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Subliminal Advertising

The marketing strategies of the business world are being established in a way to allure the consumer market. Consumerism has taken its peak in the recent years allowing various organizations to step in with their product or service. There is consistent rise in competition and to have an edge in a particular market, you need to have a stronghold on the communication platform. Your mode of communication determines the rate of influx, of the most important stakeholder that is the customer. The strategy of advertising either below-the-line or above-the-line can help inform the customers about the brand. Advertising is a way of transferring data to every age band or gender making it a suitable manifesto.

Subliminal advertising is technique to improve sales. Subliminal advertising actually convinces a consumer using hidden messages that acts upon the subconscious of the mind. This concept of advertising started in 1950s by a psychologist, James Vicay who flashed some images calling out to the movie watcher, ‘’Hungry? Buy Popcorn!” There was immediate reaction by the viewers and it increased their sales to a 50%. It is considered somewhat deceptive but businesses still have a take on this. The subliminal advertising is deceptive but attractive to the mind of the consumer. Subliminal messages are sometime inaudible to the conscious mind but it delivers a deeper sense of understanding their needs related to that product.

The idea behind subliminal advertising forwards the ability to understand the simpler message and surfacing features rather than going deep into the characteristics of the product or service. This method of persuasion stimulates auto-suggestion and the purpose of hypnosis, inducing relaxation to make the mind incapable of critical response and selection. These subliminal messages can be found in TV programs and movies. They are set in to a frame of constantly appearing pictures creating an illusion of continuous movement. These kind of advertising flashes very quickly so it is difficult for the consumer to properly focus on what is being said. The consumer creates an independent picture in their mind. According to various surveys the subliminal advertising is thought to be counter-productive as it affects the minds to a good extent.

To some professionals the technique of subliminal advertising becomes an ethical concern because this simply means getting on an advertising band wagon that portrays deception and false illusions. For them advertising should be given with the ad at a slow pace so that people get the right idea. Subliminal messages are portrayed in commercial content to attract a big market. The cues presented by business in this kind of advertising seem creative especially for those brands that are famous. It creates an urge to shop for the required product immediately. Most subliminal ads have what the consumer wants to see or what makes them happy. Some are deliberately designed to show that they are too good to be true. There are a lot of well established companies using subliminal advertising in ads and their logos

Types of subliminal advertising include:

  • Sub-visual messages: Visual images that come across the screen in a time frame of a few milliseconds, not allowing people to fully understand the content.
  • Sub-audible messages: There are messages hidden in the loud music that has a low audio track with cues.
  • Back-mashing: It consists of a message that is recorded backwards in hope for the audience to listen it forward to give a new meaning to the disguised clues.

Examples of subliminal messages:

  • KFC used this method in an advertisement of their burger which not only had the name of the snack and its price but it also had a dollar bill as a part of the lettuce inside the bun.
  • Pepsi created an add on Halloween that had a Pepsi can covered by a coca cola superhero cape, it actually wanted the audience to understand that when you go to a shop and instead of Pepsi you get a coke you are quite disappointed.
  • The logo of Amazon has an arrow starting from A and ending on Z in the word, it suggests that Amazon is an everlasting website which is here to stay forever.

Subliminal messages are more influential on people who have wants and are thirsty to get products that appeal their eyes. They don’t control your decision but they strongly guide your opinion on that specific product. They are actually a great help to those people who want to motivate themselves to lose weight, quit smoking, improve any kind of habit or memory. Businesses need this strategy to stay on top of their game and generate sales revenue through increased sales and market share.

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