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 th...