Martin Lindstrom

About Martin Lindstrom

New York Times’ and Wall Street Journal best-selling author Martin Lindstrom, is one of the world’s most respected marketing gurus. He is an adviser to top executives at Fortune 100 companies and author of five best-selling books including his latest Buyology (Doubleday New York), translated into twenty-five languages.

It all began one disastrous summer’s day in 1982 when eleven-year-old Martin opened the doors to his own Legoland. He’d carefully designed the miniature village, planted it with bonsai trees, scooped out inch-wide canals and constructed numerous houses and ships out of Lego. Martin’s Legoland was installed in his parents’ back garden and its creator anticipated a throng of fascinated visitors. Not a single one showed up.

Conscious that something more than brilliant design was needed to attract visitors, Martin decided to advertise. He persuaded the local newspaper to run an ad – a simple act that was to reveal the power of marketing. The next week, 131 people streamed through the garden gate. Among their number were two lawyers from Lego, who informed Martin with great kindness and politeness that if he persisted in using the name ‘Legoland’ he’d be guilty of trademark infringement. Martin was intrigued by the idea that someone had control and ownership of the name of his favorite toy – and that it wasn’t him. Fascinated by the concept of trademarking, and seduced by the evident power of advertising, Martin opened his own advertising agency a couple of months later, at the age of twelve.

After selling his agency in 1988, Lindstrom attended the Academy of Advertising before joining BBDO. In 1994, he went on to form BBDO Interactive Europe. Three years later he founded BBDO Interactive Asia, both of which grew to become the largest Internet solution companies in their regions. By the age of 30, Lindstrom had been appointed global COO of British Telecom/Looksmart. Working out of London and Sydney, his main role was to establish a global operation with offices across 18 countries.

According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the rapid rise of Lindstrom’s career has made him one of today’s most respected branding gurus in the world. With a global audience of over a million people, Lindstrom spends 300 days on the road every year, sharing his pioneering methodologies through speaking engagements and consultancies. The CEO and Chairman of LINDSTROM company, and the Chairman of BUYOLOGY INC., Lindstrom advises the top executives of companies including LEGO Nokia, McDonald’s Corporation, Proctor & Gamble, Yellow Pages, Nestlé, American Express, Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company and GlaxoSmithKline.

Over the course of twenty years of hands-on marketing experience, Lindstrom has conceived a revolutionary set of principles that transform marketing strategies into positive business results. He rejects the old rules of the industry that conceptualized branding as an art form composed of vague commercials and awareness messages. Instead, his unique vision is scientific, process-based, and supported by global research studies. Lindstrom publishes his observations on branding in regular columns and in his ‘Advertising Age’ video reports. His brand-building shows which, during 2008, will be held in 49 cities across 29 countries, attract close to 800,000 people all over the world. He has been featured in Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, TIME, The Economist, New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, Fast Company, and more.

Martin Lindstrom has written five books, including works with industry icons such as Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, Paco Underhill, Patricia Seybold and Philip Kotler. His previous book, BRAND sense, published by Simon & Schuster New York, was acclaimed by the ‘Wall Street Journal’ as one of the five best marketing books ever published. Like BRAND sense before it, Buyology, published by Random House Doubleday New York, has been translated into over twenty-five languages.