The Effects of Subliminal Advertising

THE EFFECTS OF SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING
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INTRODUCTION
Subliminal advertising is the act of trying to influence the perception of the sub conscious mind to communicate an act to the conscious part of the mind that under normal circumstances could not have happened. This is therefore an act of trying to change the perception of a consumer towards buying a product that was not in his budget but as the marketer does this the consumer does not know. This behavior by the marketers is aimed at boosting their sales by using this hidden technique. They hope that by making the customers buy a product initially, they will develop a liking for the same product later. When they buy the product it will no longer be new to them and another customer out there may see the product being bought and also try to imitate the other. This way an initial product may be liked by many customers due to its outward appearance but inside it may not be of the perceived quality. Majority of the customers are normally attracted to a product because they have heard about it or seen it being advertised.
Many companies will try to cut on the widely acknowledged advertising methods like television, branding and try to wait for their customers in the shops. They use many techniques that the customer cannot notice like specially controlled long loops to make sure they keep the customers longer in the store. This may eventually make some customers buy what they had not planned to.
As Durrly (1999) asserts, this way of advertising normally causes many customers to be involved in impulse buying. Companies also use attractive pictures of celebrities to sell a product because the presence of such a photo will catch the eye of the customer more than if it was the photo of a product only. The use of subliminal advertising has several positive and negative effects both on the side of the customer and the advertiser.
POSITIVE EFFECTS
Subliminal advertising normally boosts the sales volumes of majority of the enterprises that practice it. Greg (2006) says that the marketers know that the subconscious mind is incapable of differentiating fictitious and real information on a product. The subconscious mind which is the target of these false illusions gets them from these adverts and passes them on to the conscious part of the brain. These illusions will stay in the active part of the mind for a very long time and they can be permanent. Every time the customer visits a particular store and sees the product whose illusion is in his mind he will buy it. This will eventually create a demand for the product as many other customers will be trapped the same way.
Subliminal advertising has a strong impact on human behavior. Marketers normally rely on this strong behavior to make their sales. Due to this strong behavior customers cannot even notice or question the quality of the products they are buying because they developed a special liking and attachment to the product. This is usually enhanced through the strategies marketers use like buzz marketing where a marketer will use the word of mouth to fully convince the customer to buy. They also create characters out of some products where a particular celebrity`s photograph appears on the cover of a product. Those who like that celebrity will find themselves buying the product just for fun. They also use exaggerations to describe the product. They will talk of how the product is unrivalled in the market and how its use will yield maximum and immediate results. They also use metaphors to compare the products efficacy with other known brands in history. Customers who may have been aware of the comparative product will develop a perception to buy and may also pull their friends and family towards also buying the product. Therefore through subliminal advertising consumers will blindly develop a liking for a product which under normal circumstances they couldn`t.
Subliminal advertising also makes consumers give preference to a product which ordinarily had no immediate plan for. It makes consumers prime a target product. This is through its ability to instantly change the perceptions of the consumers. Those who had their shopping lists suddenly find themselves giving priority to products which may be were planned for buying during the next visit. This is due to subliminal advertising tending to create a strong emotional appeal of some products over others in the mind of the customer. Pharmaceutical companies sometimes offer kickbacks to doctors who normally advice patients falsely on the high quality and instant effectiveness of one company`s drugs over another. Such a consumer can rarely discredit such advice even though it may be wrong as the processes and composition of the rival product could be the same. These acts tend to influence human behavior in a particular manner and the subconscious part of the mind tends to have a very strong impact on the conscious part.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS
Subliminal advertising creates wrong impressions in the human mind and makes them make irrational decisions. These wrong impressions have a very big effect in the long run. They make people spend their money on unwanted items even before they meet their necessary...