• Fast Company, Tuesday, December 1, 2009 10:44 AM

Quick, name a hot product that has seemingly come out of nowhere and is not a device that fits in your pocket and connects to the Internet. Right you are! Antibacterial hand gel!

Buyology author Martin Lindstrom tells a somewhat convoluted anecdote about a shopper who reaches behind the items in the front of an aisle to purchase a unit from the back to make the point that "fear of contamination has permeated the shopper's psyche." It all ties into an activation of the amygdale area of the brain, which is responsible for generating fear and danger, as well as psychological discomfort.

To wit, the "need for clean" has been drummed into our heads by marketers of hand sanitizers and the like and your brand can prosper, too, by latching on to their bandwagon. "In a consumer population who has come to expect their food to be well sealed and vacuum packed, their expectations have now extended to every category they purchase being sanitized for their protection," Lindstrom writes.

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