3 Reasons Why This Book Needed to be Written
I have spent nearly a decade working in marketing and market research.
Yet, I still get the same question every family gathering:
"Mehdi, what is it that you do again?"
To this question I typical smirk.
If only they knew.
If only they knew that the last time they searched for a new washing machine, we (as an industry) had something to do with it. If only they knew how their favourite new biscuit that they 'were the first to discover' had identified them as a suitable customer a year ago. If only they knew that the color of the credit card they applied for has been chosen to facilitate the surprising 'spending mood' of their last holiday purchases.
I wrote this book partly to stop repeating myself next summer barbecue.
But, there are also three, more serious reasons, why I thought this book needed to be written.
1) Everyday Purchases Matter
The first was to reinforce how everyday purchases are not mundane. As the very first sentence of the book states "Every day, we make tiny purchase decisions that end up creating our lives."
It's the aggregate of little decisions that we make on a daily basis that forms wider sections of our lives.
They can be the difference between financial freedom and debt. The need to go on a diet or the 'well done' from our family doctor.
Besides creating our lives, these decisions also have meaning.
We live through our purchases. We gain social validation. We feel an emotional loss when a dress is torn or a product is lost. We pass on items to our grandchildren. We are someone who eat spicy food or who is from team Ben & Jerry's rather than Häagen-Dazs.
What might be a simple everyday purchase at first, quickly finds its way to our identify and sense of self.
Everyday purchases create our lives, but they also share it.
2) The Invisible Hand of Marketing
The second reason is to emphasise how, while this identity-shaping consumption has been taking place, we were never truly alone.
As consumers, we believe we're making independent choices. Yet, the reality is that a wide range of influences are subtly guiding our decisions.
There's an entire universe that has, for centuries, attempted to get seats at the tiny boardroom in our heads.
In the book, I talk through some of these key developments: the first modern advertisements in seventh-century London, the start of tracking cookies on web browsers, the development of MRI machines.
There has been an ever-growing industry attempting to understand and influence consumers, with increasingly sophisticated tools.
The goal here was to slightly lift the curtain of this industry that has been observing consumers, without the average consumers able to observe them in return.
Ultimately, it is about conveying that the next time you walk into a supermarket, you didn't just enter a Walmart or Target.
You also entered one of the biggest social science laboratories in the history of humankind.
3) The Great Marketing Lag
The third reason is that, while everyday purchases matter, and while there's the invisible hand of marketing, if consumers wanted to lift the curtain on why they bought a certain product, there'd have a hard time.
They wouldn't find much of the latest science that has come out of MIT, Stanford, INSEAD, the Journal of Consumer Research, or any other behavioral labs.
Rather, they would encounter a huge lag between what science has been showing us about consumers, and what marketers are doing and talking about.
That is, because marketers can be very dogmatic.
And why wouldn't they be?
If you made millions of dollars through targeted ads, targeted ads is all that matters. If you built a great brand that has captured people's imagination, brand building is all that matters.
Yet, answering the question of why you bought a certain product required zooming out from marketing specialisms and real-life experiences, and try to look at the total consumer experience.
So, from here, the book attempted to do two things:
1/ Include many different perspectives. This isn't a branding book, it isn't a targeting or experience book. Rather, it puts some of these key camps in perspective.
2/ Rely on the science. Peer-reviewed, from credible academic journals, leveraging real experiments with proven statistical techniques.
The hope is that consumers and marketers get access to science that was buried in academic papers, and that they broaden their horizons beyond their current specialisation.
The Original 3 Motivations
To summarise, I wrote this book because:
Everyday purchases matter, they end up creating our lives and hold more meaning than we expect.
Consumers do not realise the universe trying to influence their decisions.
If consumers wanted to learn, they face a barrage of dogmas, with little science involved.
My Next Family Barbecue
In the end, I might still need to answer the question "Mehdi, what is it that you do again?"
This book is in English, and my entire family only speaks French.
So, help me out by getting a copy once the book is out.
In that way, it will be successful and get a French translation.
And I will finally be able to enjoy my brochette.
[This article was originally published on LinkedIn July 30, 2025]
