Consumers
experience subliminal perception from marketing messages that influence
them without their conscious knowledge.
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An organization’s marketing is
effective when it delivers a message that sticks in consumers’ minds and
influences them to buy. Consumers experience subliminal perception from
marketing messages that influence them without their conscious knowledge.
Subliminal influence on consumer buying behavior has been studied and debated
for decades. Many marketers include subliminal words and images in advertising,
while others don't make it a priority.
Subliminal Marketing
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“Subliminal” means “below the threshold”
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Subliminal messages influence consumers
only under certain conditions. “Subliminal” means “below the threshold,"
so subliminal messages are aimed at consumers’ subconscious minds. Many
marketers include subliminal references to sex, power, happiness, hunger or
wealth in their print, online and television ads or in brand logos. For
example, one print ad for Coca Cola featured frost that some argued was subtly
shaped in the image of a naked woman on the top of a can. Presumably, that
image would shift the perception of the drink and make it more attractive to
the target market. In another example, the Amazon logo features a smiley face
that connects the letters A and Z in Amazon as if to suggest that consumers can
find anything from A to Z and always be happy doing business with Amazon.
Creating Preferences
For example, in a 2011 study published
in the “Journal of Consumer Psychology,” researchers tested whether a
subliminal message of an iced-tea brand could influence viewers’ choices when
they were given the option to drink iced-tea or bottled water at the end of an
experiment. The data determined that only thirsty viewers were influenced, and
only those who either didn’t prefer iced tea or didn’t prefer either choice
were influenced to choose the iced tea because of the subliminal message.
Motivation Necessary
Subliminal
marketing can influence consumers to prefer your product if they don't
already have a strong preference for a competing product.
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Consumers have to have heard of the
brand in a subliminal message, and be motivated to do what the subliminal
message suggests, in order to be influenced by subliminal perception. For
example, if you don’t own a dog, watching a subliminal message to “Buy Brand-X
dog food” flashed quickly at intervals throughout a movie won’t influence you
to buy dog food. The subliminal message may influence you, however, to choose
Brand-X over Brand-Y if you already plan to buy dog food after watching the
movie. At the same time, the subliminal message about Brand-X will likely have
no influence on a dog food-buying consumer if the consumer strongly prefers
Brand-Y or has never heard of Brand-X before.
Subliminal Exposed
While implanting subliminal messages in
marketing can help sway some undecided consumers, many marketers don't see the
need. Compelling marketing that moves conscious thoughts and emotions do more
to keep consumers coming back to a brand they already like. Additionally, any
subliminal impact of ads and logos on consumers’ minds is diminished when the
supposed subliminal messages or images are exposed. For example, when you're
told that the frost on a cola can in an ad is shaped like a woman, the
subliminal image no longer serves its purpose. Once your subliminal trick is
revealed, the words or images become just another part of the overt marketing
message consumers will consciously think about regarding your brand.
Benefits
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Subliminal messages might gain their
potential influence/power from the fact that they may be able to circumvent the
critical functions of the conscious mind, and it has often been argued that
subliminal suggestions are therefore potentially more powerful than ordinary
suggestions.
