail reveals a lot about your identity. But did you know that all of us also leave behind tiny emotional DNA? The way we place our shoes, stock our fridge, hang our paintings or even use our toilet paper is all emotional DNA. All this Small Data, seemingly insignificant observations, reveal an astounding glimpse into who we really are, our true personalities exposed. Small Data reveals if you are an extrovert, self-confident, shy about your lack of education, or have conflicts with your partner. Small Data can even determine the future of an entire company.

As the business world becomes paralyzed with the gravity of Big Data, a new mining method identifies correlations in masses of data. Lindstrom introduces what he defines as a long-needed counter balance. Since 2005, Lindstrom has lived in more than 2,000 homes across some 77 countries. His mission? To identify and pick up Small Data — to understand the causation — the true reason why we do what we do.

Astonishing sometimes, provocative always, Lindstrom reveals the seismic shifts transforming our culture as social media and connectivity penetrates our lives every minute we’re awake. He backs up his insight with astounding observations made from consumer homes across the world — including thought provoking pictures and powerful videos. Besides discovering surprising dimensions about themselves, spell-bound audiences go away with more than powerful insight into the consumer of tomorrow. Most importantly, they acquire the tools to decipher and decode what’s coming their way.

You will learn:

• One single observation made across thousands of homes that still hasn’t been discovered by brands — and the consequences once it’s discovered
• Why brands are about to witness their biggest mistake for decades — and what they must do to avoid it
• How seemingly insignificant consumer observations can make or break the future of a brand
• Why Social Media has taken a completely new role behind closed doors in the homes of consumers
• Surprising insights into your own life and why what you do in private is pretty common across the world — what does this tell about you?
• 5 ways to frame your brand messages for maximum influence

Martin Lindstrom pioneered neuromarketing, revealed the astounding impact the senses have on brands and our subconscious, theories which today impact hundreds of thousands of brands worldwide. Now Lindstrom takes his ground breaking research to another level by observing people from inside their homes, all in order to understand our subconscious mindset.

85% of everything we’re influenced by when making brand choices is controlled by our subconscious mind and thus by subconscious stimuli. As surprising as it sounds, your favorite color is most likely decided by the color you were exposed to as a child. The magnets on your fridge reflect your emotional hotspot and your future desire. If you have large shelves packed with books in the room where your coffee table book is displayed you’re likely to compensate for lack of education. Brands are no exception. If your site is slow when downloading, consumers subconsciously believe your service is equally slow. When people are interrupted while shopping online, they’re 35% more likely to buy more at a higher price.

If the music in your store is slower than your heartbeat rate, people will buy or shop 29% more.

You’re set for a ride into our subconscious mind as few would have experienced before. Understand how the lack of transitions from the moment we wake up to when we go to bed opens up a completely new consumer desire. How the next thing we experience after speedy shopping, fast eating, and quick surfing is slowness.

This presentation explores what’s really going on around you and why many of the signals your brand currently sends — online, in stores, on the phone — have scared potential customers away forever.

You will learn:

• Surprising facts about people — like how displaying large colorful paintings in the home indicates a person’s self-esteem or how the position of the toilet paper role indicates who’s in control of the home
• What signals your company really sends to the world and what these signals subconsciously tell your customers
• How asking questions has been replaced by the art of observation
• How, with simple methodologies, to arm yourself all with tools seeing the world through our subconscious mind

In 2015 Martin Lindstrom was hired by NBC’s Today Show to turn around mom-and-pop stores in just 24 hours. Operating under NBC’s News section everything has to be real, no cheating, cutting, or acting. Only one year later, every single business Martin touched has turned into a success story. A near bankrupt food truck turned into a national restaurant chain. A corner store became a national sensation. All based on simple, yet immensely powerful, advice from the world’s #1 branding expert.

The questions Lindstrom always asks — if you only had a marketing budget of $1000 what would you do — are mind-blowing. As are his answers. He takes the audience through a raft of industries, sharing one nugget after another on what to do when a crisis is looming.

Lindstrom’s speech is 100% customized to the client. And so is every case. The advice and example Lindstrom shares with his audiences can turn a brand around. A simple turn of the window mannequin’s heads equals to a 4% sales increase. A bump in the floor wakes up shoppers and makes them spend 7% more. A simple headline change can increase online traffic 9%. A simple technique on Instagram can turn your brand into a ‘power brand’ overnight.

Lindstrom’s advice is surprisingly hands on and applicable to every business.

You will learn:

• The five simple steps capable of getting your brand out of a crisis
• Highly unusual techniques to build a power brand from scratch — with almost no budget
• How to use dimensions of social media few knew was possible
• How things you’d never think of can jeopardize your business…
• … or if used to your benefit create a national sensation
• Why a fresh look at your business is worth more than what a dozen consultants will tell you

Strategy eats culture for breakfast. Companies have never been so overwhelmed with emails, reports, data, statistics, and endless PowerPoint presentations, while at the same time preaching the importance of culture. Notice any conflicts?

Lindstrom takes his audience on a deep, remarkable dive inside some of the world’s largest organizations and their daily challenges as they rediscover, build, and maintain powerful cultures.

What happened when Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, was paralyzed by a two-month global cyber attack? When Lowes Foods faced two choices: to completely change their business model or to close down the entire retail chain? Or when Standard Chartered, the world’s 10th largest bank, realized that “common sense” had completely vanished from the behavior of their 86,000 staff members, leading to overly complex service offerings and immense customer frustration?
In each of these cases, culture became the savior.

As the spearhead of these and many more remarkable culture transformation projects worldwide, Martin Lindstrom takes the audience behind the scenes and shares what it takes to bring culture front and center in organizations that had been paralyzed by bureaucracy, compliance, and inefficacy.

Viewing bureaucracy as a disease, the Lindstrom team rebuilt the purpose of the organizations, reinvigorated and empowered the staff, and, most importantly, systematically removed the red tape that was killing entrepreneurship and productivity. In one organization, Lindstrom and his team banned PowerPoint presentations. In another, they entirely removed the CC function from Outlook. Meetings were limited to maximum four participants, and smart phones were banned. In one case, he even introduced a special division called The Ministry of Common Sense. And in every case, it worked!

In just two years, Maersk recovered and added an additional 43% to their global brand value. Lowes became the most innovative retailer in the U.S., and Standard Chartered nearly doubled their share price.

You will earn:
– What it takes to create a powerful culture, reverse poor staff morale, and attract top talent.
– Common sense initiatives (low-hanging fruit) that can, within weeks, infuse hope in an organization, boost morale, and improve productivity.
– The step-by-step roadmap to transform a bureaucratic organization into a powerful culture.
– The classic pitfalls and misunderstandings that jeopardize 9 out of 10 culture projects — and how to systematically avoid them.

We’re witnessing the biggest retail war in living history, with more than 4,000 store closures in the United States alone during 2018. Is eCommerce the only answer? Surprisingly, Lindstrom’s answer is No — and he backs up his claim with solid evidence and provocative cases, time after time proving that while the whole world sees only one direction, there are multiple alternative paths leading to amazing opportunities and results.

Based on exhaustive global consumer research conducted in more than 70 countries, for more than a decade Lindstrom and his team have investigated the wants of today’s and tomorrow’s consumers. They’ve investigated how retail is likely to evolve and, most important, what it takes to turn a red bottom line to black as a conventional and eCommerce player.

Lindstrom knows his game. He was the mastermind behind Lowes’ remarkable transformation, turning a struggling business into the most innovative retailer in the United States. He helped the world’s second-largest supermarket chain, Carrefour, beat Amazon and introduce a flurry of successful eCommerce concepts worldwide. In his speech, Lindstrom will share how to identify undiscovered consumer needs and translate them into unconventional retail solutions few would ever have thought possible.

What makes this presentation unique is the price tag of Lindstrom’s solutions — they are hands-on, concrete, inspiring, and highly cost effective. Consider his introduction of a groundbreaking multi-state “mini-makeover” competition inspired by American Idol. This format resulted in a double-digit improvement of the bottom line for one major retailer, yet only cost a few thousand dollars per store.

The presentation explores every dimension of retail, offline and online. It explores opportunities spinning out of consumer observations made in homes, and it takes a deep dive inside Amazon’s servers. The biggest in the world, they contain shocking consumer data and are already able to predict your next car, pet, or house purchase — without your knowledge. You’ll learn how Alexa’s secret “Voice Sniffing Technology” is able to listen in on any conversation and interrupt your conversation with relevant commercial messages. You’ll hear how AmazonGo, the conglomerate’s retail store, may soon adjust the prices live on the shelves according to who you are and how many people follow you.

Expect an express journey into tomorrow’s retail universe. This inspirational, provocative, hands-on presentation will help any company elevate its presence into the next league of retail.

You will earn:
– To identify “low hanging fruit” that can have an immediate bottom-line impact and create the momentum needed to revise a negative spiral trend.
– The latest retail trends from around the world, which will inspire you, provoke you, and strengthen your strategy.
– What it will take to turn around your stores — and the roadmap that will get you there.
– How to identify and steer around the pitfalls and unexpected obstacles that cause nine out of ten retail transformations to fail.

Fourteen years ago, everyone’s favorite toy company was near bankruptcy — but then something remarkable happened, elevating LEGO to become the world’s most powerful brand* … seemingly overnight.

With Amazon and Walmart’s relentless attack on the conventional retail industry, Lowes knew they had a two-year deadline to survive. Fast-forward four years, and customers were lining up to enter Lowes stores.

Around the globe, conventional postal service organizations are considered to be dinosaurs. There’s only one exception: Switzerland. Why was Swiss Post, in contrast to the rest of the world, the first to adopt drones and self-driving cars, placing their services way ahead of Amazon and Uber?

Over two decades, Lindstrom and his team have challenged companies from almost every industry — toys, retail, postal services, shipping, banking, food, beverage, pharma, automobile, fashion — to rediscover their core and transform themselves. Lindstrom always starts with the customer, but what follows consistently breaks the rules of conventional thinking. His unusual method proves itself resilient within even the most stubborn organizations.

In this presentation, packed with behind-the-scenes, first-hand observations from some of the most remarkable business transformations in the world, Lindstrom introduces a ready-to-use framework, suggests simple and memorable metaphors, and merges it all into a captivating narrative. He will have the audience on the edge of their seats, leaving them eager to transform their own businesses. As Lindstrom says: Sixty-five per cent of the jobs today’s 12-year-old will do when he’s grown don’t exist today. So, why would yours, unless you change … right now?

You will earn:
– Why most MBA textbooks are misguided about transformation, and what a true (and much more dynamic) alternative looks like.
– How to reinfuse hope into an organization that began, decades ago, to lose its nerve, nimbleness, and entrepreneurial spirit.
– How to ensure that great conceptual thinking and big ideas don’t drown in politics, bureaucracy, compliance — with a lot of talk but no action.
– How to balance the short term (going from red to black) and the long term (the big idea, versus a compromise of a compromise) without losing the interest of the board, senior management, and investors.

LIKE IT OR NOT, businesses are drifting away from the consumer. In the last year, only 1 in 3,000 executives has spent time with their consumers. Instead of keeping in touch with consumers, leaders rely on BIG Data — reports, databases, and statistics — in order to understand the emotions of our most important asset. The only problem with this approach: They’re all looking at the past in order to predict the future.

Emerging in its place is a new approach, Small Data, which Lindstrom defines as seemingly insignificant consumer observations that completely transform the way businesses are built and run.

In 2004, the LEGO Company was near bankruptcy. Big Data had informed the executives that, due to the lengthy construction time, kids no longer had interest in playing with LEGO. In response, LEGO introduced larger modules, which cut the building time in half. However, the result didn’t mirror their expectations. Sales plummeted, and as a result the company decided to cease all conventional Big Data-based sources — and instead introduce Small Data.

It was a visit to an 11-year-old German boy’s home that profoundly changed the LEGO Group’s view of the world. A LEGO executive asked the kid what he was most proud of. It wasn’t a Nintendo or PlayStation, but a pair of old, worn-out sneakers. The reason why? Because, as the kid explained, the sneakers’ very particular worn-down angle on the side of the sole proved he was the #1 skateboarder in town. You see, when pro skateboarders slide down the board, their shoes get worn down exactly like this 11-year-old boy’s shoes.

This insight taught LEGO that if a kid is willing to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of hours fine-tuning an angle on a shoe, why wouldn’t a kid spend thousands of hours playing with LEGO? They reintroduced the small bricks, created the LEGO movie, and formed alliances with Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Batman.

LEGO had lost contact with its core consumers, yet by adopting Small Data, the link between the consumer and the iconic toy company was recovered — making LEGO the most admired brand in the world, according to Brand Finance 2019.
Lindstrom will share the remarkable insight behind LEGO’s success, and he will discuss how Small Data has been instrumental in the turnaround success of numerous other companies around the world, in shipping, banking, retail, fashion, and food and beverage.

You will earn:
– Why most Big Data strategies have been shown to be fundamentally flawed, resulting in billions of wasted time and cost.
– Why some of the world’s largest companies now swear by Small Data when identifying their next billion-dollar bet (and how their success rate is an astounding 81% above average).
– How combining Big Data with Small Data has been shown to establish a remarkable competitive edge, while saving millions of dollars.
– How it is possible to adopt a Small Data approach right away, in a highly cost-effective manner, generating tangible results within a matter of months.

Two years ago, we all shook our heads as a doctor was dragged out of a United Airlines plane, leading to the company’s biggest PR disaster in its 92-year history.

But is that any different from what’s going on in your organization? What would happen if you became an undercover employee in your own organization, experiencing what your customers experience every day?

In this eye-opening presentation, Lindstrom goes underground with his audience. He shares first-hand recordings of disastrous customer interactions — and, yes, surprised managers and CEO’s who thought everything was perfect. This highly thought-provoking presentation is packed with videos and case studies, placing a revealing mirror in front of the audience. It will make them think, reflect, and, most important, act.

What makes Lindstrom’s presentation unique is that it’s hands-on, based on his personal experience designing, implementing, and monitoring some of the world’s most successful customer journeys, including the Walt Disney theme parks, Swiss International Airlines, Burger King, Maersk, and Dorchester Collection, the operator of the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Bel-Air Hotel, and many other luxury properties around the world.

What these and numerous other cases all have in common isn’t huge budgets. Instead, they share clever, innovative thinking, often requiring only a couple thousand dollars of investment to create happy customers and million-dollar returns.

This remarkable, highly entertaining presentation is guaranteed to change your view of customer journeys, demonstrating that a small effort can yield a big difference.

You will earn:
– The optimal, highly cost-effective way to design a unique customer journey.
– The pitfalls few think about but which, if avoided, can save your organization millions.
– The small, yet highly strategic, steps you should take first in order to immediately generate results, build momentum, and save money.
– Best practices from completely unrelated industries, and what you should learn from their innovate ways of handling customer experiences.