Make believe: Society can see through subliminal marketing

Organisations tend to ignore cultural values in advertising products.

LAHORE: Every business has its values — so does society.

When a society is exposed to hidden messages after a certain organisation looks to promote itself, and finds that it is being ‘conditioned’ to purchase more by compromising values, it reacts.

Customers are a part of society and their reaction affects revenue generation. A ‘word of mouth’, after all, is a double edged sword. Negative feedback turns promoters and passives into detractors, and that is precisely what is happening with most organisations in the country.

Before applying subliminal marketing and Ivan Pavlov’s (stimulus-response) conditioning theory in their commercials, organisations must know that these are neither new to the industry nor to the modern-day customers.

On September 12, 1957, a market researcher named James M. Vicary called a press conference to announce the formation of a new corporation, the Subliminal Projection Company, formed to exploit what Vicary called a major breakthrough in advertising: subliminal stimuli. Vicary described the results of a six-week test conducted in a New Jersey movie theatre, in which a high speed projector was used to flash the slogans “drink coke” and “eat popcorn” over the film for 1/3,000 of a second at five-second intervals. According to Vicary’s storehouse, popcorn sales went up 57.5% over the six weeks; coke sales were up 18.1%.

This was the first time subliminal marketing strategy was reportedly applied, that later became a permanent part of the system. Like many other marketing strategies, organisations are not mindful about the negative impact of subliminal marketing on the society. They are not trying to understand that combination of subliminal marketing and usage of conditioning theory adds fuel to the fire. It earns them bad profits and then turns the customers into detractors.

In the Pakistani market, organisations somehow underestimate the power of Intelligentsia. Subliminal marketing and conditioning theories have not only been used to convert wants into needs but also introduce western culture by compromising local values through commercials, documentaries, films and cartoons. Everyone has contributed to it.

In recent years, organisations have propagated the culture that suits them even if it looks nearer to cultural jamming and far from truly advertising the products.

They are conditioning the society to ridicule competitors, promoting careers abroad, using slangs and making efforts to promote food addiction.

Organisations forget that most people follow their elders religiously. “Folk wisdom” is more in practice than technology. They forgot as to how people, in other words, their loyal customers would respond to the usage of “conditioning theory”. Elders would not get conditioned. They analyse the product and its impact on society.

Subliminal marketing can hurt organisations too. Looking at the bigger picture, customers may decide to quit and stop using the services/products.

While designing commercials, organisations should not forget that marketing techniques they are using should not clash with values the organisations want their employees to exhibit. Employees are internal customers and are directly connected with the external society.

They have to answer customers and keep the brand name alive. They must feel a connection between customers, products, employees and the society.

Moreover, the organisations should try to integrate sales and marketing as the former’s interaction with consumers is higher. They should avoid launching a product that may hurt society’s values and security.

Subliminal marketing is not always unethical but it should not try to generate revenue by compromising on cultural. Industry will forgive these organisations but people, who are the targets of such marketing, will not.

The writer is a Corporate Training Specialist 

Published in The Express Tribune, March  30^th,  2015.

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