This is a summary of the book titled “Small Data: The Tiny clues that uncovers Huge Trends”  written by Martin Lindstrom and published by St. Martin’s Press in 2017. What Sherlock Holmes was to clues solving a mystery, Martin Lindstrom strives to be that investigator for interpreting the buying preferences of individuals. As a marketing expert, he uses this to help individuals be more objective about their own preferences while empowering brands to understand customers’ unfulfilled and unmet desires. While data privacy advocates may balk at the data being scrutinized, the author teaches how small data can uncover insights in a set of 7 steps. Paying attention to cultural imbalances in people’s lives, freedom to be oneself, embodying one’s perspectives and owning universal moments help customers articulate their desires and demands. Small data helps to understand people’s desire motivated “twin-selves”. Then the narrative can be tuned to help customers connect with brands. 

Small data researchers can uncover insights into consumer desires that big data misses. As an adviser for Lego, Martin used ethnographic insights from a 11-year-old German boy to inform its strategy, reducing the size of its building bricks and increasing the demands of Lego construction challenges. By 2014, Lego had become the largest global toy maker, surpassing Mattel. Small data can include habits, preferences, gestures, hesitations, speech patterns, decor, and online activity.

Small data can also reveal cultural imbalances that indicate what is missing in people's lives. For example, in the Russian Far East, colorful magnets covered refrigerator doors, symbolizing foreign travel, escape, and freedom. This led to the concept for Mamagazin – Mum’s Store, an e-commerce platform built for and by Russian mothers.

Freedom to be yourself is the greatest untapped American desire. Lindstrom helped Lowes Foods conceive a new strategy for stores in North Carolina and South Carolina, revealing that Americans value security and are often fearful. He concluded that freedom was not prevalent in everyday US culture, making it an untapped desire.

Lindstrom's marketing strategies have been successful in connecting with customers and addressing their unique needs. He helped a global cereal company understand why young women were not buying its top-selling breakfast brand by observing the tense relationships between Indian women and their mothers-in-law. He created a cereal box with two different color palettes, featuring earth tones for taller women and bright colors for mothers-in-law. Lindstrom also appealed to people's tribal need to belong during transformational times, using the Asian custom of passing items of worth to customers. This strategy increased customer retention rates. Lindstrom also tapped into the tribal need of tween and teenage girls by revising the strategy of Switzerland-based fashion brand Tally Weijl. He created a Wi-Fi-enabled smart mirror for young shoppers to share outfit photos on Facebook, allowing others to virtually vote on their choices.

Lindstrom leveraged the concept of "entry points" to boost customer retention rates in various industries. He used the concept of weight loss as a transformational moment to present free charm bracelets to dieters, symbolizing success, experience, and tribal belonging. He also tapped into the desire-motivated "Twin Selves" of consumers, which are those who desire things they once dreamed of but lost or never had. These contexts or experiences influence behavior by prompting individuals to become someone or something else. For example, he created a live-streamed event on a floating island to embody happier, sexier, and freer versions of himself. He also used the “Twin-Self” concept to create a brand image for a Chinese car, focusing on the driver's Twin Selves and creating a powerful, fast, and male car.

The power of narrative can help consumers connect with brands, as demonstrated by Steve Jobs' redesign of Tally Weijl and Devassa's use of brand ambassadors. By creating cohesive narratives, brands can resonate with consumers' stories about themselves, allowing them to resonate with their target audience. To conduct subtext research, follow the "7C's": collect baseline perspectives, focus on clues, connecting, cause, correlation, compensation, and concept. By understanding the emotions and shifts in consumer behavior, brands can better understand their target audience and develop strategies to compensate for what they feel their lives lack. By cultivating a more objective understanding of their inner motivations and desires, brands can better assess those of others, ultimately fostering a stronger connection with their customers.