Martin Lindstrom : the Serbs are direct and love dark humor

After more than 10 years, on 12th of May, 2018, Martin Lindstrom, who was named the world’s best brand expert, will present his new book in Belgrade. Last time he presented his Times bestseller „Brand Sense“ within the ‘Brand Fair 3’ event, and this time will present his latest book, also the Times Bestseller, „Small Data“. As always, Martin challenges today’s trends, this time Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, predicting a trend that will complement it and succeed it.

Although the pioneer in the field of neuromarketing, in his own words, he realized that Big data was not enough when he accepted that he could not quantify love. This offset an evolutionary process of thinking that culminated into a new book. Based on the methodology he will share with the symposium participants, the speaker established a million dollar business in Russia, rebranded consumer experience in the Lowes supermarket chain in America, brought Tally Weijl closer to a new generation of consumers, and much more that he will share only this date in Belgrade.

As a special bonus, one of the 4 sessions will be dedicated to the brands of delegates who, by purchasing the ticket, (using the link additionally provided by the organizer) have the right to send business inquiries from whom he will choose the ones that will be solved on the spot.

He will share with guests how we are perceived as a market and culture from a global points of view by unveiling the results of ethnographic research he conducted in over 77 countries around the world.

BIZLife, as the official strategic media partner of the ARK Regional Branding Symposium, had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with the speaker.

You have the theory that our favorite childhood brands follow us through adult life and occupy a preferential place in our minds. List 3 brands that have this significance in your mind?

The first place is definitely taken by LEGO. It’s the first brand I started working with at age 12 (it’s a completely different, however, an interesting story) and to this day they have remained a client of mine and I love LEGO.

Another brand would be WASA – crispbread. My parents have been teaching me to consume it from the earliest point in childhood, and I cannot imagine a meal today without it.

The third brand is definitely Haribo gummy candy. This time as well, I consumed them as a child and I continue to, about 40 years later. I am unable to resist them each time I pass through a lobby which has a bowl of them displayed.

You visited the region a couple of times when you held in-house seminars. You are known for your in-depth profiling of cultures. We were curious, did you notice anything specific to Serbian culture or region as a whole?

I could say tons about that. Here are some observations we made by simply visiting the bedrooms.

• Serbs are very direct in communication, do not ask small talk questions like northern nations, they like to get right to the point. This, I believe, is a reflection of the wars that shaped the nation through history – there is no time to waste. This is also noticeable in the way products are advertised, but also in the way they communicate online. I noticed that the bedrooms were also arranged in a similar manner.
• Serbs are very superstitious. More than any other population in the world, except for Israel. Studies show that one of the main reasons is a war element. The more we are under pressure and in uncertainty, we become more superficial.
• Serbs love dark humor, and, according to our research study, are the first in the world in that as well. Perhaps, it has to do with death. A famous Serb said that his country has 5 seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and … War. Maybe the manner to compensate and live through that, is to use humor as a weapon?

You can purchase your ticket for the ARK Regional Branding Symposium on the website www.arksymposium.com. The organizer is calling for reservations to be made as soon as possible, due to the number of places being very limited and the number of registrations already substantial.

Izvor: BIZLife

Foto: Promo