Subliminal Marketing
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This seminar paper will give an overview of subliminal perception, its application in marketing and advertising and its impact on consumer behavior.
Abstract
When a person’s mind cannot see or hear a stimulus but it registers in their subconscious mind that perception is known as Subliminal Perception. It is a concept that has been looked upon very skeptically by consumers as in essence it tries to manipulate the consumer without his/her knowledge. Skeptics claim subliminal marketing resorts to brainwashing consumers into buying what they might not need or want. Entering the subconscious mind to prey on consumers black box and twisting it for their own gain seems very harsh hence their apprehension is justified
Nevertheless, it’s something that has been used time and again by the marketing and advertising companies in very subtle ways to mold the mind of the consumer. Embedding visuals, pictures, sounds, olfactory cues into advertising gimmicks that are not consciously recognized but play a role in a person’s decision making process to buy products is practiced by some advertisers in vague and intelligent ways.
Although no formal proof has been established regarding the exact effect of subliminal messages a large population believes it exists. The complexity involved in subliminal perception is that it varies from person to person hence such a technique would not affect every person in a population the same way. This shows that it’s not a fool proof method.
The industry and advertisers find these accusations of using subliminal messaging preposterous and deny that they use such methods. This satirical manner of messaging through various mediums to influence mass populations would obviously be negated but history seems to prove otherwise. There is strong evidence of use of subliminal marketing that I shall elaborate on later in this paper.
This subliminal stimulus greatly affects memory and recall, two very
This seminar paper will give an overview of subliminal perception, its application in marketing and advertising and its impact on consumer behavior.
Abstract
When a person’s mind cannot see or hear a stimulus but it registers in their subconscious mind that perception is known as Subliminal Perception. It is a concept that has been looked upon very skeptically by consumers as in essence it tries to manipulate the consumer without his/her knowledge. Skeptics claim subliminal marketing resorts to brainwashing consumers into buying what they might not need or want. Entering the subconscious mind to prey on consumers black box and twisting it for their own gain seems very harsh hence their apprehension is justified
Nevertheless, it’s something that has been used time and again by the marketing and advertising companies in very subtle ways to mold the mind of the consumer. Embedding visuals, pictures, sounds, olfactory cues into advertising gimmicks that are not consciously recognized but play a role in a person’s decision making process to buy products is practiced by some advertisers in vague and intelligent ways.
Although no formal proof has been established regarding the exact effect of subliminal messages a large population believes it exists. The complexity involved in subliminal perception is that it varies from person to person hence such a technique would not affect every person in a population the same way. This shows that it’s not a fool proof method.
The industry and advertisers find these accusations of using subliminal messaging preposterous and deny that they use such methods. This satirical manner of messaging through various mediums to influence mass populations would obviously be negated but history seems to prove otherwise. There is strong evidence of use of subliminal marketing that I shall elaborate on later in this paper.
This subliminal stimulus greatly affects memory and recall, two very
References: Journal of Marketing , Vol. 46, No. 2 (Spring, 1982), pp. 38-47 Published by: American Marketing Association Journal of Marketing Research , Vol. 7, No. 3 (Aug., 1970), pp. 322-326 Published by: American Marketing Association Byrne, Caoimhe (2000) The effects of subliminal advertising on consumer recall.