Download Swedish consumers say:-" Subliminal marketing is smart marketing!"

Bachelor's Programme in International Marketing, 180 credits
BACHELOR THESIS
Swedish consumers say: -" Subliminal marketing
is smart marketing!"
Vickie Hedgren, Angelica Persson
Dissertation in Marketing, 15 credits
Halmstad 2015-11-01
Preface
This bachelor dissertation was written in the spring of 2015 partly in New Zealand and partly
in Sweden. Starting of we early on decided that we wanted to write about and research the
chosen subject and ended up with this direction.
We want to thank every respondent who answered the survey and the two marketers that we
were fortunate to interview to get a marketer's perspective of the subject. Finally we would
like to thank our supervisor Klaus Solberg Søilen and our examiner Ulf Aagerup for sharing
thoughts about the subject and helping us in the right direction with constructive criticism and
feedback.
We hope you will find this subject and research as interesting and rewarding as we did. We
also hope it will provide you with deeper knowledge regarding ethical acceptance when it
comes to subliminal messages in advertising.
December 2015,
Vickie Hedgren Angelica Persson
…………………………………… ……………………………………
Abstract
Title
Swedish consumers say –
”Subliminal marketing is smart marketing!”
Authors
Vickie Hedgren and Angelica Persson
Adviser
Klaus Solberg Søilen
Level
Dissertation in Marketing, 15 ECTS, Spring 2015
Keywords
Subliminal, Messages, Advertising, Advertisement,
Neuromarketing, Psychology, Subconscious, Primal instincts,
Subliminal techniques, Ethics, Acceptance, Emotional Connection
Purpose
The purpose of this dissertation is to find out what Swedish
consumers think about marketing that is meant to influence their
subconscious in their decision making, with a focus on subliminal
messages, and whether it is ethically acceptable. This will be
carried out by examining the two following research questions: 1.
What marketing methods aimed at building a psychological
connection with the consumer are ethically acceptable and in what
areas of marketing or situations? 2. Is it ethical to use subliminal
marketing for a cause-related brand, a luxury brand or aimed at a
specific income group? We will further examine theories and
studies done over the years as well as carry out our own to come up
with our conclusions.
Frame of Reference
We start of by presenting overall theories regarding subliminal
advertising which leads us to various breakdowns such as
psychology, primal instincts, subliminal techniques, ethics, causerelated marketing, high- and low end consumers.
Methodology The dissertation is based on a combination of quantitative and
qualitative studies. We conducted one survey with 200 respondents
and two interviews with marketers. We bring up the importance of
validity, reliability, generalizability, carefulness and criticism.
Empirical Framework
We will present the collected data from the performed online
survey as well as the information from the two personal
interviews.
Conclusion Swedish consumers have a high level of ethical acceptance when it
comes to marketing that is meant to create a psychological
connection. The conclusions made are that 1. Out of the 14
methods we chose to include in our dissertation, 12 of them had a
high level of ethical acceptance; subliminal messages in fashion
advertising and in an active situation is ethical 2. It is more
unethical if a good-cause company uses subliminal marketing than
if a luxury brand uses it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1INTRODUCTION
1
1.1BACKGROUND
1.2PROBLEMDISCUSSION
1.3RESEARCHQUESTIONS
1.4PURPOSE
1.5LIMITATIONSANDDEFINITIONS
1.6DISPOSITION
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2.FRAMEOFREFERENCE
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2.1ADVERTISING
2.1.1SUBLIMINALADVERTISING
2.1.1.1BROUGHTUPNAMES
2.1.1.2CAUGHTANDBROUGHTUPBRANDS
2.2SUBLIMINALTECHNIQUES
2.3SUBLIMINALMESSAGESANDPSYCHOLOGY
2.4SUBLIMINALMESSAGESANDETHICS
2.4.1LUXURYVSNECESSARYPRODUCTS
2.4.2INCOMELEVEL
2.4.3CAUSE-RELATEDMARKETING
2.4.4PASSIVEVSACTIVECONSUMER
3.1APPROACH
3.2CHOICEOFMETHOD
3.3DATAGATHERINGMETHOD
3.3.1PRIMARYDATA
3.3.2SECONDARYDATA
3.4VALIDITY,RELIABILITY,GENERALIZABILITYANDCAREFULNESS
3.5CRITICISMOFSOURCES
3.5.1PRIMARYDATA
3.5.2SECONDARYDATA
3.6CRITICISMOFMETHODOLOGY
3.7IMPLICATIONS
4.EMPIRICALFRAMEWORK
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4.1QUANTITATIVERESEARCH
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4.1.1AGE
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4.1.2GENDER       
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4.1.3WHICHMETHODSWOULDYOUCONSIDERTOBEREGULARMARKETING”TRICKS”?
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4.1.4WHICHMARKETINGMETHODSWOULDYOUTHINKISACCEPTABLETOUSETOSTRENGTHENACOMPANY’S
VALUE?
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4.1.5IMAGINETHATABRANDWASOUTEDTOHAVEUSEDSUBLIMINALMARKETING,HOWWOULDYOUREACT
ANDCONTINUEYOURRELATIONSHIPWITHTHISBRAND?
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4.1.6DOYOUTHINKTHATTHEFOLLOWINGSCENARIOSAREETHICAL?
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4.1.7DOYOUTHINKITISMOREACCEPTABLETOUSESUBLIMINALMESSAGESINADVERTISEMENTAIMEDAT
EITHERONEOFTHESEPRODUCTCATEGORIES?
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4.1.8DOYOUTHINKITISMOREACCEPTABLETOUSESUBLIMINALMESSAGESINADVERTISEMENTAIMEDAT
EITHERONEOFTHESEINCOMELEVELS?
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4.1.9DOYOUTHINKITISMOREACCEPTABLETOUSESUBLIMINALMARKETINGTOHELPAGOODCAUSE?
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4.1.10ISITMOREUNETHICALTOUSESUBLIMINALMESSAGESORPSYCHOLOGICALMETHODSINANYOFTHE
FOLLOWINGEXAMPLES?
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4.1.11WOULDITMATTERIFTHESUBLIMINALMESSAGEISMEANTTOCREATEAPOSITIVEORNEGATIVE
OUTCOME?
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4.1.12DOYOUTHINKITISACCEPTABLETOSUBJECTACONSUMERTOSUBLIMINALSINANYOFTHESE
SITUATIONS?
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4.1.13IFSUBLIMINALMESSAGESAREUSED,INWHICHAREAORAREASDOYOUBELIEVEITTOBEUNETHICAL?
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4.2QUALITATIVERESEARCH
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4.2.1CHIEFMARKETINGOFFICEROFANINTERNATIONALCOMPANY
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4.2.2CONTENTANDPRMANAGEROFANINTERNATIONALCOMPANY
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5.ANALYSIS
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5.1WHATMARKETINGMETHODSAIMEDATBUILDINGAPSYCHOLOGICALCONNECTIONWITHTHE
CONSUMERAREETHICALLYACCEPTABLEANDINWHATAREASOFMARKETINGORSITUATIONS?
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5.1.1COMMONAND/ORACCEPTABLEMETHODS
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5.1.2SUBLIMINALMARKETINGINDIFFERENTAREAS
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5.1.3THINLINEBETWEENETHICALANDUNETHICALWAYSTOAPPEALTOTHEPSYCHOLOGICAL
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5.1.4PASSIVEORACTIVESITUATIONS
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5.2ISITETHICALTOUSESUBLIMINALMARKETINGFORACAUSE-RELATEDBRAND,ALUXURYBRANDOR
AIMEDATASPECIFICINCOMEGROUP?
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5.2.1CHANGEINBEHAVIORREGARDINGSUBLIMINALMESSAGES
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5.2.2ACCEPTANCELEVELFORHIGH-ORLOWENDPRODUCTS
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6.CONCLUSION
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6.1CONCLUSIONSANDREFLECTIONS
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6.1.1WHATMARKETINGMETHODSAIMEDATBUILDINGAPSYCHOLOGICALCONNECTIONWITHTHECONSUMER
AREETHICALLYACCEPTABLEANDINWHATAREASOFMARKETINGORSITUATIONS?
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6.1.2ISITETHICALTOUSESUBLIMINALMARKETINGFORACAUSE-RELATEDBRAND,ALUXURYBRANDOR
AIMEDATASPECIFICINCOMEGROUP?
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6.2FURTHERRESEARCHSUGGESTION
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7.REFERENCES
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8.APPENDIX
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8.1QUESTIONNAIRELAYOUTSURVEY
8.2QUESTIONNAIRELAYOUTINTERVIEW
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LISTOFFIGURES
FIGURE 1. Disposition
FIGURE 2. Elements in the Communications Process
FIGURE 3. The Iceberg of Decision Drivers FIGURE 4. Freud's model of personality structure
FIGURE 5. Unethical vs ethical types of marketing according to theories
FIGURE 6. Unethical vs ethical types of marketing according to survey respondents
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LISTOFEMPIRICALCHARTS
CHART 1. Respondents’ age
CHART 2. Respondents’ gender
CHART 3. Respondents’ answers regarding which methods are considered regular marketing
CHART 4. Respondents’ answers regarding which methods are acceptable to use
CHART 5. Respondents’ answers regarding change of behavior because of subliminal messages
CHART 6. Respondents’ answers regarding the ethical standpoint in various situations
CHART 7. Respondents’ answers regarding luxury and necessary products
CHART 8. Respondents’ answers regarding subliminals and income level
CHART 9. Respondents’ answers regarding subliminals to help a good cause
CHART 11. Respondents’ answers regarding subliminals with positive or negative meaning
CHART 10. Respondents’ answers regarding products containing subliminals
CHART 12. Respondents’ answers regarding subliminals in various situations
CHART 13. Respondents’ answers regarding ethics in various areas
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1 Introduction
In the introduction chapter we will present background to our subject, followed by the
problem discussion and present our two research questions. After that we will explain the
purpose, limitations, definitions, criticism of methodology and finally the chapter is concluded
with a brief model of the structure of this dissertation.
1.1 Background
The word subliminal has been talked about and used in different ways over the past years and
goes far back, further than the electronic innovations needed to reach people with subliminal
messages today. According to Dr. Jay Kennedy, who recently discovered that Plato hid
musical patterns in his books, it goes beyond 400 B.C. when Plato lived (BBC News Plato,
2010). It has also been said that scientists in Greece used it as an influencer to control people.
Pickholz and Pickholz (2001) state that “manipulation is as old as mankind itself” and give
examples of different ways that military, national banks, politicians, the legal system and the
market tries (and often succeed) to manipulate, or with another word, control the masses
(Pickholz & Pickholz, 2001). According to Bell (2011) Wilson Bryan Key, a writer and
believer of subliminal usage, says that one of the first pictures to ever contain embedded
words was in 1916 when Norman Rockwell created the cover of Saturday Evening Post where
there is a boy pushing a carriage and in his face, the reader can find the word “sex” embedded
(Bell, 2011).
According to Lakhani (2008) almost every message contains a subliminal message that
persuades us in some direction. It can simply be the weatherman telling us that it is going to
be warm outside tomorrow, and because of this statement we decide not to wear a jacket. Or
when everyone is donating money for a good cause and you were planning on giving $10 but
everyone around you is pulling up $20, so you pull up a second $10 bill. Lakhani (2008)
continues explaining that the majority of actions you take are because of something you
weren’t consciously aware of that primed you to take that action. He writes “subliminal can
mean ‘invisible’ or ‘covert’ but it can also mean what it means… stimuli that you aren’t
aware of” (Lakhani, 2008, p. x). When influencing someone’s short-term behavior one can
contribute in changing the person’s long-term behavior, and everyday consumers make
decisions based on unconscious beliefs (Lakhani, 2008). When it comes to subliminal
messages, one can compare it to goals and as Bargh (2002) states ”Goals can be activated, and
then operate, all outside awareness. If they are operating non-consciously, the person will not
be aware of their influence on his evaluations and behavior” (Bargh, 2002, p. 282).
Subliminal messages within advertising as we know it today has been up and coming since
1957 when the market researcher James Vicary introduced it to the public through an
experiment which he claimed to be a new way for marketers to influence the consumer.
Several years later Vicary revealed that the experiment was just a phony, but the concept of
subliminal advertising was introduced and a lot of companies have been suspected to start and
continue using it throughout the years that followed (Greenwald & Pratkanis, 1988). The
point of subliminal advertising is to affect people to buy the products without the consumer
being aware that they are being affected, and this is done through the technique of subliminal
messages. Many marketers (and art directors of other areas) who are accused but deny using
the technique blame it on that people are making shapes out of natural objects, such as the
lines of an ice cube or the grass. This is a factor that in scientific terms is called “pareidolia”.
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After Vicary’s claimed experiment, there was a lot of writing and talking about subliminal use
within marketing and people were afraid of the mind-control that it could implicate.
Subliminal perception and advertising quickly became reporters and newscasters’ favorite
subject to talk and write about. A short while after all the fuzz, organizations took form and
eventually rules were made to ban subliminal messages. In some countries it was completely
banned and looked upon as illegal (Kiran & Kishore, 2013). Even the Central Intelligence
Agency were interested in the possible influence that subliminal advertising may have and
wrote in a document that got released in 1994 that “it has been demonstrated, certain
individuals can at certain times and under certain circumstances be influenced to act
abnormally without awareness of the influence” (CIA). Because there are suspicions that
marketers still use it organizations make laws against the use of subliminal advertising still
today (Kiran & Kishore, 2013).
A current example of suspected subliminal advertising that blew up in media was when
McDonalds logo popped up during an episode of Iron Chef (Nudd, 2007). The production
claimed it to be a mistake, but it still got a lot of attention from around the world. However,
not all subliminal messages are perceived as bad, for example logotypes such as FedEx,
Amazon and Tour de France contain small details that empower the meaning of the company.
In the FedEx logo, the space between the E and the X create an arrow that stands for the
shipping from one place to another. In the Amazon logo, there is an arrow from A to Z, which
stands for the variety in their products and in the Tour de France logo, there is a person riding
a bike, which also is what Tour de France is all about (Nudd, 2014). These types of subliminal
messages are innocent and harmless, and more of the fun kind. But when it comes to alleged
subliminal messages within military’s or terrorist’s logos or videos that are there to trigger
fear or in politics to persuade voters, it is more questionable whether it is ethically right.
1.2 Problem Discussion
When researching the subject subliminal advertising, it quickly becomes clear from several
articles and authors that there is lack of research efforts when it comes to the unconscious
processing of information and not only when it comes to marketing, also other subjects
(Bargh, 2002). One of the biggest limitations in this area is that it is very secretive from the
business side, not a lot of people will openly discuss the usage of subliminal messages in
advertising. Another limitation is that since these messages are meant to appeal to the
subconscious mind and the receiver therefore is not supposed to be aware of what he or she is
subjected to, it is hard to measure the effect and response amongst the consumers. However,
studies have been done with the help of ECG and MRI’s that show how different aspects, for
example brain activity, changes in the human body when subjected to subliminal messages.
There is a lack of previous research papers written on specifically the subject whether
subliminal messages within marketing are ethically correct or if it is simply looked upon as
wrong. Previous work focuses solidly on whether the art in movies, advertisements and so on
have been inserted on purpose as subliminal messages but do not explore the area of ethics,
and this is where we found a gap in the research.
Subliminals as a subject is a very difficult field since one half of the marketing world is
saying it does exist and the other half is denying it. There have been several experiments that
have shown varied results and goes as far back as 1884 when Pierce and Jastrow did a study
of subliminal perception. They handed people two objects with slightly different weight, so
small of a difference that it could not consciously be perceived, but when asked the
participants chose the right object (based on weight) in more than 60% of the cases. The
suggestion that humans are driven by their subconscious and that this can be manipulated is a
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topic that is frightening to a lot of people, which could be why a lot of marketers do not want
to admit this type of “mind-control” (Uleman, et al., 2005 p. 77-78). An area that has a reason
to be so secretive can be hard to research if the starting point is not right.
1.3 Research Questions
1. What marketing methods aimed at building a psychological connection with the consumer
are ethically acceptable and in what areas of marketing or situations?
2. Is it ethical to use subliminal marketing for a cause-related brand, a luxury brand or aimed
at a specific income group?
1.4 Purpose
We are going to take a closer look at ethics regarding marketing that creates a psychological
bond with the consumer to influence their buying decisions with a focus on subliminal
messages. It is an interesting subject since it is all very secretive at the same time as there has
been a lot of debate about it. Within the subject of subliminal advertising there is a lot of fear
about mind-control; is it even possible to control consumers? We are going to examine
different experiments and studies done over the past years, as well as carry out our own, to
come up with a conclusion on whether subliminal marketing is ever ethically acceptable or if
it is simply ethically wrong within all marketing categories.
1.5 Limitations and Definitions
There are several suggested ways to use subliminal messages in advertising, some popular
examples are words or drawings embedded in pictures, video pop-ups, and an overplay or
voice-over on a soundtrack with a message for example “do not steal” played in a store.
Besides the limitations that we mentioned previously, we have also chosen to limit our
quantitative questionnaire to online respondents as this will be our best chance to reach as
widely in the matter of number of respondents as possible. For our qualitative interviews on
the other hand, we have chosen to execute them in person to be able to ask follow-up
questions if needed to get deeper and to get more elaborate answers. We have not chosen to
do any limitations based on age in either survey or interviews, but rather in our interviews we
limited our respondents based on their knowledge of the marketing world. Therefore, we have
limited it to two persons who are surrounded by and work within the marketing world.
There are a few terms that we want to define for greater clarity throughout this dissertation,
the definitions we have decided to use are:
Subliminal Advertising; a term coined by Vicary (Albanese, 2015), “is a technique of
exposing consumers to product pictures, brand names, or other marketing stimuli without the
consumers having conscious awareness. Once exposed to a subliminal marketing stimulus,
the consumer is believed to decode the information and act upon it without being able to
acknowledge a communication source” (Trappey, 1996).
Messages; “the conveyance of information about the underlying theme, vision, or idea from
the transmitter to the receiver. Messages can be conveyed through all types of media in
different ways. Lead and supporting messages support a brand positioning of a company”
(Doyle, 2011).
Ethics; A systematic attempt to understand our individual and social moral experience, in
such a way to define the rules that should govern human behavior (...) and the characteristics
that deserve development in life "(De George, 2005 p. 19).
In this dissertation we refer to embeds, pop-ups, and voice-overs as subliminal marketing
techniques and Neuromarketing as a technique to create effective subliminal messages.
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1.6 Disposition
Figure 1. Disposition
Introduction: In this first chapter we will present the background to our subject, discuss the
problem, present our two questions and finally bring up purpose, limitations and definitions.
Frame of Reference: Here we will present the relevant theories that are of great importance
for this dissertation. We will start wide and later on narrow it down to different parts of the
subject.
Methodology: The choices of our methodology are brought out, discussed and criticized in
this chapter.
Empirical Framework: We will present our empirical data collected through an online
survey as well as two personal interviews.
Analysis: This chapter consists of an analysis of our empirical study in relation to the chosen
theories.
Conclusion: In the last chapter we will present our conclusions regarding the dissertation and
give suggestions towards future research within the same area.
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2. Frame of Reference
In the chapter Frame of Reference the theories that are relevant for this thesis are presented.
We will start with advertising overall, present different appeals and then narrow it down to
different parts of subliminal subjects, techniques and conclude with the ethical views of the
subject.
2.1 Advertising
Advertising is defined as “influencing buying decisions — in which case advertising works
on the practicalities of moving buyers to make favorable buying decisions for the product or
service that is being advertised. This type of advertising is usually characterized by practical
information copy rather than advanced concepts”... “Advertising is among the most visible,
most expensive and most controversial of the elements and techniques of marketing
communications” (Doyle, 2011). To take this to a deeper level American Marketing
Association (AMA) defines deceptive advertising as “an advertising that intends to mislead
consumers by falsely making claims, by failure to make full disclosure, or by a combination
of both” (AMA, 1999). One could claim that subliminal advertising both is and is not
included in this type of advertising. In the book ’Principles of Marketing’, the authors Kotler,
Wong, Saunders and Armstrong (2008) describe different types of marketing, for example;
advertising, direct marketing, events, neuromarketing, PR, word-of-mouth marketing, online
marketing, event marketing, social media marketing, etcetera (Kotler, et al., 2008). These are
common types that most companies use. Another common form of marketing on a
psychological level is product placements, which are often used in films and are not seen as a
taboo form of practicing within this subject. It is when brands are being placed in scenes
scripts. It is also known as entrainment marketing since it can be found in TV-series, radio
programs, computer games, books, songs and plays (Hackley, Tiwsakul & Preuss, 2008). In
most of these examples it is used to make the made-up life seem real and as close to reality as
possible.
There are a lot of reasons why marketers are struggling to reach consumers with their
messages; the fact that people have a tendency to screen out the most important information
for oneself in that period of time is one. According to Kotler, et al. (2008) ”People are
exposed to an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 ad messages every day” (Kotler, et al., 2008 p. 258)
and that people can perceive these ads or really any situation differently because of the fact
that everyone ”receives, organizes and interprets information in an individual way” (Kotler, et
al., 2008 p. 258) is another difficulty for marketers. If the marketers successfully reach the
consumers, the problem of selective retention is next: people tend to remember parts of
information that support their own attitudes and beliefs. While the marketers struggle to even
get the message to reach consumers, there are consumers who are afraid of being affected of
messages, unconsciously: through subliminal messages (Kotler, et al., 2008).
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Figure 2. Elements in the Communications Process. Kotler and Keller (2012) pp. 502
2.1.1 Subliminal advertising
The definition of subliminal according to Oxford Dictionary is ”below the threshold of
sensation or consciousness; perceived by or affecting someone’s mind without their being
aware of it” (Oxford Dictionaries). Another definition is “stimuli that are presented in such a
way that they can not reach conscious awareness, even if attention is directed to them”
(Uleman, et al., 2005 p. 77-78). In this research paper we are using a mix-up of these two
definitions and in other words, subliminal messages are the ones who cannot be discovered
with the conscious mind, only with the subconscious. Uleman, et al. (2005) also states that
“stimuli may not enter the conscious mind because of two reasons, 1) it is presented very
briefly 2) attention is not focused on it” (Uleman, et al., 2005 p. 81). It works in the way that
when the consumer has been exposed to it, they decode the provided information within the
message and then, hopefully, act the way the company wants them to without the consumer
really knowing why they are doing what they are or feeling the way they do towards a certain
brand (Trappey, 1996).
Ewen Stuart, professor and chair of the Department of Film and Media Studios at Hunter
College in New York, means that subliminals in advertising (such as the public is afraid of)
and regular advertising both have the same goal; to create an invisible bond between the
consumer and brand. He is cited saying, “Advertising itself is about creating associations
between a product and a realm of desire. The standard definition of subliminal advertising
limits it to conspiratorial visions of images secretly being embedded in advertising images
and ignores the fact that advertising by definition, since the 1920s, moved away from talking
about products themselves to the power of suggestion. In that sense, subliminal advertising is
everywhere" (Parpis, 2003). Kotler, et al. (2008) brings up that ”Numerous studies by
psychologists and consumer researchers have found little or no link between subliminal
messages and consumer behavior. It appears that subliminal advertising simply doesn’t have
the power attributed to it by its critics” (Kotler, et al., 2008 p. 259). They also write ”Most
advertisers scoff at the notion of an industry conspiracy to manipulate consumers through
’invisible’ messages. Says one industry insider: ’[Some consumers believe we are] wizards
who can manipulate them at will. Ha! Snort! Oh my sides! As we know, just between us, most
of [us] have difficulty getting a 2 per cent increase in sales with the help of €50 million in
media and extremely liminal images of sex, money, power and other [motivators] of human
emotion. The very idea of [us] as puppeteers, cruelly pulling the strings of consumer
marionettes, is almost too much to bear” (Kotler, et al., 2008 p. 295). When it comes to
subliminal advertising and its effectiveness; empirical evidence from different researchers is
varied but almost always generates weak or insignificant results (Shimp & Smarandescu,
2014).
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2.1.1.1 Brought up names
The man who kindled the public and media’s interest for subliminals in advertising was James
Vicary. In 1957 Vicary allegedly carried out an experiment in a New Jersey theater while
screening the movie Picnic. Vicary claimed that he put the words “Drink Coca-Cola” and
“Eat Popcorn” as flashes several times during the movie for such a short amount of time that
the conscious mind did not notice, but the subconscious mind did. This experiment
supposedly went on for 6 months until Vicary held a press conference to the media and public
(Acland, 2012). According to him the result of this new type of advertising was a sales
increase in the theater with 18,1% for Coke and 57,7% for popcorn, however as mentioned,
this turned out to merely have been an attempt from Vicary to promote his marketing agency
and the experiment and numbers were never actually real (Greenwald & Pratkanis, 1988;
Kotler, et al., 2008; Warrick, 2011; Acland, 2012).
Edward Bernays, known as being Freud’s nephew but more importantly one of the father’s of
PR, is the author of several books on the topic including his most famous one “Propaganda”.
Bernays once said “The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of
propaganda in the world today. It is a great distributor for ideas and opinions. The motion
pictures can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation”. He is also cited saying “The
conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized opinions of the masses is an
important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of
society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of the country”
(Bell, 2011).
Another man who made a huge impact on worldwide marketing is Ernest Dichter, people
even say that he changed the ways of how American businesses does business. Dichter
believed that psychology would help American business after WW2 and used among others
Freud’s beliefs to get the business rolling again after the production was higher than the
consumption. He taught marketers that by exploiting subconscious drive, like fear and sex,
and emotions it was easier to get consumers to buy than by only telling them information
about the product. Many of the best long-term lasting brands worldwide and their advertising
campaigns is made out of a psychoanalytic model regarding consumer behavior endorsed by,
among others, Ernest Dichter (Cluley & Desmond, 2015).
Wilson Bryan Key has written many books about subliminals in advertising and is a firm
believer in its usage. His name is, as well as the above are, mentioned frequently in the area of
subliminal advertisement. One of his most famous books is “Subliminal Seduction” which is
written from his own perspective and was not at the time based on scientific facts, however
today his books are often used as reference in the scientific field. Many of his theories are
today accepted as truth, based on both studies and experiments (Warrick, 2011). Key focuses
most of his research on embeds such as pictures or words airbrushed or somehow purposely
inserted in the ad. He argues that innocent symbols will have one meaning for the conscious
mind but a whole other for the unconscious mind when mixed together with other words and
pictures in the ad (Kiran & Kishore, 2013). In his book Subliminal Seduction Key writes
“‘SEX’ is the most frequently embedded word in the American advertising industry.
Multidimensional printing techniques permit advertising artists to plant taboo words dozens
of times in a single layout” (Bell, 2011).
2.1.1.2 Caught and brought up brands
Several brands and ad agencies have acknowledged that they have used subliminals for ads in
a playful way. One example is the whiskey brand Chivas Regal who in 2003 ran an ad
campaign on the back of the magazine Sports Illustrated. Their ad agency, Brand Architecture
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International, saw this as an opportunity to make use of being in a magazine full of models in
bikinis by playing around with subliminals. They therefore created an ad with the message
“Some see a naked women in the ice-cubes. Others simply see the need for more Chiva”. This
way they tempt the target audience, men, to look closer at the ad, and they were not just
messing around. In the top ice cube they had placed the naked woman. James Gallo, who at
the time was the business director at the ad agency explained it by stating “We wanted to do
something cool and unique, and we did not want it to get in the way of the product”. Other
examples of companies applying subliminals in ad campaigns in a more playful manner is
Absolut Vodka’s 1994 advertising named “Absolut Subliminal” where they put the words
“Absolut Vodka” in the ice-cubes, as well as the early 1990’s ad for Seagram’s Gin by Ogilvy
& Mather which was about finding hidden messages in, once again, the ice-cubes (Parpis,
2003).
With subliminal advertising being a clear ethical issue, those who use it or know of it being
used do not have any apparent reason to confess to it. The leaders in the industry are
frequently denying subliminal messages being a technique that is used, John O’Toole for
O’Toole says ”there is no such thing as subliminal advertising. I have never seen an example
of it, nor have I ever heard it seriously discussed as a technique by advertising people”
(Phillips, 1997 p. 22) and David Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mather says “no advertiser has ever used
it” (Phillips, 1997 p. 22). On the other hand devoted researches of the subject such as Key
claims that advertisers’ spend a lot of their money on researching the matter and implicating
subliminal stimuli, in his book Subliminal Seduction he writes, ”Most national advertising
includes embedding. Retail or local ad layouts may not have the facilities, as their artists or
writers either do not know about subliminal techniques or they lack the skill and
craftsmanship required to do the work well. Every major advertising agency has at least one
embedding technician in its art department. The technique is taught in most commercial art
schools” (Bell, 2011). Ernest Dichter agrees with Key and writes in one of his books called
“Motivating Human Behavior” that "They (subliminal messages) are not as ineffective as
others pretend" (Bell, 2011). In a study done on lower-level ad industry employees of
advertising and media personnel the answers collected revealed that 66% of the people asked
believed that subliminal messages or imagery is a technique that is being used in advertising
and 50% also believed that these methods work. The thought that subliminal usage would
work is not very hard to support when looking in other directions. In a study sent to 100
randomly selected art directors employed at various advertising agencies the return of usable
responses was 47. 4% and of these 2 people admitted to have used embeds of subliminal
words or imagery in artwork they had produced for a client, another 2 admitted that they had
witnessed the same thing, and 6%, 3 people, answered they had personal knowledge of others
that had used embeds in advertising. During another study, 750 people from advertising
agencies, their clients, the media and media production companies were approached and 256
of these people responded. Out of these, 9.4%, 24 people, answered that either “their present
employer, a past employer, or both had used subliminal advertising” (Phillips, 1997 p. 23).
Instances where subliminal techniques have been used are in horror movies where embedded
words and imagery has been placed, subliminal statements in rock songs, self-help tapes using
subliminal audio as well as anti-theft messages in audio used by retailers, in stressmanagement seminars, subliminal write-in campaigns by radio stations, and public service
messages on TV has been confirmed using subliminals. There has also been instances of
when several people have perceived subliminal messages in commercials, for example during
the Christmas season of 1973 a nationwide commercial for a children’s game got several
complaints at the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission
8
that there was a subliminal command to “get it”. Additional to this, three academic
advertising researchers report that they have discovered sexual embeds in ads for Marlboro
Light cigarettes and Chivas Regal Whiskey, both brands being repeatedly brought up in this
matter. These incidents are far from the only reported ones and because of subliminals being a
touchy subject with a lot of ethical matters the known incidents are most likely only the tip of
the iceberg (Phillips, 1997). An example of a universal and very famous company that have
been noticed and mentioned within subliminal messages in a very provocative way is The
Walt Disney Company. In several movies made by Disney, there are allegedly subliminal
messages appearing in the background, and these occur from the earliest of Disney movies to
the latest. Most of the messages are of the sexual kind that becomes an enlarged issue since
Disney’s focus is on producing animated movies for children. This is a problem that has been
recognized by concerned parents and has caused the company to be sued and further been the
reason for changes in their products. For example, when searching the web, many clips show
up on YouTube. There are several examples from world-known movies such as The Lion
King, Bernard & Bianca and The Little Mermaid, among others (Warrick, 2011).
According to Albanese (2015) the embedded word that shows most significant results when it
comes to brand name recall is the word ‘sex’ (Albanese, 2015). With this knowledge it comes
as no surprise that the most common used instinct within advertising over all, not only for
subliminal use, is sex. Reichert, Heckler, & Jackson (2001) defines sexual appeals as
messages that are associated with sexual information that can come in different forms, such as
images and/or verbal elements. This has been shown to elicit emotional responses to its
receivers that can be, more or less, predictable (Reichert, et al., 2001). According to Wan, Luk
& Chow (2012) international brands like Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch uses sex
appeal to promote their products (Wan, et al., 2012). Blair, et al. (2006) empowers this with
“Abercrombie and Fitch uses male models as sex objects in almost every ad” and continues
stating that Abercrombie and Fitch are ”even known for targeting the homosexual market”.
They also write that the overall primary focus in sexual advertising is women and that it is
becoming more and more acceptable in today's society but that the use of men probably will
be used, at least almost, just as much in the near future (Blair, et al., 2006). Another example
of a “sexappealed” ad is one for Marlboro Light; it shows two guys on horsebacks, riding
with big rocks in the background and one of the rocks had supposedly been made to look like
a fallos. A group of scientists made an experiment in the 1980’s where they hired an artist and
changed the picture by taking the fallos out. They later showed the two pictures to different
respondents and measured their unconscious reactions with galvanic skin response (minute
fluctuations in the amount of sweat on your skin related to your state of anxiety) and the result
was that the picture with the fallos still in it got a greater effect than the changed one did
(Warrick, 2007). That result is strengthened with Reichert, et al. (2001) saying “ads with
sexual appeals produced more positive thoughts about the execution of the ad than did the
nonsexual appeals” (Reichert, et al., 2001, p. 22). One could say that sex is a universal
language, even though it is important to realize that actual sex does not sell; it is the sexiness
that does (Cebrzynski, 2000).
Appealing to consumers’ sense of fear and security is another way to, in some opinions,
control the public. According to Albanese (2015), the reason for it to work is “intensification
of conscious attention on the print advertisement for the brand as a result of the unconscious
repression to keep the anxiety-arousing thoughts from becoming conscious” (Albanese, 2015,
p. 67). It is allegedly more vastly used in campaigns such as for war and politics to ensure that
governments can lead the public onto the road they want to go. If a citizen is afraid that they
or their country is in danger they are more willing to for example go to war (Bell, 2011). A
9
modern example of trying to use the strategy of fear and negative association in politics was
during the election between George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000, when during a TVcampaign promoting republicans flashed the word “RATS” when degrading the democrats
medical plan (Stewart, 2008). Examples used as proof of subliminal advertisements existence
are leaked documents of two famous brands that today are used in ad training. The documents
show that the ads, most important the picture itself in the ad, is not as innocent as one might
think through a detailed description that reads for several pages. Every single detail is
carefully prepared and placed in position in accordance with a pre-drawn picture of what the
ad is desired to look like. The two campaigns are The Kent Cigarettes ”Good Time” campaign
(1965-1971) and Hiram Walker Whiskeys ”Imp” campaign (started in 1975). These
documents make it hard for the brands to deny having purposely used subliminal messages in
advertising (Bell, 2011).
The Good Time campaign for Kent’s cigarettes intends to appeal to emotions of fear to sell
their product. The pre-hand-drawn pictures and description of the ads for the campaign clearly
show embedded words and pictures in the hood of the car in one ad that are there to strike fear
in the consumer. The silhouettes of the male and female in the ad are purposely made pointy
and sharp to resemble horns and draw a connection to the devil. In another one of the ads the
couple are holding hands and this time as well their fingers are pointed to resemble the devil's
horns. The sky in the background is selected to be a dull, greyish color instead of a romantic
look to add to the lure of darkness. Even though it is a summer night the male is dressed in a
warm sweater and jeans to give a cold impression. In several of the ads either the females or
the males cigarette is placed in a position to look like it is stabbing the other one or just about
to. This technique was part of a “Hell-Sell” technique with the explanation that “Religious
beliefs and feelings about death stir deeper emotions than the frequently used sexual
strategies” (Bell, 2011). Another alleged commonly used image in ice-cubes is skulls. Bell
(2011) explains that the conscious mind and the subconscious mind interpret this image in
different ways; while the conscious might find it frightening and as a warning, it is appealing
to the subconscious mind due to the human's primal instincts. It has been proven to race
people’s hearts and to get their palms sweaty. There are several examples of brands that are
accused of using skulls and/or scary faces in advertising when searching, but one brand in
particular that reappear is Peter Heering (Bell, 2011). In The Handbook of Consumer
Motivations the author Ernest Dichter explains why the technique of using fear as a
subliminal will work in one's favor “We attempt to escape fear-producing stimuli, by
producing fear we can alter people's behavior. When caught in fear, we regress step by step to
ever more infantile and animalistic drives” (Bell, 2011).
10
Figure 3. The Iceberg of Decision Drivers (Mediasauce, 2015).
2.2 Subliminal Techniques
According to Phillips (1997) subliminal advertising can be categorized into three forms. The
first form is the one Vicary claimed to use in his famous “drink Coca-Cola and eat popcorn”experiment. This is when a visual stimulus is being subjected to the consumer or onlooker
during a brief duration: pop-ups and the most frequently used media for this would be the TV.
This brief duration would last for only milliseconds. The second form in which subliminal
messages take place is through "accelerated, high-frequency, or low-volume speech”: voiceover (Phillips, 1997 p. 22). The most commonly used media for this form is the radio and an
example is when retailers play an anti-theft message. The third and final form subliminal
messages take form according to Phillips (1997) is the way that is explained and researched in
the books of Wilson Bryan Key, the embedding of words or imagery in printed advertising.
These usually focus on sexual content and the media most commonly used for this type is in a
magazine (Phillips, 1997). In Keys book Subliminal Seduction he writes the following
”Embedding refers generally to the practice of hiding emotionally loaded words or pictures
into the background of ads. Embedded words and picture illusions are part of most advertising
throughout North America today. These subliminal stimuli, though invisible to conscious
perception, are perceived instantly at the unconscious level” (Bell, 2011). Rosen & Singh
(1992) explain further that presented information can reach different levels of the consumer’s
awareness. Subliminal messages would be presented at a level where the consumer has no
conscious awareness (for example by the flashing on a screen) and it is impossible for the
consumer to notice these. However, embeds are placed into another category even though
they as well are in the no-awareness category. They are special because they can be perceived
if the person is aware of what they are looking at. Embeds are in other words not presented
below the threshold of perception, but they are planted in a way that the observer's conscious
11
picks up on the subliminal as part of a shadow or structure that is supposed to be in the
picture. It is explained as “other background information is clearly discernable to any
attentive viewer, and embeds are deliberately hidden such that they can be spotted only when
pointed out” (Rosen & Singh, 1992, p. 159).
Another form of subliminal marketing is neuromarketing. According to Baruca, Flores and
Saldivar (2014) is a ”technology based and nascent field of marketing research aimed at
observing consumers' reaction to stimuli” (Baruca, et al., 2014 p. 77). It is not a new
phenomenon when someone scans a brain to see how different parts of the brain respond to
different stimuli, this has been used for several years in the fields of neuroscience (Barkin,
2013) but using it for marketing research is new and allows researchers to observe how the
subconscious part of the brain react to different stimuli. This method includes Galvanic Skin
Response, fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), EEG (Electroencephalography),
Eye Tracking and SST (Steady State Topography) (Baruca, et al., 2014). The typical duration
of subliminal stimuli is 1 millisecond (ms) when it comes to neuroscience research and
cognitive psychology. This is to be repeated five times, which requires a t-scope
(tachistoscope). If one was to compare this to the blink of an eye, this takes about 100-400 ms
(Albanese, 2015). Sullivan (2009) mentions that in the U.S. among the top 100 brands there
are 13 brands that are using it for strategy development (Sullivan 2009) and Baruca, et al.
(2014) names companies that are using neuromarketing; Microsoft, Yahoo and Hyundai
(Baruca, et al., 2014). It is also known that Coca Cola uses it for their quantitative ad
performance projects (Dooley, 2013). There are a lot of discussions about the ethical point of
views regarding neuromarketing, for example that it will allow companies to manipulate
consumers through marketing activities (McDowell and Dick, 2013). Although Kenning
(2008) argues that it does not mean that one can read consumers’ minds and that there is no
such thing as a “buy button” in our brains (Kenning, 2008). Either way consumers feel that
there is a possibility for companies to manipulate and this might make them feel negative
towards the companies that are using neuromarketing. These reactions are compared to those
of subliminal advertising after Vicary’s experiment in the 1950’s (Baruca, et al., 2014).
Dichter (1960) states in his book “Whatever your attitude toward modern psychology or
psychoanalysis, it has been proved beyond any doubt that many of our daily decisions are
governed by motivations over which we have no control and which we are often quite
unaware” (Dichter, 1960, p. 14).
2.3 Subliminal Messages and Psychology
Psychology is defined as “the study of the mind and behavior. The discipline embraces all
aspects of the human experience — from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations,
from child development to care for the aged. (...) ‘the understanding of behavior’ is the
enterprise of psychologists” (APA). The subconscious mind is explained as “Our senses are
taking in about 11 million bits of information every second. Most of that comes through our
eyes, but all the other senses are contributing as well— hearing, touch, smell, taste, and
spatial sensations. Our conscious brain— that part of thinking in which we are aware of
thinking— can only process at best 40 bits of information per second. All the rest is processed
subconsciously” (Pradeep, 2010, p. 4) and cognition is defined as “Cognitive psychology is
the theory of how humans obtain, analyze and use information interpreted from one's
surroundings” (Lundh, Montgomery & Waern, 1992, s.7). The unconscious mind takes up
about ¾ of the brain and picks up and stores tons of information that the conscious part of the
brain does not reflect over (Freud, 1913/1999). “Low-involvement information processing”
(Rosen & Singh, 1992, p.159) means that even the things that is not in the focal point of
12
someone gets recognized and stored by the subconscious. Research shows that information
that is passively picked up has the chance to influence a person’s future behavior, attitude,
and preferences. This is in other words called peripheral seeing and is defined as “seeing
without looking at or being aware that seeing has occurred” (Rosen & Singh, 1992, p. 159).
Figure 4. Freud's model of personality structure (Kheper, 2004).
When talking about subliminal messages, the name Sigmund Freud quickly comes up. One
purpose for using subliminal advertising, from a psychoanalytic perspective, is to appeal to at
least one of Freud’s ideas of the humans four primal instincts; hunger, security, fear and sex
(Lawrence, 2013). Dixon (1971) states that since drives and instincts exist at such a
fundamental level within us, it is prime target for subliminal stimuli (Dixon, 1971). Although
not sure to which extent, it has been scientifically proven that messages intended for the
subconscious mind does affect the person's actions or feelings towards a product. According
to McLuhan subliminals exists on two different levels. The ones that reach the consumers
intellectual (which are right on the threshold of consciousness) and the ones that reaches for
the emotional (which are below consciousness). Using these techniques creates an
unexplainable bond between the consumer and the brand without the consumer being actively
aware of how it is done. By using universally known associations brands can easily trigger
wished upon desires in consumers, and by appealing to the customers emotional instead of
intellectual they reach for the unconscious (Kiran & Kishore, 2013). Heath (2012) writes that
“the most successful advertising campaigns in the world are not those we love or those we
hate, or those with messages that are new or interesting. They are those (...) that are able to
effortlessly slip things under our radar and influence our behavior without us ever really
knowing that they have done so. And the way in which these apparently inoffensive ad
campaigns work is by “seducing” our subconscious” (Heath, 2012).
13
Several experiments have been done over the years in this particular matter, what affects the
conscious and unconscious mind and if it can be controlled. In one study done by Joel Voss
he showed volunteers images for 2 seconds while distracting their conscious mind and in the
next step he showed the volunteers two similar pictures and asked which they had seen
before. While most answered they were just guessing, between 70-80% guessed right. This
percentage would only be around 50% if it were all by chance (Voss, 2009). Consumers
behave in different ways when various things happen in their surroundings, consumers also
react different from each other due to many reasons; economical situations being one of them.
Kotler, et al. (2008) explains different groups as ”Relatively permanent and ordered divisions
in a society whose members share similar values, interests and behaviors” (Kotler, et al.,
2008, p. 242). Apart from social classes, often due to income level, there are other ways to
divide humans; for example different types of memberships, family and interests.
2.4 Subliminal Messages and Ethics
There is a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable appeals in advertising. The main
thing to take under consideration according to Blair, et al. (2006) is who the target consumer
is and what service or product is being advertised. An example they write about concerns the
fact that it would not be ethical to use sexual appealing commercials on channels that target
children, such as Nickelodeon or Disney Channel (Blair, 2006). Appealing advertising can
easily become an ethical issue and several institutions have written legislations against it, for
example The American Association of Advertising Agency, Advertising Standards
Association, and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (Kiran & Kishore, 2013). The
bureau ATF forbids subliminal messages in advertising about alcohol and FCC, The Federal
Communication Commission, has laws within TV (Bell, 2011). Even though the AAAA is an
agency created to regulate the usage of advertising and it being correctly and ethically done,
they themselves had what many considered to be obvious subliminal messages on their front
page at their website and when this was brought up their front page was quickly changed. The
accusations were that in the American flag in the background of their page there was an
embed of a man in a suit as well as the word “Sex” written (Warrick, 2011). Even though
legislations are being written against the usage of subliminal techniques they do not always
cover the problem fully. For example the National Association of Broadcasters’ Television
Code forbids broadcasters to transmit anything that will appeal to the subconscious by being
“below the threshold of conscious perception” (Phillips, 1997 p. 21), but this legislation does
not cover printed advertising. Another example is NAC, however they can only prevent the
channels for commercials from using subliminals but not the companies who are creating the
advertisements. This way the channel can simply claim that they were not aware of any
subliminals being used (Warrick, 2011). This has further fueled the public’s belief that
subliminal messages actually do exist, while advertisers all along are claiming they do not use
it and that it does not work. However some examples seem too obvious to just be coincidence
(Kiran & Kishore, 2013).
2.4.1 Luxury vs necessary products
The definition regarding luxury products is hard to define since producers and consumers
have got different thoughts about it. Tynan, McKechnie and Chhuon (2010) mean that luxury
is a subjective definition that begins where everyday products end (Tynan, McKechnie and
Chhuon, 2010). Scholz (2014) means that “Luxury brands offer customers the possibility to
reward themselves and have self-expressive and sentimental value” (Scholz, 2014, p. 20) and
that it both has to do with self-fulfillment and “desire to express status towards others”
(Scholz, 2014, p. 24). Another important reason for people to buy, often expensive, luxury
products is to make sure that the quality is on top. Belk (1988) states that people usually see
14
material things as an extension of themselves (Belk, 1988) and Scholz (2014) explain,
“Consumption is an extension of the self, luxury goods is the extension of a ”better self”
(Scholz, 2014, p. 26). When it comes to advertising luxury products there are different factors
to keep in mind. Scholz (2014) mention that the consumers that buys luxury products are very
unique, in fact Scholz means that marketers has to reach the consumers in certain ways that
often differs from the methods used to reach general public. One common way is to ensure
that the consumers or receivers understand that it will help them to self-fulfillment with the
pitch “you deserve this” or “because you’re worth it” (Scholz, 2014, p. 25). When it comes to
promoting necessary or everyday products, the approach is more basic; the marketer’s focus is
often on information and not trying to make the receiver feel something. Necessary products
are more often communicated through radio or television whilst luxury products works better
through ‘glossy’ magazines (both fashion and lifestyle magazines) since it provides a more
exclusive feeling and reaches the core target group easier than to communicate the message to
all groups through the classical media such as radio, television or other types of print media
(Okonkwo 2007). The choice of channel also has to do with the possible elements of the
channel; if a luxury brand try to mediate a feeling through their message, it is easier to reach
the consumer on the right level trough vision than through “acoustical elements”(Scholz,
2014, p. 70). Another good way to communicate or promote luxury brands is through events.
There are several ways to aim the event and different ways to carry it out but some examples
are; own events promoting an opening of a new store, sponsor events, for example sports
tournaments, etcetera. The possibilities are endless. The important thing, however one
chooses to market a luxury product, is to create and “under all circumstances hold up the
sense of exclusivity and superiority” and, of course, “every possible contact with the brand
must underline this emotional approach” (Scholz, 2014, p. 71).
2.4.2 Income level
To aim marketing, marketers can divide humans into various groups and one of these might
be income level. Kotler, et al. (2008) state that the ones who consume the most are likely
members of higher socioeconomic classes who are not easily affected of the economic
downturns. Luxury brands are usually the easiest products to market on a global basis; the
consumers of these products are much more international and similar to each other than
members of other classes. Kotler, et al. explains, “The upper economic strata of a society
become primary targets for expensive luxury goods. The comfortable, middle income groups
are more careful about their spending, but can usually afford the good life some of the time.
The lower strata will stick close to the basics of food, clothing and shelter needs. In some
countries, an underclass exists – people permanently living on state welfare and/or below the
poverty line – who have little purchasing power, often struggling to make even the most basic
purchases (Kotler, et al., 2008, p. 200)“. Scholz (2014) describe that there is “a very small
group of customers is able to purchase luxury goods spontaneously without having to think
about spending the necessary amount of money” whilst “a much larger proportion of
customers have to systematically save their money to be able to afford a luxury product”
(Scholz, 2014, p. 23). Scholz (2014) also states that over 70 % of the customers plan their
luxury purchase in advance. Another thing that is being brought to light by Scholz (2014) is
that there is something called “hybrid” or “bipolar” customer. This is the kind of person who
on one hand is willing to spend a lot of money buying luxury products, but on the other hand
look for bargains and compare prices online to get as much as possible for their money
(Scholz, 2014). This is, of course, not only a phenomenon that luxury consumers deal with, all
types of classes or levels compare prices in today’s society. This comparison makes sure that
there is a distinction between high prices and quality, which would be difficult to know in
advance without the possibility to compare.
15
The class division based on income is different in various parts of the world – according to
Kotler, et al. (2008) there is for example the diamond-shaped classification (a few people on
the bottom, a bit more on top and most in the middle) and the pyramid-shaped classification
(a small amount on top and many on the bottom) in less developed countries. In different
parts of the world, the same social classes behave different from each other, for example
lower class in more developed countries have more opportunity to move to a higher class due
to education and/or work and on the other side of the world, where there is more of a caste
system (for example in India, but also other, more unexpressed systems), people stay in the
class where they were born. Higher classes are more similar to each other around the world;
one could call this a more international behavior. This is good not only for the global luxury
brands, but also for world economics (Kotler, et al. 2008). To get some sort of definition of
the luxury customer, Scholz (2014) state that it mostly is a “well-educated citizen living in an
urban area” (Scholz, 2014, p. 24). It is hard to ensure which gender is the typical luxury
customer; with the assumption that women shop more often in general it might be women but
with the assumption that men buy more expensive things but less in quantity; it is hard to
make logic out of it (Scholz, 2014). The ethical point of view when it comes to income level
is divided, Klein (2007) states, “the ethics and social responsibility communities seem to
agree that targeting vulnerable groups with marketing campaigns that take advantage of their
vulnerability is unjust”(Klein, 2007, p. 40). With vulnerable groups he means, among others,
those with less money (Klein, 2007). This does not mean that it is ethically right to target
other groups, but not that it is wrong either - there is no discussion regarding the nonvulnerable groups.
2.4.3 Cause-related marketing
Cause-related marketing (CRM) is defined by Cui, Trent, Sullivan & Matiru (2003) as “a
general alliance between businesses and non-profit causes that provide resources and funding
to address social issues and business marketing objectives [. . .] a strategy that links corporate
identity with non-profits, causes, and significant social issues through cooperative marketing
and fund-raising programs” (Cui, et al., 2003, p. 310). Christofi, Kitchen, Leonidou,
Papasolomou & Vrontis (2015) continues with “CRM is a marketing practice that conflates
organizational charity, fundraising for a non-profit organization and social responsibility, for
the purpose of furthering business profitability” (Christofi, et al., 2015, p 356). Kotler, et al.
(2008) means that almost every service or product supplier today is tied or linked in some
way to a cause and writes “It lets companies ‘do well by doing good’“(Kotler, et al., 2008, p.
215) and continues with the fact that some companies sponsor several cause-related
campaigns every year (Kotler, et al., 2008). Chang & Cheng (2015) refers to CRM as a
“corporate philanthropic trend” which leads to “decisions that simultaneously benefit
themselves and the society” (Chang & Cheng, 2015, p. 337). Christofi, et al. (2015) means
that CRM is part of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and agrees with Kotler regarding
the fact that most companies dedicate themselves to one or several parts of CSR; “corporate
philanthropy, employee volunteerism, minority support programs and other initiatives”
(Christofi, et al., 2015, p. 358). Chang & Cheng (2015) also writes that the first high-profile
cause-related mission was “in 1983 when American Express agreed to donate one cent from
every purchase made with its card to the fund for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty”
(Chang & Cheng, 2015, p. 337). They continue with the fact that “CRM has become an
effective tool to increase sales, enhance brand image, and increase positive word of mouth
(Chang & Cheng, 2015, p. 337). Christofi, et al. (2015) states that CRM can be either tactical
or strategic. They explain it as follows “With tactical CRM activity, a brand may tie-in with a
cause for a limited time for a relatively narrow purpose. On the contrary, some brands view
the CRM activity as a strategic component and the “heart” of the brand’s positioning or
image“ (Christofi, et al., 2015, p. 357).
16
When it comes to the ethical aspects of cause-related marketing, there is different point of
views. On one hand a consumer might think that, for example an ad campaign, is ethically
doubtful. People tend to be skeptical toward some ads since they “are perceived as
manipulative ‘gimmicks’, which use the non- profit’s constituency to sell higher-priced or
lower-quality products to consumers” (Chang & Cheng, 2015, p. 337). Kotler, et al. (2008)
means “critics worry that cause-related marketing is more a strategy for selling than giving –
that ‘cause-related’ marketing is really ‘cause-exploitative’ marketing” (Kotler, et al., 2008, p.
216) and points out that there is a fine line between these two. But they also state, “if handled
well, it can greatly benefit both the company and the cause” (Kotler, et al., 2008, p. 216).
Finally, Christofi, et al. (2015) means that ”Consumer knowledge of advertisers’ motives and
strategies impacts upon interpretation and responsiveness to persuasive messages” (Christofi,
et al., 2015, p. 356). One man that has admitted to usage of subliminal messages in songs he
has written for several commercials is Mark Mothersbaugh, a musician and composer.
Examples he mentions are “sugar will rot your teeth” for Gummi Savers, “avoid conspicuous
consumption” for BMW as well as “biology is destiny” for a cosmetic company and no one
ever confronted him about it, meaning no one’s conscious mind picked up on it (Strauss,
2001).
2.4.4 Passive vs active consumer
When it comes to consumer behavior, one aspect is regarding how involved the consumer is,
or with other words if the consumer is passive or active. Sit & Birch (2014) defines a passive
participation from the consumer as “a situation whereby the customer primarily behaves as a
spectator or observer and does not seek to physically influence the experience delivery” and
define an active consumer as “a situation where the customer opts to be a partaker or doer and
is motivated to physically influence the experience delivery” (Sit & Birch, 2014, p. 383).
Participation in this scenario is defined as “customer interaction or engagement with an object
or an activity” (Sit & Birch, 2014, p. 384). There are also more and less active channels for
marketers and brands to communicate their message to the consumers, Scholz (2014) writes,
“television is a passive medium” and explains the statement writing “it does not offer the
opportunity of active and selective consumption” (Scholz, 2014, p. 70). On the other hand, a
magazine is a more active medium, or channel, since the consumer must perform some sort of
action to make it possible to even get the chance to hold the magazine in one’s hands. This act
from the consumer also makes it easier for a marketer to reach the target group with the right
message. Scholz (2014) also writes, “The costs for television advertising are too high
compared to the expected results: Many people are reached, who because of lacking buying
power do not belong to the target group of luxury goods companies” (Scholz, 2014, p. 70).
Another active channel would be events where people actively decide to participate in the
event. There are also different levels of participation, Sit & Birch (2014) writes “For many
events (e.g., sporting events, music concerts, and theatres), the extent of passive versus active
participation is strictly prescribed and managed. For instance, in a professional soccer game
or a pop-music concert, consumers are generally “constrained” as pure spectators rather than
being active participants” (Sit & Birch, 2014, p. 389). The channel and the consumer’s degree
of activeness are linked to each other; the radio is more passive since the consumer do not
actively do anything for the marketer to reach them. Buying a magazine or going to an event
on the other hand - is active. It is quite simple: people are different. Some like being passive
and as Sit & Birch (2014) writes, they like a more absorptive role where they like to be
entertained, whereas some consumers like a more active and engaged role where they like to
participate themselves. Different channels appeals to different types of consumers which
makes the marketer's job of reaching the consumer with the message in question both easier
and harder; harder since they need to figure out which channels speaks to the right consumer,
but easier since they then know how to reach their targeted consumers (Sit & Birch, 2014).
17
3. Methodology
In the following chapter we will present and discuss our approach and choices regarding
methodology made to carry out this study. The primary and secondary data will have a big
part in the chapter as well as validity, reliability, generalizability, carefulness, criticism and
implications to keep the research’s standards as high as possible.
3.1 Approach
There are three different approaches one can use when it comes to method. There is the
deductive approach, the inductive approach and also a combination of the two, called the
abductive approach, which is when the authors change the framework along the process
(Dubois & Gadde, 2002). We have worked with the deductive method to write this paper to
gain as much information about our topic as possible, from both perspectives, before
preparing our own survey and gather our own information. While doing our research we keep
in mind to find theories that support different views on the matter, the reason being that
according to us this will provide the most correct and unbiased conclusion to the research.
The deductive approach means first finding theoretical support and following this gather
empirical information. In this scenario the researcher collects secondary data and uses this in
approaching the real world to collect primary data and finally compares them to see whether
they support each other. The possible problem with this approach is that the researcher is set
on a specific outcome and therefore chooses theories that will support his already made up
mind, and the paper ends up having no real further purpose than this (Jacobsen, 2011).
The other choice of method is the inductive, which means on the other hand first gathering
empirical data and afterwards searching for theories on the subject. This occurs when the
researcher approaches the issue in question without any previous prejudices or expectations
and instead confronts it with an open mind. According to critics this approach is not fully
possible to achieve since no human can completely leave their own thoughts or views outside
and leave the project without any personal influence (Jacobsen, 2011).
Another important factor that goes hand in hand with this is that the research should be
possible for someone else to redo. Another researcher who decides to investigate the same
study, the same questions and with the same choice of method, should attain the same result
(Jacobsen, 2011). Once again, according to critics, this will be impossible since the
researchers own opinions will somehow come through in the choice of problem formulation,
how the questions are verbalized, the choice of respondents as well as how the respondents
perceives the researcher and the further effect this has. The ideal is to get an objective result,
but at the same time the researcher needs to form contact with the respondents to be able to
dig deeper and get a more meaningful answer. We will during this study keep in mind to stay
unbiased to avoid influencing our respondents and the final conclusion.
3.2 Choice of Method
When it comes to choice of method, Jacobsen (2011) points out that the researcher first needs
to know what he or she wants to find out (with a problem formulation or a hypothesis), and
then figure out how the research should be structured to get the desired information. When
this is thought through, one needs to decide how to get hold of the data that will provide the
accurate information. Our research questions, as we mentioned before, are: 1. What marketing
methods aimed at building a psychological connection with the consumer are ethically
acceptable and in what areas of marketing or situations? 2. Is it ethical to use subliminal
marketing for a cause-related brand, a luxury brand or aimed at a specific income group? To
collect our needed data we are managing a survey on the Internet as well as carrying out two
18
personal interviews. When it comes to method, there are two different directions to go:
exploratory and extensively. The exploratory method is when you dig deep and look at
various sides and thoughts to the problem. It is an intensive lay-up and this is called the
qualitative approach. Extensively is when you go wide; a shallow perspective but from many
sources this is the quantitative approach (Jacobsen, 2011). Since we want to send an online
survey (to reach as many as possible), but at the same time dig deeper into the respondents’
minds, we are going to use a mixture of the quantitative and the qualitative method. The
method is called “the mixed method research” and refers to usage of a mix of both qualitative
and quantitative methods when collecting data in one study (Appiah-Yeboah, Driscoll, Rupert
& Salib, 2007). According to Jogulu & Pansiri (2011), this is the ultimate way to go both
when it comes to outcome/result but also the fact that the researchers will gain a lot of
experience and understanding about research in general. They state that it “allow and foster
creativity amongst researchers in their research design, data gathering and data analysis”
(Jogulu & Pansiri, 2011, p. 698).
3.3 Data Gathering Method
There are two ways to collect the data that will be necessary in this research paper to get the
needed information and answers. The first one is primary data; when the researcher gathers
the required information personally and only researches the need to know for the specific
matter, a tailored way to collect the data. For example, the researcher conducts an experiment
or interviews someone who has knowledge that they may want to use as a source. The other
one is secondary data, which is when one uses already existing data, collected by someone
else, and this information may be originally collected for a whole other cause but can still be
applicable for the research in question (Jacobsen, 2011). In this paper, we used both primary
and secondary data. That is most often the ideal way since they can support and strengthen
each other. It may also be used to set different data or information against each other, which is
a way to ensure results (Jacobsen, 2011).
3.3.1 Primary Data
We decided that the best way for us to go by is with a survey, but not a regular survey in the
matter of lack of depth in information (Jacobsen, 2011). We want to reach a broad number of
people so the result will be accurate and generalizing, but also get deep into the subject with
help from our respondents. We first thought of old surveys that we have participated in; some
were too long and quite boring. In that case, there’s the risk that some might skip the whole
thing. We wanted to make an interesting but not too long survey, to keep the concentration
when needed. To reach as many respondents as possible, we chose to distribute the survey
online through different channels that we use ourselves, for example Facebook. We chose to
conduct the survey only on Swedish consumers to narrow it down. We also asked our firsthand network to share our survey with their friends. In our survey we chose to include
participants of all ages. In the questionnaire we divided these into 5 age groups of 19 and
under, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and finally 50 and over. This gave us a general overlook of who
our participants are and which era of media exposure they have grown up with, but since age
is not of great importance to our survey otherwise we chose to not have more options with
slimmer age groups. Our respondents are as well of both genders and to get an overview of
the spread of our participants we asked them to fill in this information as well. We did not feel
the need to get more personal detail about our participants.
To create our survey we used the program called SurveyMonkey
(https://www.surveymonkey.com) that makes it possible to create an online questionnaire and
are easy to share on social medias. Our survey consisted of 13 questions and as mentioned
19
two of them were of the participants’ age and gender. We started by asking more general
questions that are important for our research and continued by giving more specific scenarios
and asking more detailed questions for better quality. For our questions we gave the
respondent between 2 and 14 answers to choose between, and in any multi-choice question
they could choose as many as they needed. This gave us a good overview of their collective
responses. For 7 of our questions we also asked our participants to evolve their answers by
explaining their thought process to support their answer. In questions 3 and 4 we gave our
participants 14 marketing methods that we picked out to show a broad spectrum of methods
that appeal to the consumer on a psychological level. The 14 methods are various levels of
ethical. Our questionnaire can be seen in appendix 1. We left the survey open online for two
weeks to let there be enough time for everyone who wanted to participate to do so.
To get deeper answers we also chose to include two personal interviews in our survey, this
allowed us to fulfill with greater qualitative data. According to Brown (2010) there are two
kinds of advantages when it comes to qualitative work: what it can do and how it does it. She
gives several examples on the two, these are “provide explanations, give accounts of
experience and understandings; understand processes and the structure-agency interplay” and
“permits flexibility, allows the research process to evolve; (potentially) decreases the distance
and power differential between researcher and subject; generates richer data; gains useful
results from small numbers; is more interesting; and more reliable because reflexive” (Brown,
2010, p. 240). Conducting these interviews also let us ask our respondents follow-up
questions to get more knowledge around why they answer the way they do. We decided that
to get valuable answers we wanted to interview two people that is involved in the marketing
world and has a history and experience within it. This led us to the two choices of people
whom are presented deeper in the empirical chapter. At first thought we wanted one of the
respondents to be someone who had no involvement in the marketing area, but after
consideration and deep reflection we concluded that we would have to much influence on the
respondents beliefs about the subject since we would have to explain and define the area. We
therefore decided to interview someone with interest and knowledge about the subject.
Before doing the interviews we conducted an interview guide that we used as a frame when
asking our questions. We wanted to leave it somewhat open to be able to ask follow-up
questions and have an open discussion with our respondents. For example, our first question
was an open question before we had given any comments to our respondent and when
interviewing our first respondent we noticed that he was focusing on another area of
subliminal messages in advertising than what we are researching. To make sure that we
received valuable information from our interview we therefore went outside of the frame of
the interview guide and gave him examples of what we were researching.
3.3.2 Secondary Data
Collecting secondary data gives us insight to what previous studies with similar problem
formulations have concluded. This is interesting because we want to gain as much
understanding for our subject as possible, to get a broad view of different perspectives on the
topic, before starting to collect our own information. By comparing these against each other
as well as against our own primary data we will acquire the most objective and accurate
conclusion to our study. Previous studies can either strengthen each other as well as our or
demonstrate a difference in conclusions. According to Cowton (1998) the positive side effect
of this for the researcher is that it is a cost-effective way to gather facts on the subject.
Someone else has already done the enquiry so the researcher can simply analyze and interpret
several previous studies to conclude their own, without spending any money. On the other
hand, secondary data was never collected for the exact same cause or problem formulation as
20
we are now looking into. There is always a risk for biased information so it is important to be
critical and take the necessary time to understand what it is really telling us. In our process to
gather secondary information for this research we read scientific articles, books, and watched
documentaries about subliminal messages in advertising. To access these we used JSTOR,
Science Direct and Web of Science, Halmstad University’s online library, Auckland
University’s online library, Google Scholar, and YouTube. To find the right articles we
searched for “subliminal messages”, “subliminal advertising”, “hidden messages in
advertising”, “subliminal perception”, “history of subliminal advertising”, etcetera. We have
also searched for specific person’s that are recurring names in this subject, for example
“Edward Bernays”, “Ernest Dichter”, “ Sigmund Freud”, “Wilson Bryan Key”, as well as
specific cases. This subject also touches on psychology, which has resulted in research of this
area as well.
3.4 Validity, Reliability, Generalizability and Carefulness
Throughout our research we kept in mind to keep the research’s standards high. To make this
possible, the research needs to fulfill the requirements for reliability and validity. Validity
means that we need to make sure that we are in reality measuring what we intend to measure.
Are the right questions being asked to the right people at the right time? This will ensure that
the research is relevant and valid. Reliability means that it is important that we know that we
can trust and rely on the information we are gathering. One way to try and ensure this is to
ask: would the same result be attained if another researcher did the same study with the same
method? If the answer is yes then the goal is achieved (Jacobsen, 2011). By carrying through
a mixed method research we collected answers as varied as possible. We reached a broad
number of people by using social medias, which reached out to our close acquaintances as
well as loose ones and ensured to not only get people whom we have personally known by
having others share our survey with their friends. We kept our questions unbiased and
collected personal opinions from our respondents in our survey to make sure that we were
measuring our respondents correctly. This way we ensured that our research is both valid and
reliable.
Another factor we wanted to fulfill was generalizability. That means whether our conclusions
would be general for a population or not. According to Stenbacka (2001) it is important that
the sample needs to be representative for the entire population that we want it to be applicable
for. To make sure that we fulfilled this goal, we decided to ask a variety of people to
participate, even if they all turned out to be Swedish. We shared the survey with our first-hand
network on social medias and through other channels, which allowed us to reach second hand
respondents through shares and thanks to individuals spreading the survey with their firsthand network, which among other resulted in a broader age group participating. Stenbacka
(2001) points out the importance of carefulness, stating that no matter what type of research
one is doing, it is always of great value to stay systematic and careful. R. Walker (1995) states
"Analysis of qualitative material is more explicitly interpretative, creative and personal than
in quantitative analysis, which is not to say that it should not be equally systematic and
careful" (p. 3). For us, this means that we need to be extra careful analysis our results since
we are using the mixed method research.
3.5 Criticism of Sources
3.5.1 Primary Data
While collecting our primary data we conducted an online survey and two in-depth
interviews. When executing our online survey we used the program SurveyMonkey.
21
Unfortunately, we ran into troubles when our respondents were allowed to skip certain
questions despite the fact that we in settings demanded that our respondents would not be able
to move on to the next question without answering. This led to the action of us removing
several answers. Something that Jacobsen (2011) mention is that one disadvantage when it
comes to surveys is that the respondents can not be given any help (Jacobsen, 2011). For
example, if there is a lack of knowledge when it comes to the subject there is no chance that
they can get a deeper explanation. Another problem when it comes to surveys is leading
questions. Even if one might not think that they are leading they can be perceived positive or
negative by the respondent (Wärneryd, 1993). We tried to keep this in mind when conducting
our survey. Out of 200 respondents, the most popular age group was our own; we had 67
people answering that they belonged to the category for “20-29 years old”. The second most
popular age group was “30-39 years old” with 44 participants.
When conducting our interviews one risk is to influence our respondents into answers we
want, there is also a risk that the respondents gives the answer that they think one want to
hear. To avoid this we kept in mind to stay unbiased in our questions and our appearance.
However, when providing our respondents with examples it could influence them into a
certain direction. We therefore asked open-minded questions and simply asked for their view
on the matter and not claiming “this opinion is the truth”. We also chose to record the
interviews, this might have affected the respondents in a way that they might not answer as
truthfully as if we decided not to. Our respondents are anonymous, this decision (in our case)
is a good thing since the subject is sensitive; no one can confront them about what they said in
the interviews and no one can hold anything against them.
3.5.2 Secondary Data
Being critical to secondary data and reflect over how trustworthy the source is, is of great
importance in any research (Jacobsen, 2011). In some cases the author may have an
alternative motivation by spreading his own view of the matter instead of an objective view.
To ensure that the information we have gathered is correct and reliable, we have foremost
looked at scientific researchers and published books based from Halmstad University’s library
catalogue and databases. We have also chosen to include documentaries as our secondary data
and are in these cases particular by looking for well-known names and information that can be
backed-up even otherwise. We use information that we see repeatedly in different sources to
make sure the information is reliable and valid. We also used a mixture of classic/old sources
and newer ones.
3.6 Criticism of methodology
How the research is carried out is of great importance for the result. There are several
important factors a researcher must have in mind when collecting data and evidence to find an
answer to the problem in question. There is a three-step way to do this which is as follows:
first describe the terms that are to be measured, second define the problem good enough so
there will not be any misunderstandings, and lastly decide how the research should be carried
through; by visiting and interviewing the respondent, call, or send surveys through mail or
online (Jacobsen, 2011). Subliminal messages is a complicated subject and to avoid
misunderstandings and have a clear heading we could have created a more specific definition
and shared this in the online survey and personal interviews. However, to not influence our
respondents’ answers, this was not executed.
English is not our first language so the decision to write this dissertation in English is a factor
that not only may affect the language level of the text but this could also have affected the
22
interviews, which were held in English, and understanding when reading about different
theories. The human factor is something else that plays a role when for example analyzing
data. We continuously tried to keep this in mind during the whole process to keep the errors to
a minimal. Something that has had a big effect on this dissertation is the fact that we decided
to conduct two separate researches in the empirical chapter. If we had only went with one, the
focus on the chosen research might have been clearer. In hindsight, we also wish that we had
changed the formulation of a couple of questions asked in both researches, even though a
major focus was on writing questions that would not be leading in any way, we realized
afterwards that some may have been. Finally if we would perform this research again, we
would not only share and collect answers regarding the survey online but also physically
asked random people. That might lead to a greater generalization and it would be easier to get
our age-categories closer to each other with less gaps.
3.7 Implications
We found some aspects that could interest further researchers who want to perform a research
within the same area. With more resources such as time and money there are endless
possibilities. With more time it would be possible to get more participants and with that
greater generalization. This could also lead to having the time to get in touch with additional
marketers who are influencers and of great importance within this subject. There is the
possibility to make a global research and compare different countries and their marketing
strategies. A suggestion would also be to use a broader or slimmer definition of subliminal
marketing, which leads to a broader or slimmer focus within the subject. An interesting angle
would be to look at the financial point of view, for example what is the return of investment
when it comes to subliminal messages within marketing?
23
4. Empirical Framework
This chapter contains two parts; one quantitative and one qualitative. The first is the
quantitative with the collected data from our online survey and the second part is qualitative
with two deep going personal interviews. Each question will be presented individually.
4.1 Quantitative Research
This data is collected between September 20th 2015 and October 4th 2015. It was created
through SurveyMonkey and then shared on Facebook and via email. In total we had 200
participants and in this chapter we will present our gathered material.
4.1.1 Age
Respondents'age
>19years
20-29years
30-39years
40-49years
50<
Chart 1. Respondents’ age
We started by asking the participants to share their age. We pre-selected five categories for
the respondents to choose from. The first category was “19 years or younger”, which was 31
out of the 200 participants. The second category was “20-29 years old” and 67 people placed
themselves there. The next category was “30-39 years old” and we had 44 participators within
this age-span. The fourth category choice was “40-49 years old“ and 37 respondents picked
this. The last category was “50 years or older” and consisted in total of 21 people.
24
4.1.2 Gender Respondents'gender
Female
Male
Chart 2. Respondents’ gender
The second question answered was about gender. In total we had 93 males and 107 females
who answered our survey, which equals to 46,5% male and 53,5% female.
4.1.3 Which methods would you consider to be regular marketing ”tricks”?
Consideredregularmarketing
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Chart 3. Respondents’ answers regarding which methods are considered regular marketing
For our third question we wanted our respondents to let us know which marketing tricks they
consider to be regular methods in advertising. We gave them a list with 14 options and they
could choose as many or as few as they wanted. All methods are meant to appeal to a
consumer on a psychological level. ‘Product placement’ was the option that most respondents
consider to be common with 186 ‘yes’ answers. Closely following was ‘Appealing to
25
emotions’, with 173, and ‘Color association’ with 160 respondents feeling that these methods
are common. Not far behind was ‘Associating a brand with an event’ (152), ‘Collaborations’
(149), ‘Using a logo with dual meaning’ (146), and ‘Creating a certain mood through music’
(147). 127 respondents believe that ‘Neuromarketing’ is a regular marketing method for
companies, and 120 respondents believe that ‘Showing that a company cares for good causes’
is almost equally common. ‘Celebrity sponsoring’ was chosen by 114 and ‘Using a scent to
create a feeling’ is according to 107 respondents common. The options that the least number
of respondents believe to be common were ‘Voice-over’ with 57, ‘Pop-ups’ with 53, and
finally ‘Embeds’ with 41.
4.1.4 Which marketing methods would you think is acceptable to use to strengthen a
company’s value?
Acceptablemarketingmethods
250
200
150
100
50
0
Chart 4. Respondents’ answers regarding which methods are acceptable to use
For our next question we wanted to know which of the examples the respondent believe to be
acceptable marketing methods to use in the aspiration to strengthen a company’s value. We
asked them to imagine that they were considering methods for their own company. The
choices they had were the same as for the previous question, and the results were overall
higher. The choice most respondents find to be an acceptable method with 194 positive
answers was ‘product placement’ and second with 192 ‘yes’-answers was ‘Color association’.
For ‘Logo with dual meaning’ we received 190 positive answers. ‘Collaborations’ gave 184
positive answers and ‘Creating a certain mood through music’ was acceptable by 181
respondents. ‘Showing that a company cares for good causes’ is OK with 174 of our
respondents and ‘Appealing to emotions’ closely followed with 173. On 8th place with 166
positive respondents was ‘Associating a brand with an event’ and not far behind was the
acceptance level for ‘Neuromarketing’ with 161. According to 159 of our respondents it is
OK for a company to use ‘Celebrity sponsoring’ and 157 agree that ‘Using a scent to create a
feeling’ is also acceptable. The three least acceptable methods according to our respondents
are: ‘Voice-over’ with 113, ‘Embeds’ with 107, and finally ‘Pop-ups’ with 93 positive
answers.
26
4.1.5 Imagine that a brand was outed to have used subliminal marketing, how would you
react and continue your relationship with this brand?
Changeinbehaviour
250
200
150
PositiveChange
NegativeChange
100
NoChange
50
0
Favouritebrand
RedCross
LouisVuitton
Chart 5. Respondents’ answers regarding change of behavior because of subliminal messages
We asked our respondents to tell us how they would react if they found out that a brand was
using subliminal messages and how or if this would affect their continued relationship with
that particular brand. For a broader perspective we put our respondents in three different
situations. In none of the questions any respondents answered that they would change their
behavior in a negative way. Without knowing the question we asked them to think of their
favorite brand no matter what category. In this case 192 respondents answered that they
would not change their behavior towards the brand and 8 would react negatively. This was the
highest outcome of no reaction for the three situations. A few explanations we received were
the following: “I understand that they do whatever they can to sell their products”, “I would
be more attentive towards their marketing but I would continue shopping as usual”, ”I
wouldn’t react. I would think that it’s kind of cool”, ” It wouldn’t matter. I know that the
different marketers use ’tricks’ to get me to buy something”, ”I believe that subliminal
marketing is smart marketing so I would not react and yes I would continue my relationship
with the brand”, ”Depends on how it’s used, I wouldn’t appreciate sexual content but neutral
things like smileys would be ok. I would probably continue to buy their products”.
As a second part of the question we asked if there would be any difference in their answer if
the brand that was using subliminal messages were a goodwill brand like the Red Cross. This
one had the highest number of negative reactions with 76 respondents saying that they would
not approve and 124 respondents saying that their relationship with the organization wouldn’t
change. Comments we received were ”I would be surprised because I would think that they
are decent and honest in their marketing, but I would still support them”, ”My relationship
would change because that is not what I want my money to go towards when I give”,
”Absolutely! I don’t think it is ethical for a human resource-group using subliminal messages.
The most people are willing to give; so why would you want to play with people’s
consciousness?”, ”Since I believe that it’s smart marketing and it is also for a good cause my
attitude would not be affected at all”, ”My trust for the organization wouldn’t be the same. I
would probably stop donating money to this particular organization”.
27
The third part of the question was regarding how the respondent would react if a luxury brand
like Louis Vuitton had used subliminal marketing. 178 people responded that they would not
change their relationship with the brand and the other 22 would have a negative reaction.
Respondents explained why they would not change their relationship with the following
statements: “I would not change my opinion of them as I would not be surprised”, “No, if it
helps them to sell, it’s ok with me”, ” Only if it’s in any way sexually, otherwise no”, ”I don’t
think that it’s ok to trick people on that level into buying things and it might create an
unnecessary need or want within people who don’t really have money to buy it”.
4.1.6 Do you think that the following scenarios are ethical?
250
200
150
OK
100
NotOK
50
0
1.DrinkAB
2.
3.Healthy 4.Clothing 5.Voice- 6.Voice7.
Computers
AB
Store over'don't over'buy Perfection
inc.
steal'
more'
Chart 6. Respondents’ answers regarding the ethical standpoint in various situations
For this part of the questionnaire we wrote 7 ‘mini-stories’ and each one contained a
marketing method to which we wanted to know our respondents reactions. Scenario 3, 4, and
5 had most positive reactions while scenario 6 and 7 had the highest numbers of negative
reactions. The scenarios were:
1. “Drink AB is about to launch a new soda. While creating their marketing campaign
they want to make sure that their commercial will appeal to consumers. Therefore, they invite
a random group of people whom they show video clips of various different colors, flashing
words, pictures and so on while the viewer is wearing EKG-equipment to track the body’s
reaction. Afterwards, they use the information they got from the observation to finalize their
commercial”
146 respondents thought this was OK and 54 answered that it was not OK. Reactions were
“It’s ok by me that they would use the information they gathered to make their commercials
more attractive”, “I can see it from two perspectives but I think that it is ethically wrong and
wouldn’t want to be subjected to it”, “It’s ok, a company needs to earn money”, “It’s ok to
gain market share”, “Yes I think it’s ok. Commercials are about feelings and making the
28
consumer feel the need for the product”, and “That depends! Most brands use these kind of
methods (maybe not EKG-equipment) to “lure” the person that they want to sell the brand
too! But yes, I believe it is unethical for taking “advantage” of people’s reactions of which
they have no idea of themselves!”.
2. ”Computers inc. want to signal to consumers that their product is a luxury product
and worth spending money on. Therefore, when a new tv-show about the wealthy teenagers of
Manhattan is about to start filming, Computers inc. decide to sponsor the show so that every
important character can be seen with one of their laptops at least twice per episode”
169 respondents think that this scenario is OK and 31 respondents disagree and do not think
that it is OK. Some comments we received were: ”I believe that it is often teenagers and
youngsters who gets ’lured’ of these marketing- tricks. Most of them have no sense of
economy nor the discipline it requires to actually say “no!”. Just look at our society today;
how many “young people” aren’t in debt because of something that they couldn’t “resist”
buying? I blame the companies!”, ”Also a very good way to market products. As long as it
doesn’t gets too exaggerated”, ”It’s ok, they need marketing money”, ”Yes, why not?
Everyone is able to make a decision on their own, if people are sooo easily ‘fooled/bought’ I
believe they will have greater problems in life than that they will make shopping they later
will regret”, and “I don’t think this is ok since you don’t know that you are watching a
commercial”.
3. “Healthy AB wants to create a new commercial for their long-time best selling
headache medicine which lately has had a dip in sales. They create a national wide TV
commercial that is packed with information about why, when, and who should be buying their
medicine”.
187 respondents think that this is an OK way to do advertising while 13 respondents don’t
think so. Further explanations were: “It’s ok but I would personally not buy headache
medicine because of a commercial like this, especially not if I’m happy with the brand I’m
using”, “Yes as long as they are honest in what they say”, “It’s ok, you have to give out
information”, and “I think it is wrong for medical-companies to use this kind of marketing.
Don’t “lure” the people who doesn’t have the capability of seeing the ’whole picture’!”
4. ”A new clothing store is opening in town. To be of interest for bypassing consumers
and to stand out from the already established shops on the street they have done extensive
research on how to create an appealing atmosphere for the consumer by using psychological
tricks. The color scheme they have chosen is to create a calm and luxurious atmosphere so
the customer will stay longer, there are comfortable mocha-colored chairs to relax in for
passive shoppers, a hint of lavender scent, and any songs with a stressful beat is avoided”.
To this scenario every respondent agreed that it is OK and fair. Statements we were given
were: ”Of course it is ok. If I owned a store I would do the exact same thing, just as if I had a
web-shop I would make the website as appealing and professional looking as possible to
attract more customers”, “They aren’t tricking anyone to buy their products. They enhance the
possibility for larger sales through optimizing the shoppers experience at their time in the
shop”, and “I think this is a great way to stand out from the rest of the stores and make it
special and your own”.
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5. “The same store also start using a voice-over in their music at a sound pitch that the
customers’ conscious won’t hear. However, the subconscious will pick up on the words
“don’t steal” and the amount of shoplifting goes down with 15%”.
188 respondents believe that this is OK and 12 respondents do not agree with them.
Comments we received include: “Yes it’s ok. Because of that they prevent people from illegal
actions. If they would have done this to increase their sale I would have been very skeptical!”,
“No they shouldn’t have collective punishments, it’s like saying that they don’t trust their
customers”, “It’s ok because it’s for a good cause”, “Absolutely! I think it is funny though
that stores need to use it. Don’t people have common sense of right and/or wrong?” and ”Yes.
No one could possibly be affected in a negative way, as long as it’s not inappropriate
messages they’re sending out. And not too pressuring”.
6. “The store next door uses the same technique of voice-over, but their message is
‘buy more’”.
The result we got was that 94 of our respondents are OK with this scenario while 106 are not.
We collected comments such as the following ones: “No I don’t think it’s ok to use this
technique for this purpose because of that they’re doing it at a such subconscious level, this I
think would be unfair if they wouldn’t inform their customers about this before entrance”,
“Yes. Because it is smart. You want to earn money, if your ‘buy more’ message helps to
increase the sales then yes. If someone is in the store in the first place they either think it’s a
good place or they liked something they saw. Yes perhaps it might trigger someone to buy
something they otherwise wouldn’t, but still. I think it is ok”, ” No. This completely lures
people into buying more! I think that is ethically wrong!” and ”yes, earn more money”.
7. “Every year The Beauty Gala promises an eventful and fun night with a lot of
celebrity guests and handing out prices to the best beauty brands. There are over 600
attendants at the event and it is broadcasted live on television. The popular beauty brand
“Perfection” sees this as a great opportunity to reach a lot of potential consumers. During
the event there is a millisecond pop-up of their logo on all of the big screens. This is aimed to
be noticed by the viewers’ subconscious”
To this kind of marketing 108 respondents reacted positively, it’s OK, and 92 respondents did
not think it is OK. “I think it’s ok but invigorating, but I think they can make money out of
it”, “Not sure, might be ok with it as long as it’s they logotype and not anything sexually or
about alcohol etc.”, ”Yes, I can not think of a reason why it would not be ok”, ” I think both
yes and no, it all depends on how the viewer reacts to the pop-up. Some people don’t get as
affected as others, I think” and ”I don’t think this is a good way to go, especially if the info
about it comes out to the public”.
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4.1.7 Do you think it is more acceptable to use subliminal messages in advertisement
aimed at either one of these product categories?
LuxuryorNecessaryproducts
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
78
79
LuxuryorNecessary
products
26
17
Luxury
products
Necessary
products
Both
None
Chart 7. Respondents’ answers regarding luxury and necessary products
Question 7 was regarding our respondents think that it is more ethically right to use
subliminal messages for either luxury products or necessary/ everyday products. The least
popular response was that it would be more ethical in advertising for luxury products with 17
answers. This was followed with 26 people believing that it is more ethical in advertising for
necessary products. 79 people responded that they do not think it is ok in any category while
the close follow up of 78 people responded that they believe that it is ok in both categories.
Explanations were: “Necessary/ everyday products since these are often cheaper and therefore
easier to switch if you find something you feel that you need”, “Luxury products since I
believe that people with more money has the luxury of being affected”, ”Why? I think it’s just
as acceptable to use in either” and ”equally ok”.
4.1.8 Do you think it is more acceptable to use subliminal messages in advertisement
aimed at either one of these income levels?
Incomelevel
Higherincome
Middleincome
Lowerincome
Both
None
Chart 8. Respondents’ answers regarding subliminals and income level
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Our 8th question was whether our respondents believe that it is more acceptable to aim
advertising with subliminal messages towards either one of the three income levels: Higher
income, Middle income, and Lower income. As in the above question it was close between
respondents who believe that it is not acceptable towards either of the income levels, 52
people, and between respondents who believe that it is ok towards all of the income levels, 57
people. However, 52 respondents believe that it is more ethical to aim subliminal advertising
towards ‘Higher income’ societies, 15 people answered ‘Middle income’, and 14 answered
‘Lower income’. Comments we received were the following: “Higher I believe, at the same
time I don’t think you should make that distinguish of people. But the underprivileged are
already vulnerable”, “I think it is okay to use it for higher income people! They can afford it,
and it is often they who stands behind these companies that tries to lure people, I think”, and ”
Yes use it on all, it is acceptable”.
4.1.9 Do you think it is more acceptable to use subliminal marketing to help a good
cause?
Subliminalsforagoodcause
No
Yes
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Chart 9. Respondents’ answers regarding subliminals to help a good cause
To this question 121 respondents answered that they believe it is ok to use subliminal
marketing with the purpose of helping a good cause, such as collecting money for refugees.
However, 79 respondents believe that is is not more acceptable just because it is for a good
cause. Responses we received were: “More ok, but always ok”, “I think it is okay for helping
others; as long as it doesn’t affect the viewers economy drastically!”, ”It is a good cause and I
don’t mind subliminal marketing”, ”Yes, all ways to collect money for the ones in need are
good ways”, ”No, I don’t think it is ok to trick people into giving, it should be out of free
initiative”, ”No, if it’s a good cause the organization don’t need a sneaky way to get people to
donate”.
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4.1.10 Is it more unethical to use subliminal messages or psychological methods in any of
the following examples?
Subliminalsandvariousproducts
1.Fitnesscenter2.University
1.Toys2.Flowers
1.Milk2.Champagne
1.Candy2.Toothpaste
1.Clothes2.Weekendtrip
Numberone
1.AtCinema2.AtFoodstore
Numbertwo
Equal
1.InFashionmagazine2.InFreenewspaper
1.Expensiveshaver2.Washingpowder
1.Luxurycar2.Placetolive
1.Milk2.Nailpolish
1.Toiletpaper2.Designerbag
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Chart 10. Respondents’ answers regarding products containing subliminals
We asked our respondents opinions if one product/ place might be consider more unethical in
comparison with another for containing subliminal messages. The two products that had most
answers were ‘toys’ with 112 (vs ‘flowers’) and ‘candy’ (vs ‘toothpaste’) with 109. We
received the lowest number of answers for ‘clothes’ (vs. ‘a weekend trip) with 25 and ‘a
luxury car’ (vs ‘a place to live’) with 27. These were the two categories that also received the
highest number of responses for ‘equal’.
All categories and answers were the following: ‘Fitness center’ with 56 responses vs
‘University’ with 73 answers, ‘equal’ was chosen by 71. As mentioned above, ‘toys’ got 112
responses vs ‘flowers’ with no responses, 88 people considered it to be ‘equal’. The third
category was ‘milk’ with 57 checked boxes vs. ‘champagne’ with 39, 104 participants
consider it to be ‘equal’. The fourth category was ‘candy’ which received 109 answers vs.
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‘toothpaste’ with 28, 63 people saw no difference and chose ‘equal’. The fifth category was
‘clothes’ with 25 answers vs. ‘a weekend trip’ with 36, 139 participants picked ‘equal’. The
sixth category was a situation, 51 of the participants think that it is more unethical to be
subjected to subliminal advertising at ‘the cinema’ vs. 84 participants who think it is more
unethical at ‘a food store’, 65 respondents believe it to be ‘equal’. The seventh category was
whether our respondents believe it to be more unethical with subliminal advertising in either a
‘fashion magazine’, which received 39 answers, vs. in a ‘free news paper’, which collected 82
votes, the number of participants who did not think there is a difference was 79. For our eight
category we asked our respondents if they believe it to be more unethical for either ‘an
expensive shaver’, which got 46 checked boxes, vs. ‘washing powder’ which received the
close number 43, the third highest number of ‘equal’ was for this category with 111. The
ninth category was between a ‘luxury car’, which received 27 answers, and a ‘place to live’,
which received 38 answers, the number of participants who did not see a difference was 135.
For the tenth category we compared ‘milk’ and ‘nail polish’ which received 68 and 53
answers in that order, and the other 79 participants believe it to be ‘equal’. The eleventh and
last category was ‘toilet paper’ with 66 answers vs. a ‘designer bag’ with 54 participants, 80
respondents chose ‘equal’. Comments we received were: “I don’t think it’s ok when it’s
aimed towards kids or young adult’s (when it’s regarding very important decisions like
university)”, “If you’re a customer (not kids) I think people have to take into consideration
that the sender will take on some tricks to accomplish better sales rates!”, “I see no difference
in if it’s more or less unethical, the outcome is the same” and “University would be the worst
since people might have dreams of getting in and if they don’t this type of commercial would
only make them feel worse about it”.
4.1.11 Would it matter if the subliminal message is meant to create a positive or negative
outcome?
Positiveornegativemeaning
NeverOK
AlwaysOK
NegativeOK
PositiveOK
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Chart 11. Respondents’ answers regarding subliminals with positive or negative meaning
We asked our respondents if it would change their minds depending on if the message is
aimed to create a positive outcome (for example, a toothpaste commercial subliminally
displaying “brush your teeth every day”) or if the message is aimed to get customers to buy
34
more unnecessary things (for example, a candy commercial subliminally displaying “eat
candy every day”)? 107 respondents answer that they think it is OK when the message is
meant for a positive outcome, 54 answered that it is OK in both situations and what the
message is doesn’t matter, and 39 respondents answered that it is never OK to use subliminal
marketing no matter what the message is. 0 respondents believed it to be OK to only use
messages with a negative purpose. Quotes we collected were amongst others: “Not really. It
can seem more morally ok if it has a good cause but in the end I kind of think that whatever
business people want to sell that they should be allowed to use the same tricks”, “No I don’t
think it is more ok just because it is positive, it is the same endgame”, “Rather ‘brush your
teeth’ because it’s good for you”, ”Maybe just little since they can be pressured to buy more
unnecessary stuff without knowing they are affected by anything. Harder to resist”, ”No it
wouldn’t matter cause even it is aimed to make you eat candy every day I still think you have
the choice to not do it”, ”I think it is okay if the commercials are aimed to create a positive
outcome because it might help the person instead of causing pain and/or misery!”, ”Yes. If
it’s for a good cause or positive outcome for the person then I believe that it’s more ok. Help
people help themselves”, and ”Nah, if it’s for a good thing it’s better, but it’s still ok with all”.
4.1.12 Do you think it is acceptable to subject a consumer to subliminals in any of these
situations?
Passiveoractivesituation
250
200
150
100
50
0
Event
Mall
Cinema
Incar Onlinew/o Onlinew
goal
goal
TV
Podacast
Chart 12. Respondents’ answers regarding subliminals in various situations
For our next question we wanted to find out in what situations or participants think that it is
more or less ethical to subject consumers to subliminal marketing. We gave 8 examples of
situations that are either passive or actively involved moments and the respondent could
choose as many or few as they wanted. The situations were “At an event”, “At the mall”, “At
the cinema”, “In the car passing by a billboard”, “Browsing the Internet with no specific
goal”, “Browsing the Internet searching for specific information”, “Watching TV”, and
“Listening to a podcast while cooking”. 196 respondents think that it is more ethical while the
consumer is ‘at an event’, 180 respondents answered ‘at the cinema’, and 172 respondents
answered ‘at the mall’. ‘Watching TV’ and ‘browsing the internet with no specific goal’ were
both chosen by 137 participants and closely following was ‘Browsing the internet searching
35
for specific information’ which 134 respondents chose. 117 of the people that answered our
survey believe it is ok while ‘Listening to a podcast while cooking’ and with the lowest
ranking number was ‘In the car passing by a billboard’.
4.1.13 If subliminal messages are used, in which area or areas do you believe it to be
unethical?
Unethicalareas
Inadvertisementsforchildren
Inalcoholadvertisements
Intobaccoadvertisements
Infashionadvertisements
Infood/beveragesadvertisements
Inpolitics
Inwarpropaganda
Inmusic
Inadvertisementsoverall
0
50
100
150
200
250
Chart 13. Respondents’ answers regarding ethics in various areas
This was our last question and we wanted to find out in which area or areas our participants
think that subliminal messages are unethical. This was a multi-choice question and our
participants could choose as many or as few as they wanted. We chose nine categories for our
respondents to share their point of view on. The four categories that got the highest response
rate for being unethical was ‘in advertisements aimed at children’ with 200, in other words
100%, of our participants believing this is unethical, ‘in politics’ with 139 participants, ‘in
war propaganda’ with 136 responses, and ‘in advertisement for tobacco’ with 133 answers.
Following these areas for fifth place was ‘in advertisements for alcohol’ with 104 responses.
Further, we had 52 respondents who think it is unethical ‘in advertisements for food and
beverages’, 39 respondents think it is unethical ‘in fashion advertisements’ and we received
26 answers, the lowest number, that it was very unethical ‘in music’. Finally we asked our
respondents if they believe it to be unethical ‘in advertisements overall’, and we wanted to
remind the respondents that “advertisement is meant to affect consumers to buy the
company’s products”. This gave us a response from 42 participants that they believe it is very
unethical in all advertisement.
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4.2 Qualitative Research
We interviewed two people with broad marketing knowledge and experience. The collected
data comes from these two separate interviews executed on April 15th 2015.
4.2.1 Chief Marketing Officer of an international company
Our first interview was with a 38 years old man who has got a broad range of experience
when it comes to marketing. Primarily his marketing experience has been within comms
(communications), online advertising, online marketing and copywriting. He is currently the
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of a fast-growing international software-company. He started
working at the company in 2011 and was at that time one of the first two people working
there, with the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Today the company has got about
260 employees, customers all over the world and continues to grow. At first the marketing
had to do with increasing presence online through research ranking, research-marketing
buying ad-words and clicks, social media and a lot of word-of-mouth. Now that they have
built up a proper marketing team; they are investing more in PR, doing more above the line
marketing, prevent-based marketing and increasing outbound and more traditional marketing
methods. The core is still within digital online marketing.
He told us that his first proper marketing role was in the early 2000’s where he was managing
a brand and trying to take it to market via traditional marketing tactics in that time and area of
the music industry, i.e. MySpace. He then worked for a music company, running their website
and email marketing. Prior to his current position as CMO, he worked at a PR-firm with
digital communications and consulting work.
4.2.1.1 What do you think about when you hear the term subliminal advertising?
Our first question to our respondent was regarding his thoughts about subliminal advertising.
We asked this as an opening question with the purpose of finding out if the respondent had
any knowledge about the subject and if so, what he knows and associates with it. Also, this
was the first question, which meant that we had not in any way, warily or unwarily, swayed
the respondents thought and/or opinions in any direction. His first response to the question
was “I don’t really think about it that much, maybe because it’s subliminal and I’m not aware
of it” (Interview CMO, April 15th) and then he continued saying “I’ve heard of the term but I
haven’t researched it extensively because I tend to think about it more as a consumer
marketing approach whereas most of my marketing is B2B” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
During the interview he mentioned a couple of times that he wished he had researched it
before the interview took place to be able to give us better answers. He continued answering
the question with “When I think about subliminal advertising I don’t know whether I think
about it as an actual marketing discipline that requires investment in tactics or if I think about
it as ‘how do we actually market our product and not subliminally sell it, while not actually
selling it’” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He continued with an example of how the type of
marketing you do while selling software could be compared to subliminal marketing: “It’s
kind of boring and a lot of widgets and people don’t understand it”, which makes it’s hard to
sell, “if you only talk about the product itself” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He tells us that
they market the software by telling stories around it or more specifically; “get our customers
to tell stories about it”, i.e. “showing 2 minute video of a small retailer who’s gone from being
unsuccessful to becoming successful, talking about how it changed their life and how
underneath it all there’s an implication on how they couldn’t have done it without using the
product” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He finishes of with the words “So it’s not hidden in the
way that perhaps true subliminal advertising would be but we’re not positioning so strongly
so we’re kind of trying to sell people on other things than the product itself” (Interview CMO,
37
April 15th), meaning that it could be a variant of subliminal advertising, depending on the
definition of it.
We follow-up the first question with “Could one say that it’s a very thin line between regular
advertising and subliminal advertising?”, the idea came from the respondents implication that
marketing and selling something other than the product itself could be looked upon as
subliminal. His answer was “Yes, I guess so. I think there are probably practitioners who are
much more overt in using subliminal advertising. The idea probably forms a lot of how people
position and market products” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
4.2.1.2 Do you believe it is a technique marketers use? Today or through history?
When asking the third question, we wanted to know if the respondent had any particular
knowledge or experience of subliminal advertising; the underlying meaning was if he knew of
any examples or had ever heard about it personally over his years in the marketing industry,
without asking straight on. He started of with the suggestion that marketers do, and continues
in the same line as before; that marketing something else than the actual product can be
subliminal. He said that “There’s a lot of ways you can do it, product placement is probably a
good example. If you are aware that it’s happening, you do kind of notice it but placing
products in movies is a good example of it as a well-known tactic in terms of building
awareness for brands or associate a brand with a certain behavior or a certain celebrity or
culture” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He continues with telling us about an example of when
Edward Bernays had British American Tobacco as a client in 1920’s wanted to advertise
cigarettes to women, who generally at the time was not smoking at all. He said “they were
really clever in how they took it to market” (Interview CMO, April 15th) and continued with
the client’s problem formulation “All of the men are smoking cigarettes since they came back
from the war but no women are smoking it, they think the shape is a bit weird for them and
we can’t seem to market it to women” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He then told us what
solution Bernays came up with: “he basically connected with three of the top influencers in
the soft project movements, women trying to get to vote, and they were doing a famous rally
in New York so they”, they as in the influencers, “convinced them to smoke cigarettes on the
day” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He said that “it was like a rejection of the social norm, like
‘I wanna vote, so I’m gonna smoke’ so they lit up on the day, expecting it to go all on the
news paper, getting photographed and suddenly every young rebellious woman in the world
wanted to smoke cigarettes” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He finishes the example with the
words “Over night, they basically advertised a product without people realizing it” (Interview
CMO, April 15th). He made an comparison to marketing today, saying that marketers are still
very good at doing that kind of “unknown” marketing: “when you see a movie and somebody
lights up, they take a deep breath in. You see the same form with a lot of other products as
well, especially well-known brands” (Interview CMO, April 15th) and gave Coca Cola as an
example. He summed up by saying “So I think you do sort of get quite a lot of it today”,
saying that the structured of celebrity endorsement are the same way; “it’s a bit of subliminal
advertising when you’re not actually positioning your product, you’re just associating your
product with a certain aim or a certain approach”. He finishes answering the question with “If
you look at a number of ways that people advertise products, you probably do see subliminal
tactics, but I don’t know whether that would be defined as subliminal advertising or not”
(Interview CMO, April 15th).
4.2.1.3 Have you heard of embedded subliminal words or pictures in advertisement, or popups on TV?
We gave the respondent the current example of suspected subliminal advertising when
McDonalds logo popped up for a millisecond during an episode of Iron Chef and his thoughts
38
about that was “Really? Literally like that (showing a hand gesture of a pop-up)?”, he went on
by saying “When thinking about Subliminal Messaging, people do think about that obvious
flash but I guess I’m not aware of people doing it overtly, I tend to think about it happening
more subtle” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He gave us a personal example of a friend who
works in radio; “They got paid by a brand to mention the brand once during the show. It
didn’t have to be in context but sort of weaved it in a conversation, just kind of talking. And
they all had to say it a certain number of times during the radio show and I think they got
found out for it so they were obviously endorsed by the brand to mention or use it, even out of
context” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
The respondent asked us about other examples, apart from the one of Iron Chef, and we
decided to show him a clip from The Lion King on YouTube, where dust spells out the word
‘sex’ when he lays down on the ground. His response to it was “Really?! Ha.. Okay”
(Interview CMO, April 15th). He also asked about backmasking (when one record words on a
song so when played backwards you can hear them) and we told him about the example of a
store that had the words “don’t steal” in a low-based tone that one would not hear in the
speakers, where the store actually noticed a difference compared to if they did not have it. The
respondent went on by saying “When I see something like that”, referring to the clip from the
movie The Lion King, “I think that it’s probably a junior graphic having a bit of fun because
he’s bored, but it would be interesting to see if actual brands are using it, like if that’s
different trick of color because then you’d know who to blame it on. Like, sex: what are they
advertising?” (Interview CMO, April 15th). We also showed a Subway commercial where the
steam, again, spells out the word ‘sex’. His initial response to it was, once again, “Ha.. Wow.
Okay” (Interview CMO, April 15th). We explained that since sex is one of the primal
instincts, it is supposed to affect us in a particular strong way. We followed up by asked if he
thinks that the word is meant to be in the Subway-ad or something that could be described as
pareidolia and his answer was “I think that it’s pretty clear”, referring to the word ‘sex’ in the
steam, “it feels pretty lazy as an advertising tactic to me, but I’m sure that there are teams of
very well-paid people who has researched this stuff enough and tested it to see whether it
works. It also feels like it could be people trying to generate controversy just for the sake of it
as a way to get additional edification about advertising” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He
went on by saying “I would be interested in understanding the psychology more but when I
see that, I think of it as a bit of a lazy way to market a product. But, in a competitive
environment where everybody’s trying to get attention, I can understand that people end up
doing that” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
We told him about innocent types of subliminal advertising, or subliminal communication, in
the form of logos: FedEx, Amazon, etcetera. He then gave us an example which we had not
heard of before: a logo that uses the same green tone as in the US dollar bill. He continued
saying that “I would say that there’s psychology of forms in all of advertising and marketing,
the tactic about it, the discipline: you have this meeting point of data and client and
psychology and creativity with the goal set to be making a lasting emotional impression of
somebody or communicating something with a very limited attention span”. His final words
regarding this question was “So subliminal messaging or subliminal communication is
probably bound to be a chuck of what we do, whether it’s tended to be or a bi-product of how
we do our creative” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
4.2.1.4 Do you think it can be described as mind-control? Why? Or what else?
The respondent thought for a while and then said “I think everything we do is some form of
mind-control, in some sliding scale. There’s brainwashing and then there’s just trying to
influence somebody”, showing hand gesture of the two being on opposite sides of the scale,
39
“and people spend most of their day trying to get something influenced in one way or another
whether it’s trying to reach a decision or trying to persuade somebody to do something, or
trying to make your opinions heard all the time”. He continues with “I think that there’s a
fairly broad spectrum for what constitutes mind-control. In anything you do in advertising you
are trying to change or sway somebody towards your way of thinking of something. It’s all
about influence, it’s the most critical component of any marketing; actual influence somebody
towards your particular decision. So the short answer to that is yes, of course” (Interview
CMO, April 15th).
4.2.1.5 What are your thoughts about it ethically, is it good or bad?
We added to the question for deeper understanding “Where is the line between if it’s okay to
do it and not okay, or is it always okay?”. His first response was “That’s a good question”,
starting with “I’m pretty liberal in terms of how people choose to market or position their
products” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He continued making a distinction of the market
audience in two; children and adults: ”I think that fundamentally, advertisement for children
is probably where it crosses the moral grounds for me because they are so incredibly
influential and I tend to agree with countries who restrict advertising to children under the age
of 14, especially when they have sex advertised to them. But for targeting adults, I think it’s
okay to just use good judgment on them” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He finished with
talking about subliminal usage within marketing and advertising with “If you think it’s a
valuable way to establish a strong brand by using inappropriate imaging then go for it, but I
think that you quite quickly discover that it’s just a short-term tactic; it does not actually
establish long-term credibility. So I think that if you allow judgment and market data to
control how people market then you won’t see a tremendous amount of it” (Interview CMO,
April 15th).
4.2.1.6 Have you ever had any personal experience of it being used?
We added the questions “Have you ever heard anyone talk about it or been asked to use it
professionally?” Our respondent answered the questions with “I haven’t been involved in a
tactic conversations about subliminally placing or subliminal messaging people; at least not
using that kind of tactics as in the Subway-ad. But pretty much everything we do in marketing
is trying to place/plot a product in some way or another so I’d say that it’s always in a
underlining meaning in a lot of the conversations; how do we actually position this product
but we don’t typically talk about subliminal advertising” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
4.2.1.7 What do you think is the best way to influence consumers to buy a product?
The respondent gave us three examples and explanations of good ways to influence
consumers. The first one was ‘Replication’: “when you give something to somebody then
they feel like they have to give something in return. For giving out a free trial for example, or
a free sample, it kind of feels like there’s an obligation to return the favor in some way even
though they don’t necessarily realize it” (Interview CMO, April 15th). Another one he told us
about was ‘Social Proof’: “a really powerful one, where you demonstrate the fear of missing
out cause the power of fomo is quite powerful. And so if you can demonstrate that other
people are using your product or service and that those people look like you, then that’s a very
established way to kind of drive influence amongst people” (Interview CMO, April 15th). The
last way to influence someone that he told us about was ‘Commitment’: “if you can get
people to commit to something small then it kind of proceeds to a larger commitment”. On
this last one, he gave us an example saying “A team of people went out to houses asking them
to put up billboards for driver safety and everybody in the neighborhood said no, because they
didn’t want to have a big billboard on their front lawn. Then they went to a neighborhood
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down the road and they there went with a survey in before hand: d they knocked on
everyone’s door saying ‘we’re doing a survey on road safety. Would you like to see drivers
going slower? Do you believe that we need to have safe roads? And are you committed to
road safety?’ And they got the answers, ‘Yes, yes, yes’. A week later they went back to that
same neighborhood saying ‘can you put up a billboard on your front lawn?’ and 50 % of the
people said yes” (Interview, April 15th). He explained it with “they had demonstrated that by
getting them”, referring to the house owners, “to commit to a certain position on something,
when they then asked to do a larger act in that position, they were much more likely to do it”.
He went on with “You could kind of use a combination of these things”. He finished
answering the question with “There’s a lot of clever ways to gain influence on people”
(Interview CMO, April 15th).
4.2.1.8 In general, is it looked upon as something bad in the industry?
Our respondent answered “If I think of it as overt, like flashing up a logo on a screen and
trying to be secretive about it, I would say so; yes.” he continues with “But I think more
subtle forms of product placement or using testimonials of some content are not, I think they
are regarded as quite effective ways but I think trying to be underhand about it is not regarded
as a very good tactic” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He lastly sums up the interview by saying
“Again, from my perspective it’s feels a bit lazy and as a cheap way to achieve a goal and
doesn’t feel particularly creative” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
4.2.2 Content and PR Manager of an international company
For our second interview we chose a Content and PR Manager of the age 33 with broad
marketing experience. Prior his current position he was an advertising freelancer and
contractor and has worked for both big agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and small “really
independently minded” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th) agencies on
primarily brand, writing and communications. Brands and clients he has worked with includes
many both big and small brands, well-known names are amongst others Toyota Lexus,
Smirnoff, Spark, ASB and Tourism NZ. Because of his broad experience we thought it would
be interesting to know if he had noticed any difference between the big agencies and the
smaller ones. We therefore asked him “is there any difference in how they work, is someone
maybe thinking more about how they can influence the consumer?” His answer to this was a
clear yes, and he explains “the bigger an agency, the more you have little departments in it as
well, so at ASB they might have a digital engagement team who come up with stuff that is in
that influencury-sphere and then they might have what we were doing which is like retail stuff
so writing copy about investment schemes and stuff” (Interview PR and Content Manager,
April 15th). He goes on by telling us of when he worked with a smaller agency on an
experiential campaign for Smirnoff called the N.O. It was about an underground organization
and they would come up with missions that people would go through with, and it could be
that one person had a mission to drop of a red bag and the next person had a mission to go and
pick up the red bag and they wouldn’t know each other. People would join through a website
where they communicated with them and filmed videos of the missions. He explains “it was
using pretty much all the visual language of anonymous but before anonymous existed”
(Interview Content and PR Manager, April 15th) However, because of LEX they had to get
“effective in positive change” which resulted in them planting 20,000+ trees in one day which
got them in the news. This was a way to break away the image of Smirnoff being just an
ordinary Vodka brand that people could replace with another by the simple mean “how do we
make it past just being ordinary? Let’s do some really not ordinary stuff and then people will
tell other people about the not ordinary stuff” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April
15th). These experientially campaigns were very alternative at the time and were “very much
just about creating influence” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
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4. 2. 2. 1 What do you think about when you hear subliminal advertising?
“First thing on my mind? I think of like a cartoon with a flashed up screen of like lollies or
something to kind of influence children” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He
goes on by saying that he thinks it is “sinister and not very supporting”, and along with this
statement he continues with “the first things that pops into mind are not legal and not really
moral” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). However, being a marketer he also
think’s it is “quite exciting”, “funny” and “interesting” “to think the power of imagery and
messaging is so great that you questioning some people that want to do them without even
knowing” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
4. 2. 2. 2 Do you believe it is a technique marketer’s use?
To this question our respondent explains that he does not believe subliminal advertising is a
technique used in the most obvious examples, such as a pop-up in the middle of a program.
However, “A lot of the principles with subliminal advertising where things are embedded in
content or product placement or brand alignments or color” are some things he can recognize
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). As an example he talks about when he
worked with telecommunications campaigns and the importance of what colors the brand
uses, “you will never find a competitor's color in the ad of a major brand” (Interview PR and
Content Manager, April 15th). With this in mind he concludes, “I think that the concepts of
subliminal advertising are still found in advertising and marketing” (Interview PR and
Content Manager, April 15th).
Do you think it was more often used earlier when it was a new technique and everything
about it was new?
Our respondent explains that “I know there was a much clearer delamination between product
and entertainment or product and news” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th)
when talking about the history of advertising, but also that he does not know much of the
particular history of subliminal advertising. He suggests “now maybe you wouldn’t need
subliminal advertising because the adverts are openly incorporated into their products so
whether it’s an advertorial section in a magazine or Pepsi made a sitcom” (Interview PR and
Content Manager, April 15th).
4. 2. 2. 3 Do you think it can be described as mind-control? Cause by doing it the person is
trying to influence someone’s unconscious?
When answering this question our respondent does not give a yes or no answer but is instead
doubtful about how effective it would be, considering if the brand got caught doing it they
would have destroyed their brand image forever and he does not believe the number of sales
they would have made of it would be worth it. To his knowledge there are a significant
number of better techniques to try and get into people's minds quoting “considering the
number of ways that you can honestly engage yourself in people’s consciousness through
brand association it would seem to be probably not the most elegant possible way to do that”
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
4. 2. 2. 4 Do you think it is possible to control or influence consumers with subliminal
advertising and if it is, to what degree?
When asking this question our respondent got quite excited and stated “I wish I knew, I’d
love to know! (...) I’d love to subject myself to it and see” (Interview PR and Content
Manager, April 15th). He explains that it would be very intriguing to find out since we all have
a mind of our own and personal feelings, opinions and points of views that we think we
decide for ourselves; “everyone thinks that they are really aware and in control (…) and make
their own choices” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He continues half
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jokingly that he would love to find out that he wasn’t actually in control of all that and that it
would be very interesting to hear if that’s not the case.
4. 2. 2. 5 Have you heard of or seen any commercials using subliminals?
Our respondent hasn’t heard of any subliminals being used in commercials since the 50’s-60’s
when it was first “caught and out brought” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
However, he draws a comparison to music videos and the technique they use “with splicing
and single frames of things (…)(but) when you make a video you can’t tell if a frame is
wrong, you cut one frame to you’re in another shot so one frame can’t kind of like stick in the
head” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
Have you ever heard of it personally or have you heard of “yeah I think they were using that”
in a commercial?
Our respondent can’t remember ever hearing that and jokes “but you know maybe it was so
subliminal I didn’t know” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
4. 2. 2. 6 What types of subliminals have you heard of?
To this question our respondent answered “I haven’t heard of anyone doing it you know
unless... (He then starts drumming with his fingers on the table, trying to think of it for a
second but then continues) no I can’t remember any examples of someone actually trying to
do a subliminal campaign” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He suggest that
it could be a cool way to do a “pretend campaign” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April
15th) and joked that one could do it “for a coke-ad and then throw a coke in subliminally like
that would be really funny. You wouldn’t get in trouble because it’s inside the ad (Interview
PR and Content Manager, April 15th). We continue to discuss that some companies have
actually used this technique in competition campaigns as a kind of game with the customers
before moving on with the next question.
4. 2. 2. 7 What are your thoughts about it? Do you think it can be ethically right to use it?
Our respondent explains that so much of advertising and persuasion is already just in the area
of being a bit evil ethically so there wouldn’t be a huge difference when thinking about it in
that perspective. He argues that “to make people feel that they their body is fat and that they
stink and that they are smelly and that they are ugly and that they need products to stop them
being all of those things, that’s pretty horrible too” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April
15th). He continues to try and draw a line between what is just normal advertising that we see
every day and what would be extra unethical about the subliminal kind and goes “a lot of
advertising is ethically pretty iffy but it’s the distinction of being so, so far into the especially
stink category that it’s not possible” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). From
this we draw the same conclusion, as with respondent number 1, that he believes there is a
thin line between the two different ways of advertising and therefore ask the following
question:
So do you think there’s a thin line between what’s bad subliminal advertising and what
everyone practices?
To this follow-up our respondent gives us a clear yes and gives the example of the regular
political advertising which he believes is “praying on things that you aren’t entirely in control
of like your childhood feels, you’re feeling vulnerable or whatever, is that cool? You’re
watching the telly and then someone suddenly making you feel scared and alone in the world”
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). This type of advertising uses your emotions
to influence you in a way that is not very ethical when you think about it, like a lot of
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advertising does. He goes on by stating that this tactic is something “you just choose not to do
or not to be involved with” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He further
evaluates this by explaining his own way of thinking when he does advertising, it’s “about
building an emotional connection, so try to make people fall in love with things” he jokes that
“Is it there to make them fall in love with stuff they don’t need?” (Interview PR and Content
Manager, April 15th).
When talking about the thin line between the two approaches and whether it is ethically right
or wrong, we come to think about the “Subway” commercial that we showed and talked about
with respondent number 1 as well. We think it’s a pretty clear and interesting example and
want to find out what this respondent thinks about it too, so we show it to him. His first
response when noticing that the steam spells out the word sex is “Get out of it... well I
suppose everyone likes sex, that’s the idea?” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
When discussing this we bring up that sex is one of the four primal instincts of Freud’s theory
and will supposedly appeal to the unconscious. He continues to consider the ad by stating “I
wonder if maybe a bored art director was like ‘let’s make it spell sex haha’ it would be funny.
But if it was part of a concerted plan I would love to see how it worked” (Interview PR and
Content Manager, April 15th). He continues to be confused about what strategy they were
going after by analyzing the aspects of the ad further and we get into talking about the fact
that a lot of examples of subliminal advertising are of alcohol commercials were they made a
woman’s body out in the ice. He brings up that there is an alcohol law called LEX that
regulates what is allowed and not in the advertising of an alcoholic drink. Our respondent has
done work for companies such as, previously mentioned, Smirnoff as well as Heineken and
Monte and tells us that they would regularly run into problems because of the strict standards,
i.e. “couldn’t use hero of the youth, couldn’t associate alcohol with sexual success so that was
a very subjective thing (…) You couldn’t associate with water or driving a vehicle, you
couldn’t associate with excessive consumption, so you couldn’t have anything like a party
with someone who drank or anything so it was very, very regulated” (Interview PR and
Content Manager, April 15th). He continues by drawing a line to subliminal language by
saying “and you know with sexual success (…) it’s like drink beer and get hot you know, you
can’t put that idea (in someone’s head) (…) like become attractive to the opposite sex, find
yourself more attractive, be more confident, it’s not ok” (Interview PR and Content Manager,
April 15th).
Do you think that some companies do that on purpose or is it just in the mind of the
consumer?
Our respondent does not believe that it’s all in the head of the viewer but rather tells us: “I
think a lot of advertising is about (…) like dual meaning, extra layers, something new,
something that makes you look at the world from a new way, something that surprises you,
it’s just about attention grabbing” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He goes
on by talking about the primal instincts of humans and how this is used to draw our attention
to something. He states that is the reason why we always see attractive people on billboards,
they are “used to empathize something that don’t exist, that they don’t have any quite existing
need/feel connected to. You could say that putting a model on a speaker ad that’s a form of
subliminal advertising, like the speaker will make you sexy” (Interview PR and Content
Manager, April 15th).
4. 2. 2. 8 Have you ever had any personal experience of it being used?
Here our respondent gives us a clear and simple no. We go on by explaining that it could just
be an innocent example and show him the logos of FedEx and Amazon. He comments this
with saying, “you’re always trying to increase the layers of meaning but that’s not really
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being subliminal advertising” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He goes on by
discussing what the difference is in his opinion and concludes that subliminal advertising is
“more of a nefarious thing like someone actually trying to get one over you” (Interview PR
and Content Manager, April 15th). He also explains how him and the people he has worked
with in the industry try and create loyal consumers and get their attention with other means,
“we’d always try and push to get something and create an emotional connection, make people
care more, edit layers of meaning” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). While
talking about the importance of creating a deeper meaning and connection with the wanted
consumer he mentions the importance of “represent it to what you’re trying to do” (Interview
PR and Content Manager, April 15th) and continues with saying “I don’t know if it’s about
reflecting back audience as well, there’s always subliminal cues in an ad like is the ad for me?
Do I think they are people like me? Do I see people I admire? Are they wearing the kind of
shoes that I would respect? So it’s all those signals that you have of how you dress, how you
dress the elements of your set, that is trying to reflect or talk to a certain audience” (Interview
PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
4. 2. 2. 9 What do you think is the best way to influence consumers to buy a product?
To this our respondent has a clear opinion “now, there is nothing in the world that gets found
out faster than bullshit. With the Internet you can not make something that is not true. So
from a base of truth you create emotional connections based on post-effects so you make
something really funny, or you make something people love, you make something people
admire and respect, that is real” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He
continues with describing a campaign he was involved with for Lexus and how they did to
show consumers that it’s real and created an emotional connection “in Japan at the Lexus
factory they have the most intense master craft technicians, people spend their whole life
making like wood paneling for the door and stuff and they are like the world's best wood
paneller and they are like obsessed with doing things in a really great way. Lexus is a Toyota
brand and obviously it was Japanese and mass produced and to show that it was actually
luxury and luxury as in hand-made, we went and we shot all these videos about the guys and
made these ads and talked about them and no one had ever talked about the Japanese dude
who makes the car before, so it was real and it gave people a reason to understand the luxury
and it gave them an emotional connection to the car” (Interview PR and Content Manager,
April 15th). He continues by saying “you try and find something that people can really relate
to (…) I don’t think people can be convinced, I don’t think people can be like persuaded
against their will. I think you present things to people that are real and in a really nice way they get a nice reaction like I really like the production of that, oh I love the way that person
smiled, oh she’s laughing. That kind of stuff and then people make their own minds up”
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
Do you believe that subliminal advertising works?
His first consideration is why it would be worth doing subliminal advertising, “What’s the
long-term value in it? What if people find out that you’re doing it and then your brands
fucked forever (…) and nothing’s one hit” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
He goes on by explaining what he considers to be a very effective way to enter the consumers
mind by using the example of McDonald’s, “support kids soccer, make ads that make people
smile, be present in every bus stop just to remind people that you exist when they might be
hungry at lunch. So you get all of those different touch-points and all of them do different
stuff” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
4. 2. 2.10 In general, is it looked upon as something bad in the industry?
In the opinion of our respondent subliminal advertising is definitely looked upon as
something bad. However, he makes the distinction between subliminal cues which would just
45
be added layers of meaning to the advertisement or campaign and explains to us “if you say
subliminal cues then that’s just part of it. You have the reason of set designers and people are
art directors because they understand tone and what you are expressing by making certain
choices in ads, so there are subliminal cues that look like good, that shows that you’re hitting
the audience right but trying to hoot bent people, no” (Interview PR and Content Manager,
April 15th).
It’s not something that you have heard someone talking about it in a professional manner?
To this question the answer was “no, no, no” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
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5. Analysis
This chapter consists of an analysis of our empirical study in relation to the chosen theories
to find similarities and differences. It is divided in two parts; our two research questions.
5.1 What marketing methods aimed at building a psychological
connection with the consumer are ethically acceptable and in what
areas of marketing or situations?
Ethics is a major issue within the subject of subliminal messages in advertising. According to
our survey there are some areas where it is considered more unethical than others to use
subliminal messages. As Kotler, et al. (2008) mentions; marketers struggle to reach
consumers with messages while some consumers are afraid of unconscious affects through
subliminal messages (Kotler, et al., 2008). Although Parpis (2003) quote Ewen Stuart saying
that subliminal advertising and regular advertising have the same goal to create an invisible
bond between the consumer and brand. He says that overall advertising is all about “creating
associations between a product and a realm of desire”. One of our interview respondents
explained that “A lot of the principles with subliminal advertising where things are embedded
in content or product placement or brand alignments or color” are some things he can
recognize (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
5.1.1 Common and/or Acceptable Methods
In 4.1.3 and 4.1.4 we asked our respondents what they believe to be regular marketing
“tricks” and what marketing techniques they believe are acceptable and fair from a list of 14
marketing strategies, sorting out which tactics our participants believe are ethical for
marketers to use when it comes to appealing to their subconscious. The first option was
“Appealing to emotions; building an emotional connection, for example showing a happy
couple eating a certain brand“. To this option 173, 86,5%, of our respondents answered that
they believe that it is a common marketing strategy and the same number of respondents
answered that they also think that it is an acceptable marketing technique.
In frame of reference Kiran & Kishore (2013) stated that if a brand uses universally known
associations, it can trigger wished desires in consumers. They continued with by appealing to
the customers emotional instead of intellectual they reach for the unconscious. Meanwhile
McLuhan means that subliminals exists of two levels: one that reaches to consumer’s
intellectual and one that reaches for the emotional. Our interview respondents talked about
appealing to emotions and creating a bond with the consumer that way as being a common
way to do marketing. The CMO who works for a software company explained that some
products are hard to sell “if you only talk about the product itself” (Interview CMO, April
15th). Therefore, they market the software by telling stories around it or more specifically;
“get our customers to tell stories about it”, i.e. “showing 2 minute video of a small retailer
who’s gone from being unsuccessful to becoming successful, talking about how it changed
their life and how underneath it all there’s an implication on how they couldn’t have done it
without using the product (…) so it’s not hidden in the way that perhaps true subliminal
advertising would be but we’re not positioning so strongly so we’re kind of trying to sell
people on other things than the product itself” (Interview CMO, April 15th). Our second
interview respondent also explained to us how he and his team work with appeals to
emotions; “we’d always try and push to get something and create an emotional connection,
make people care more, edit layers of meaning” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April
15th). While talking about the importance of creating a deeper meaning and connection with
47
the wanted consumer he mentions the importance of “represent it to what you’re trying to do”
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th) and continues with saying “I don’t know if
it’s about reflecting back audience as well, there’s always subliminal cues in an ad like is the
ad for me? Do I think they are people like me? Do I see people I admire? Are they wearing
the kind of shoes that I would respect? So it’s all those signals that you have of how you
dress, how you dress the elements of your set, that is trying to reflect or talk to a certain
audience” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He also said “So from a base of
truth you create emotional connections based on post-effects so you make something really
funny, or you make something people love, you make something people admire and respect,
that is real” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
Another way of using psychological means in advertising that we asked our respondents
about is “Showing that the company cares about good causes, for example donate money
when a customer shops”, so called Cause-related marketing, or CRM. This was something
60% of our participants find to be common and 87% think that it is an acceptable method for
strengthening a company’s worth in the customer's eyes. It is, by our participants, a tactic that
is ethical and something they would do in a further stretch than what they believe it is done
today. Chang & Cheng (2015) teaches us that thanks to CRM, a brand cannot only increase
sales, it can enhance brand image and generate a positive word of mouth. One example that
our interview respondent gave us from when this way of marketing was used in a marketing
plan that he was involved with was for Smirnoff. They had to get “effective in positive
change” because of LEX so they ended up planting 20 000+ trees in one day outside of
Auckland which got them a lot of positive media feedback and separated them from being
another ordinary vodka brand (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
Chang & Cheng (2015) also stress the importance of being careful when choosing what type
of CRM to perform since some ads might be perceived by some people as manipulative
‘gimmicks’.
A practice that has been researched extensively and is used for many reasons is “color
association”, i.e. using colors that the brain subconsciously associates with certain things.
80% of our respondents answered that they think this is a common way to go for marketing
and 96% answered that they think it is an acceptable method to use, meaning that according to
our respondents it is acceptable in a further stretch than what they believe marketers in
actuality work with it. Our interview respondents agree with this, but push that it is also a
common marketing method. We hear that there is one brand that is using the exact same color
of green as the American dollar bill to associate the brand with money (Interview CMO, April
15th). When talking about the importance of color for a brand, our second interview
respondent tells us about when he worked with telecommunications campaigns and says, “you
will never find a competitor's color in the ad of a major brand” (Interview PR and Content
Manager, April 15th).
A way of creating a different atmosphere and not melting into the masses for some stores is to
use scents or music to create a certain feeling or mood when the customer steps into the store.
This is a method that our respondents feel positive about as 90,5% think that it is acceptable
to use certain music to influence the consumer and 78,5% think that it is acceptable to use
scents for the same reason. The number of participants in our survey who think this is a
common tactic is however less, 73,5% think that it is common for a brand to use music in a
way of creating a certain mood and 53,5% think that it is common to use scents. In question 4
under 4.1.6 where we gave our respondents a fictive example of a new store opening up and
using these methods we got a response rate of 100% of people who believe this was very
ethical and acceptable. Our respondents explained this with statements such as ”Of course it is
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ok. If I owned a store I would do the exact same thing, just as if I had a web-shop I would
make the website as appealing and professional looking as possible to attract more
customers”, “They aren’t tricking anyone to buy their products. They enhance the possibility
for larger sales through optimizing the shoppers experience at their time in the shop”, and “I
think this is a great way to stand out from the rest of the stores and make it special and your
own”. It seemed that when separating the two practices of music and scent in a theoretical
question our respondents had a lower sense of the methods being ethical than when they were
given a practical scenario.
There are a lot of brands that use logos with subliminal embeds which 95% of the participants
in our survey think is an ethical marketing technique and 73% think it is a technique that is
commonly used. Associating a brand with an event is a method a brand can use to signal to
consumers what their brand is about. The fact that one can aim the event to perfectly match
the brand makes event one of the broadest marketing possibilities amongst them all. One of
our interview respondents explained to us when he was involved in a marketing campaign
where they created a game, an experiential campaign, for Smirnoff in which consumers would
participate. It was called the N.O. and it was about an underground organization and they
would come up with missions that people would go through with. It could be that one person
had a mission to drop of a red bag and the next person had a mission to go and pick up the red
bag and they wouldn’t know each other. People would join through a website where they
communicated with them and filmed videos of the missions (Interview Content and PR
Manager, April 15th). According to 76% of our respondents this type of marketing is common
and 83% think that it is ethical.
Collaborations or celebrity sponsoring are other techniques a brand can use to strengthen or
position their brand in the mind of the consumer. Both of these methods have as well a higher
number of answers for being ethical than for being common. 74,5% think that collaborations
are common and 57% think that celebrity sponsoring is common, while 92% think that
collaborations are ethical and 79,5% think that celebrity sponsoring is ethical. On of our
respondents explain celebrity endorsement as “it’s a bit of subliminal advertising when you’re
not actually positioning your product, you’re just associating your product with a certain aim
or a certain approach” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
A technique that our participant’s answer is both common and ethically acceptable is product
placement. 93% view it as a common method and 97% think that it is an ethical way to go.
When getting a specific example of product placement in question 4.1.6 a lower but still high
percentage of 84,5% of our participants answer that it is an acceptable technique. This
confirms Hackley, Tiwsakul & Preuss (2008) theory that product placement is not looked
upon as especially bad by consumers. Our first interview respondent explains that marketers
use a technique of marketing something else than the actual product and says: “There’s a lot
of ways you can do it, product placement is probably a good example. If you are aware that
it’s happening, you do kind of notice it but placing products in movies is a good example of it
as a well-known tactic in terms of building awareness for brands or associate a brand with a
certain behavior or a certain celebrity or culture” (Interview CMO, April 15th). Our second
interview respondent said that marketers are very good at doing kind of “unknown”
marketing: “when you see a movie and somebody lights up, they take a deep breath in. You
see the same form with a lot of other products as well, especially well-known brands”
(Interview CMO, April 15th) and gave Coca Cola as an example.
Embeds is the technique when pictures or words are being airbrushed or inserted, for
example, in an ad. This is the technique that is used in the Kent Cigarettes “Good Time”
commercial, in the Hiram Walker Whiskeys “Imp” campaign ( Bell, 2011), and the technique
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that Disney has many times been accused of using in their movies (Warrick, 2011). As Kiran
& Kishore (2013) writes it is the type of subliminal advertising that front figure Wilson Bryan
Key discusses in his many books. Embeds are meant for the persons subconscious but can be
perceived when the onlooker is aware of what they are looking at (Rosen & Singh,
1992). 20,5% of our respondents believe that this is a common technique, and slightly above
half, 53,5%, think that it is ethical. This type of subliminal advertising has been very much
questioned by previous research and has gained a lot of negative publicity. The fact that ‘sex’
is the most embedded word is not making it any better.
Pop-up’s is another technique that has received a lot of negative reactions in the media. 26,5%
of our participants believes that this is a common technique and 46,5% accept this method as
ethical (the lowest number in our survey regarding acceptable methods). When our
participants were given a more specific example in question 4.1.6 the slightly higher number
of 54% answered that it is an ethical method. One of our interview respondents draw the
likeness to a music video when using this technique and says “when you make a video you
can’t tell if a frame is wrong, you cut one frame to you’re in another shot so one frame can’t
kind of like stick in the head” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). In our
interviews we received comments about this type of marketing being unethical; “If I think of
it as overt, like flashing up a logo on a screen and trying to be secretive about it, I would say
so; yes” (Interview CMO, April 15th), and “First thing on my mind? I think of like a cartoon
with a flashed up screen of like lollies or something to kind of influence children” (Interview
PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He goes on by saying that he thinks it is “sinister and
not very supporting”, and along with this statement he continues with “the first things that
pops into mind are not legal and not really moral” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April
15th).
Playing a voice-over is a method has been used in several areas; to lower shoplifting, to stop
smoking, in advertisement by Mark Mothersbaugh who has admitted to use subliminals in
songs he has written for several commercials (Strauss, 2001), and there have been lawsuit
cases against bands that have admitted to using it. 28,5% of our respondents believes that this
is a common technique and 56,5% believes that it is an ethical technique to use. In 4.1.6 we
gave our respondents more specific example of two different voice-over’s; one store that was
using a voice-over saying, “don’t steal” and one using a voice-over saying “buy more”. 94%
think that the first one is acceptable to use and 47% think that the second example is
acceptable, slightly less than when they weren’t given a specific example. One of our
interview respondents gave us a personal example of a friend who works in radio; “They got
paid by a brand to mention the brand once during the show. It didn’t have to be in context but
sort of weaved it in a conversation, just kind of talking. And they all had to say it a certain
number of times during the radio show and I think they got found out for it so they were
obviously endorsed by the brand to mention or use it, even out of context” (Interview CMO,
April 15th).
There are a lot of discussions about ethics when it comes to neuromarketing where it is
believed that companies might be allowed to manipulate consumers through marketing
activities (McDowell and Dick, 2013; Baruca, et al., 2014) and Dichter (1960) states that “it
has been proved beyond any doubt that many of our daily decisions are governed by
motivations over which we have no control”. 64% of the respondents in our survey believe
that this is a common technique but the even higher number of 80,5% believe that it is an
ethical technique. When given a more specific example in a mini-story of a company using
Neuromarketing in the preparation of their marketing plan 73% of our participants still think
that it is an acceptable method. In the top U.S. 100 brands there are 13 brands that are using
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neuromarketing for strategy development (Sullivan 2009) and Baruca, et al. (2014) names
companies that are using neuromarketing; Microsoft, Yahoo and Hyundai (Baruca, et al.,
2014). It is also known that Coca Cola uses it for their quantitative ad performance projects
(Dooley, 2013).
5.1.2 Subliminal marketing in different areas
Subliminal techniques have been used in various channels. Some examples where using
subliminals has been confirmed are horror movies, in form of embedded words and imagery,
subliminal statements in rock songs, self-help tapes using subliminal audio as well as antitheft messages in audio used by retailers, in stress-management seminars, subliminal write-in
campaigns by radio stations, and public service messages on TV. When asking our
respondents about in which areas they believe subliminal marketing is more or less ethical to
use, 100% of our respondents answered that it is highly unethical in advertisement aimed at
children. In question 4.1.10 when asking our respondents to compare various products and
whether it would be more or less ethical to use subliminal advertising in one of them, the two
products that stood out were toys (56%) and candy (54,5%). The only two products that one
can say the advertising would foremost be for children. Our interview respondents agree and
the first one explains: “I’m pretty liberal in terms of how people choose to market or position
their products” (Interview CMO, April 15th). However, he continued making a distinction of
the market audience in two; children and adults: ”I think that fundamentally, advertisement
for children is probably where it crosses the moral grounds for me because they are so
incredibly influential and I tend to agree with countries who restrict advertising to children
under the age of 14, especially when they have sex advertised to them. But for targeting
adults, I think it’s okay to just use good judgment on them” (Interview CMO, April 15th). In
several movies made by Disney, there are allegedly subliminal messages appearing in the
background. Most of the messages are of the sexual kind, which becomes an enlarged issue
since Disney’s focus is on producing animated movies for children (Warrick, 2011). Blair
(2006) also agrees that to use sexual appealing commercials on channels that target children,
such as Nickelodeon or Disney Channel, would be an ethical issue.
Other areas that received a high number for being unethical are politics with 69,5% and in
war propaganda with 68%. One of our interview respondents also brought up this subject and
gives the example of the regular political advertising which he believes is “praying on things
that you aren’t entirely in control of like your childhood feels, you’re feeling vulnerable or
whatever, is that cool? You’re watching the telly and then someone suddenly making you feel
scared and alone in the world” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). This type of
advertising uses your emotions to influence you in a way that is not very ethical when you
think about it, like a lot of advertising does. He goes on by stating that this tactic is something
“you just choose not to do or not to be involved with” (Interview PR and Content Manager,
April 15th). Using subliminals with fear symbols is allegedly more vastly used in campaigns
such as for war and politics and the reason for that is to ensure that governments can lead the
public down the road of their choice. Bell (2011) explains that if a citizen is afraid that
themselves or their country is in danger, they are more willing to, for example, go to war. A
modern example of using the strategy of fear and negative association in politics was during
the election in 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore; during a TV-campaign promoting
republicans the word “RATS” flashed when degrading the democrats medical plan (Stewart,
2008). This was a big talked-about subject and the explanation was that it was a mistake.
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5.1.3 Thin line between ethical and unethical ways to appeal to the psychological
Though some methods that are aimed at appealing to the consumers psychological are clearly
ethical and some are not, it is difficult to draw a line between exactly which methods end up
at opposite sides of the line. Overall in advertisement 21% of our participants believe that it is
unethical to use subliminal messages, showing that our respondents are highly acceptable of
this technique. In our interviews one of our respondents said that subliminal advertising, as
the more overt kind, is definitely looked upon as something bad. However, he makes the
distinction of subliminal cues, which would just be added layers of meaning and he says: “if
you say subliminal cues then that’s just part of it. You have the reason of set designers and
people are art directors because they understand tone and what you are expressing by making
certain choices in ads, so there are subliminal cues that look like good, that shows that you’re
hitting the audience right but trying to hoot bent people, no” (Interview PR and Content
Manager, April 15th). Our other respondent explains, “I think everything we do is some form
of mind-control, in some sliding scale. There’s brainwashing and then there’s just trying to
influence somebody”, showing hand gesture of the two being on opposite sides of the scale,
“and people spend most of their day trying to get something influenced in one way or another
whether it’s trying to reach a decision or trying to persuade somebody to do something, or
trying to make your opinions heard all the time” (Interview CMO, April 15th). When
researching the subject it became clear that subliminal marketing can easily become an ethical
issue and therefore several institutions have written legislations against it. Some examples are
The American Association of Advertising Agency, Advertising Standards Association, and
the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, The Federal Communication Commission and
The National Association of Broadcasters’ Television Code (Kiran & Kishore, 2013; Bell,
2011; Phillips, 1997)
Our interview respondents, and our chapter regarding frame of reference, make it clear that
subliminal messages are looked upon as something negative in the industry and one of our
respondents mention that he is doubtful about of effective it would be for a brand to use this
type of marketing considering if the brand got caught doing it they would have destroyed their
brand image forever and he does not believe the number of sales they would have made of it
would be worth it. To his knowledge there are a significant number of better techniques to try
and get into people's minds quoting “considering the number of ways that you can honestly
engage yourself in people’s consciousness through brand association it would seem to be
probably not the most elegant possible way to do that” (Interview PR and Content Manager,
April 15th). He further discusses this at another part of the interview and says, “What’s the
long-term value in it? What if people find out that you’re doing it and then your brands
fucked forever (…) and nothing’s one hit” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th).
Our other interview respondent also agrees with this and comments: “If you think it’s a
valuable way to establish a strong brand by using inappropriate imaging then go for it, but I
think that you quite quickly discover that it’s just a short-term tactic; it does not actually
establish long-term credibility” (Interview CMO, April 15th). However, in our survey we
collected many understanding and positive comments from our respondents. As mentioned,
only 21% of our participants believe that it is unethical to use subliminal messages overall in
advertisement and the high number of 96% would not react negatively if they found out that
their favorite brand was using subliminal advertising. When discussing with our interview
respondent to what degree subliminal advertising could possibly influence a consumer he
mentions that it would be very intriguing to find out since we all have a mind of our own and
personal feelings, opinions and points of views that we think we decide for ourselves;
“everyone thinks that they are really aware and in control (…) and make their own choices”
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He continues half-jokingly that he would
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love to find out that he wasn’t actually in control of all that and that it would be very
interesting to hear if that’s not the case (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). Our
respondents on the other hand believe that even if they were subjected to subliminal messages
they would be able to make choices without influence of this. Comments from our survey
respondents are amongst others “Everyone is able to make a decision on their own, if people
are sooo easily ‘fooled/bought’ I believe they will have greater problems in life than that they
will make shopping they later will regret” and “Even it is aimed to make you eat candy every
day I still think you have the choice to not do it”. This is very interesting, especially since
Dichter (1960) clearly says that it has been proved beyond any doubt that decisions we make
on a daily basis are made with motivations we have no control over and that we are often
unaware of why we make our decisions. In the same time, Kenning (2008) states that “there is
no such thing as a buy button”, which is true. Just because a marketer sends a subliminal
message to a target consumer does not mean that the consumer will buy the product or
service: there must be a long-term maintenance from the brand regarding every single
channel, not only through subliminal messages. Finally, Bernays, retold by Bell (2011),
means that the manipulation is an important element in a democratic society. This tells us that
our respondents think that they are in more control than they actually might be. Blair, et al.
(2006) means that the main thing to take under consideration, no matter what type of
advertising, is 1) who the target consumer is and 2) what service or product is being
advertised. As an example; it would not be ethical to run a sexual appealing advertising on
channels that target children, common sense should help marketers make these decisions.
Even though our interview respondents are negative about the more extreme type of
subliminal messages, and would not use it themselves one of them comments that being a
marketer one of them also thinks it is “quite exciting, funny and interesting to think the power
of imagery and messaging is so great that you questioning some people that want to do them
without even knowing” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). Our survey
respondents are as well intrigued by this type of marketing and comments that it is “a very
good way to market products”, “ I would think that it’s kind of cool”, and “it’s smart
marketing”. Our other interview respondent also shows an understanding point of view, and
even though he looks at it “as a bit of a lazy way to market a product” he says, “in a
competitive environment where everybody’s trying to get attention, I can understand that
people end up doing that” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
In our theoretical framework Parpis (2013) is also drawing a thin line between what is regular
marketing and what is outright unethical marketing by saying: “Advertising itself is about
creating associations between a product and a realm of desire. The standard definition of
subliminal advertising limits it to conspiratorial visions of images secretly being embedded in
advertising images and ignores the fact that advertising by definition, since the 1920s, moved
away from talking about products themselves to the power of suggestion. In that sense,
subliminal advertising is everywhere" (Parpis, 2003). To draw a distinct line is hard even for
our interview respondents who currently work as and have many years behind them as
marketers. Our respondent tries to draw a line between what is just normal advertising that we
see every day and what would be extra unethical about the subliminal kind and goes “a lot of
advertising is ethically pretty iffy but it’s the distinction of being so, so far into the especially
stink category that it’s not possible” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He
mentions that advertising is about connecting on a psychological level and says, “I think a lot
of advertising is about (…) like dual meaning, extra layers, something new, something that
makes you look at the world from a new way, something that surprises you, it’s just about
attention grabbing” and also says, “You’re always trying to increase the layers of meaning but
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that’s not really being subliminal advertising” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April
15th). While talking about the importance of creating a deeper meaning and connection with
the wanted consumer he mentions the importance of “represent it to what you’re trying to do”
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th) and continues with saying “I don’t know if
it’s about reflecting back audience as well, there’s always subliminal cues in an ad like is the
ad for me? Do I think they are people like me? Do I see people I admire? Are they wearing
the kind of shoes that I would respect? So it’s all those signals that you have of how you
dress, how you dress the elements of your set, that is trying to reflect or talk to a certain
audience” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He goes on by discussing what
the difference is in his opinion and concludes that subliminal advertising is “more of a
nefarious thing like someone actually trying to get one over you” (Interview PR and Content
Manager, April 15th). Our other interview respondent concludes that “Subliminal messaging
or subliminal communication is probably bound to be a chuck of what we do, whether it’s
tended to be, or a bi-product of, how we do our creative” (Interview CMO, April 15th).
5.1.4 Passive or Active situations
In question 4.1.12 we asked our participants to let us know during which situations they
believe it is ethically ok for a company to use subliminal advertising. We had divided the
options into situations where the consumer will be in either a passive or an active state of
mind, and not surprisingly our participants gave a higher response rate for it being acceptable
in active situations. These were when the consumer is at an event, at the cinema, or at the
mall. The situations that had the lowest number of answers for being ethical were passive
moments, such as driving by a billboard (51%) and listening to a podcast while cooking
(58,5%). These are still very accepting numbers with the lowest being slightly above half of
all respondents who still think that it is acceptable to use subliminal messages in these type of
passive situations. In the chapter frame of reference we learned that it is very important for
the marketer to acknowledge the fact that there are different levels of participation when it
comes to various channels. Since various channels appeals to different consumer groups, one
must truly understand that to pick the right level of participation and the right channel to reach
the target group is of great importance. If not, the return of investment would be very low. For
example, if a luxury brand decides to communicate their chosen message with a television
advertising it would be low: you would reach many people who would not relate to the
message and since it costs a lot of money to have an advertising on television it would not
favor the brand. In question 4.1.10 we also received the answer that it is more unethical to use
subliminal advertising on someone while they are at a food store than when they are at the
cinema. Perhaps because a person who is grocery shopping often have a set goal and a list to
follow and therefore is passive towards the advertisement they pass by, while a person who is
at the cinema is there to actively acknowledge what is showing on the screen. In the
theoretical framework Rosen & Singh (1992) explain that even the things that are outside of
the viewer’s focal point gets picked up by the subconscious and can later influence that
persons behavior, preferences and attitudes towards a brand or product. So information that is
being picked up while a consumer is passively involved will still be stored in that person’s
subconscious.
5.2 Is it ethical to use subliminal marketing for a cause-related
brand, a luxury brand or aimed at a specific income group?
5.2.1 Change in behavior regarding subliminal messages
One could argue that it takes quite a lot to change someone’s behavior. One way of doing it
would be to appeal to the primal instincts of humans; even though it was a long time ago that
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humans lived ‘simple’ lives hunting to get food and building to get shelter, the primal
instincts of hunger, security, fear and sex is still very strong within us. That is one reason to
make sure that subliminal messages, or messages overall within marketing, appeals to at least
one of the four instincts. It has been ensured that sex is the strongest instinct and therefore the
one most often in focus. Something else that would change behavior is if one would move to
another culture. When it comes to marketing, it is not really about changing behavior in the
long run, at least not immediately, but making sure that the target consumer becomes affected
in one way or another; actions and/or feelings, which have been scientifically proven to
happen when messages appeals to the subconscious. According to the fifth question in our
survey 38% would have a negative response or change in their behavior if they found out that
the Red Cross, a goodwill organization, had used subliminal marketing and only 11% would
react in a negative way if Louis Vuitton, a luxury fashion brand, had used it. Explanations for
this is that our respondents would not want the money they give to help a good cause to be
spent on subliminal marketing and that it is not ethical for a human resource group to use
subliminal marketing but for Louis Vuitton they would not be surprised and that if it helps
them sell it is ok by the respondents. For their favorite brand, which was anything from an ITcompany, clothes & interior, only 4% would react negatively. In question 4.1.13 we also
found out that 19,5% of our respondents believe that it is unethical for a fashion brand to use
subliminal advertising. This is somewhat surprising as fashion otherwise is a very talked
about subject when it comes to influencing people’s subconscious and has a part in how many
view themselves. Our respondent explains that so much of advertising and persuasion is
already just in the area of being a bit evil ethically and he argues that “to make people feel
that they their body is fat and that they stink and that they are smelly and that they are ugly
and that they need products to stop them being all of those things, that’s pretty horrible too”
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). He goes on by talking about the primal
instincts of humans and how this is used to draw our attention to something. He states that is
the reason why we always see attractive people on billboards, they are “used to empathize
something that don’t exist, that they don’t have any quite existing need/feel connected to. You
could say that putting a model on a speaker ad that’s a form of subliminal advertising, like the
speaker will make you sexy” (Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). Perhaps,
because so much of advertising in the fashion world is already based on primal instincts and
beautiful people, many of our participants are so used to it and therefore would not be
surprised or react negatively in this case.
In our ninth question we found out that 60,5% of the participants answer that they think it is
more acceptable for a company to use subliminal marketing when it is for a good cause such
as collecting money for refugees, while 39,5% do not think that it is more acceptable just
because it is for a good cause. This is a close match with the 38% that would have a negative
reaction if they found out that a goodwill organization was using subliminal marketing.
However, while collecting the results from our participants the answers for these two
questions were not always consistent. A way of influencing the consumers psychological by
using cause-related marketing that our participants do not think is a very common way of
marketing but however ethical, is to associate a brand with a good cause for example donating
money for a cancer fund. Kotler (2008) does not agree with our participants but says instead
that cause-related marketing is a part of almost every brand. He means that it is popular since
“It lets companies ‘do well by doing good’“(Kotler, et al., 2008, p. 215). While our
respondents had a higher level of negative response for a pure goodwill organization that uses
subliminal advertising, Kotler (2008) also states that some consumers are suspicious to this
type of marketing as they think it is ethically doubtful and might lure the consumer into
buying a product or pay more for a product than what it is worth.
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In question 11 we found out that slightly above half of our respondents, 53,5%, believe that if
the cause of the subliminal message is to create a positive change in consumer's life it is more
ok than if they simply are creating a message to sell more. 27% of our participants did not
think that it matters whether the message is aimed to create a positive or negative outcome for
the individual, but that it is fair game to use subliminals either way and that the rules of what
is ok should be equal since they believe that the point is no matter what to sell more of their
products. However, 19,5% does not ever think that it is ok to influence consumers through
subliminal messages no matter if the message is meant for a positive or negative outcome in
the consumer’s life, which is close to the answer in question 4.1.13 where 21% of our
participants answer that they believe it is unethical to use subliminal advertising overall. A
classic example of using psychology in marketing a product which today is looked upon in a
very negative way, even when it comes to regular marketing, is when Edward Bernays had
British American Tobacco as a client in the 1920’s and wanted to advertise cigarettes to
women, who generally at the time was not smoking at all. One of our interview respondent
brought up this example as well and began explaining it as: “All of the men are smoking
cigarettes since they came back from the war but no women are smoking it, they think the
shape is a bit weird for them and we can’t seem to market it to women” (Interview CMO,
April 15th). Bernays then came up with a solution on how to market cigarettes to women by
using simple psychological marketing methods. Our interview respondent said, “He basically
connected with three of the top influencers in the soft project movements, women trying to
get to vote, and they were doing a famous rally in New York so they convinced them to
smoke cigarettes on the day” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He said that “it was like a rejection
of the social norm, like ‘I wanna vote, so I’m gonna smoke’ so they lit up on the day,
expecting it to go all on the news paper, getting photographed and suddenly every young
rebellious woman in the world wanted to smoke cigarettes” (Interview CMO, April 15th). He
sums it up by saying, “Over night, they basically advertised a product without people
realizing it” (Interview CMO, April 15th). In 4.1.13 we also find out from our survey
respondents that 66,5% believe that it is unethical to use subliminal messages for advertising
tobacco. However, the view on cigarettes has changed a lot since 1920’s so that way of
marketing tobacco would probably not have worked today.
An area that 52% of our respondents believe is unethical when it comes to using subliminal
techniques in advertising alcohol. This is a product that is often associated with a negative
outcome, such as lapse of memory and hangovers. One of our interview respondents have a
history of working with several alcoholic brands such as Smirnoff, Heineken and Monte, and
this is an area that receives a lot of speculations regarding subliminal advertising. Our
respondent tells us that they would often run into problems when creating advertising
campaigns because of very strict regulations that are set up by LEX, for example he mentions
that an alcoholic brand can’t associate “with sexual success (…) it’s like drink beer and get
hot, you know, you can’t put that idea (in someone’s head) (…), like become attractive to the
opposite sex, find yourself more attractive, be more confident, it’s not ok” (Interview PR and
Content Manager, April 15th). Perhaps, because this is a sensitive product to market and there
are many laws and regulations regarding it some marketers have avoided getting caught by
using subliminal advertising to still be able to associate their products with things such as
sexual success, or perhaps the fact that it is a sensitive product is simply the reason for why
alcoholic brands are often targeted for having used subliminals. There are as well many other
laws such as the ATF that has set regulations about subliminals within marketing for tobacco
and alcohol. Associating alcohol with sexual success is exactly what is done in the Hiram
Walker Whiskeys “Imp” campaign, which is part of leaked advertising training documents.
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5.2.2 Acceptance level for high- or low end products
Regarding luxury vs necessary products, there is a great difference when it comes to
marketing techniques. Necessary products are often communicated through a basic approach:
with information. Luxury products on the other hand are about creating a value. Not only
when it comes to quality but also sentimental value. It has to do with a feeling of reward, selfexpression, self-fulfillment and also the desire humans have to express status towards other
humans. As we learned in the frame of reference; consumption overall is like an extension of
the self and that makes the consumption of luxury goods an extension of a better self. To
make the consumers understand that it is worth spending that extra money on a product,
marketers communicate various pitches; one common is something like “you deserve this”.
When choosing whether it is more acceptable to use subliminal advertising in marketing for
either necessary products or luxury products our respondents in the survey answered that it is
more ethical for products that are necessary (13%). Ironically, when we asked our
respondents whether they believe it is more ethical to aim subliminal advertising towards
lower, middle, or higher income people they answered contradictive to their previous answer
as the majority for this question believe that it is more ethical to aim it towards higher income
(31%), some of our respondents clearly agrees with Klein’s (2007) statement: “the ethics and
social responsibility communities seem to agree that targeting vulnerable groups with
marketing campaigns that take advantage of their vulnerability is unjust”. However, most
respondents were divided between it always being acceptable (39,5% for necessary/luxury
products and 26% for income levels) and between it never being acceptable (39% for
necessary/luxury and 28,5% for income levels). When it comes to the other side of luxury
consumption; income level, it is quite simple math needed to understand that the biggest
consumers overall are members of higher socioeconomic classes. If one have more money it
is easier to buy more, and while economic downturns trouble the rest of the population those
with a higher income are not as easily affected. While the upper strata is primary targets for
expensive luxury goods, the middle income groups can usually, with planning, also buy these
luxury products once in awhile. The people with lower income in the other hand will have
their focus on survival: focusing on food, clothes and the need for shelter. The bipolar
consumer; the one that is willing to spend money on luxury products but also compare prices
online and shop in discount stores, is the new modern consumer. Everybody loves discounts.
One of our respondents told us of when he was involved in creating a commercial for a luxury
brand, Lexus. They were not using overt subliminal messages but their aim was to persuade
the subconscious by building a psychological bond with the consumer and creating something
new. Psychology that according to APA has to do with everything from the functions of the
brain to the actions of nations: from the development to a child to care for the aged. Our
respondent explained: “in Japan at the Lexus factory they have the most intense master craft
technicians; people spend their whole life making like wood paneling for the door and stuff
and they are like the world's best wood paneller and they are like obsessed with doing things
in a really great way. Lexus is a Toyota brand and obviously it was Japanese and mass
produced and to show that it was actually luxury, and luxury as in hand-made, we went and
we shot all these videos about the guys and made these ads and talked about them and no one
had ever talked about the Japanese dude who makes the car before, so it was real and it gave
people a reason to understand the luxury and it gave them an emotional connection to the car”
(Interview PR and Content Manager, April 15th). 57
6. Conclusion
The chapter contains our conclusions regarding the research questions. The conclusions are
based on our analysis, which is founded on the empirical research and the frame of reference.
In the last part of the chapter we will present further research suggestions.
6.1 Conclusions and Reflections
Our overall conclusion is that Swedish consumers of all ages are ethically accepting when it
comes to marketing that is meant to create a psychological connection with the consumer
rather than just selling the product, even when it comes to the more extreme techniques such
as embeds and pop-ups, our respondents showed a high acceptance level. They were
understanding and ok with the fact that the marketer will take to dirty tricks to sell as much as
possible. This result regarding ethical acceptance is surprising and does not fall in line with
many previous studies. One reason for this could be that our study focuses on Swedish
consumers whereas others often are researched on larger scales in the US or Europe overall.
In these two figures, one can easily compare the result of theories and what our Swedish
respondents think regarding ethical acceptance when it comes to different types of marketing.
Figure 5. Unethical vs ethical types of marketing according to theories.
Figure 6. Unethical vs ethical types of marketing according to survey respondents.
58
6.1.1 What marketing methods aimed at building a psychological connection with the
consumer are ethically acceptable and in what areas of marketing or situations?
The one area that we can conclude is by far the most unethical is not surprisingly in
advertisement aimed at children; 100% of our survey respondents agreeing to this. Our two
interview respondents also weighed in their thoughts on this and mentioned that this would be
especially unethical and in our theoretical framework we also found strong evidence to
support this. From a list of products our participants also picked out toys (vs flowers) and
candy (vs toothpaste) to be a significant amount more unethical than for other products in this
comparison. Other areas that as well are perceived as more sensitive and with other words
unethical when it comes to using subliminal techniques are politics, in war propaganda, for
tobacco, and for alcohol. Surprisingly, fashion seemed to be fairly ethically acceptable when
using psychological influence even though it is a controversial subject within the area of
projecting how people view themselves and what they believe they need.
As mentioned, our research shows that Swedish consumers are highly acceptable of what
techniques marketers use and the methods that resulted in being the most unethical were popups and voice-over’s with a negative message or that is meant to influence the consumer in a
way that might not be in their best interest. However, even for these techniques roughly half
of the participants in our survey were ethically accepting. This shows a contradictive result
from previous studies and research where consumers are scared of being controlled or
manipulated through these types of techniques.
Our study also shows that consumers are more ethically accepting of and would not react as
negative to subliminal advertising when being subjected to it in an active situation such as
when attending an event or when at the cinema, than when they are in a passive situation such
as driving by a billboard or listening to a podcast as a secondary activity.
6.1.2 Is it ethical to use subliminal marketing for a cause-related brand, a luxury brand
or aimed at a specific income group?
Our study shows a contradictive result as our conclusion is that consumers find it more
ethically acceptable when subliminal messages are aimed at higher income people, with the
reason that they have a higher discretionary income, but at the same time they find it more
ethical when it is used for necessary/everyday products, with the reason that these are cheaper
and easier to switch or throw away. However, most are very diplomatic and believe that
subliminal techniques should either be allowed for all products and all income levels or for no
products and no income levels.
We also conclude that it is more ethically acceptable if a company uses subliminal advertising
for a good cause, such collecting money for refugees, than if a company that simply wants to
sell more uses the technique. However, at the same time consumers would be more
disappointed in a company that is working for a good cause than in a luxury brand, as they
would not expect it from them. If a consumer found out that their favorite brand was using
subliminal messages only 4% would react negatively, which will be surprising for marketers
who often believe that a brand would be destroyed if it came out that they had used subliminal
marketing.
Finally our study shows that it is more ethically acceptable to use a subliminal messages that
is aimed at improving the consumer’s life, for example to stop eating candy, but in this matter
as well we find that consumers are very accepting and most answer that it is either ethical to
use no matter what the message is or that it is never ethical to use no matter what the message
is.
59
6.2 Further Research Suggestion
During the process of writing this dissertation we found some aspects that could interest
further researchers to continue on the same track. First and foremost, this dissertation is
relatively small. With bigger resources such as time and money, this subject could be deeper
researched in several areas. For example there would be a better possibility to get more
participants to share their point of views, which would lead to greater generalization. One
could also interview additional marketers, perhaps in different industries and compare the
results to see if there would be any difference. One could also send surveys to different
countries to make a global research and maybe compare different countries point of views
with each other to find some sort of pattern. There could also be a possibility to research the
subject in other ways, for example one could make a study group and even see for oneself
how subliminal messages affects the brain or the body with help from a fMRI or ECG. The
possibilities are infinite when it comes to different research techniques. Apart from that, one
could research both bigger and smaller definitions of subliminal advertising.
As a final suggestion we believe that the financial view is the biggest factor for using
subliminal messages in advertising. It would be interesting to research the financial view on
the subject. How much money is put into embedding of words and pictures in ads? How big is
the return? Does it make a difference? These questions would be of great interest when
further researching this subject.
60
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8. Appendix
8.1 Questionnaire Layout Survey
1. Age?
>19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50<
2. Sex?
a. Male
b. Female
3. Which psychological methods would you consider to be regular marketing ”tricks”?
• Appealing to emotions; building an emotional connection, for example showing a
happy couple eating a certain brand.
• Showing that the company cares about good causes, for example donate money when
a customer shops.
• Using colors in advertisement that the brain associates with certain things
• Using scents to create a feeling
• Using music to create a certain mood
• Using a logo with dual meaning (ex. Tour de France)
• Associating a brand with an event (Ex. Red bull sponsoring adventurous events)
• Collaborations
• Celebrity sponsoring
• Product placement
• Embeds; using airbrush to apply a message for the subconscious
• Pop-up; Showing a picture on TV/ iPad/ Computer for a millisecond so the
subconscious picks up on it
• Voice-over; playing a message on a level that the subconscious picks up on for
example at a store
• Neuromarketing; When a company researches which subliminal messages the brain
reacts to and uses them in their advertising.
4. Which psychological marketing methods would you think is acceptable to use to strengthen
a company’s value? (Imagine that it’s your own company)
• Appealing to emotions; building an emotional connection, for example showing a
happy couple eating a certain brand.
• Showing that the company cares about good causes, for example donate money when
a customer shops.
• Using colors in advertisement that the brain associates with certain things
• Using scents to create a feeling
• Using music to create a certain mood
• Using a logo with dual meaning (ex. Tour de France)
• Associating a brand with an event (Ex. Red bull sponsoring adventurous events)
• Collaborations
• Celebrity sponsoring
65
•
•
•
•
•
Product placement
Embeds; using airbrush to apply a message for the subconscious
Pop-up; Showing a picture on TV/ iPad/ Computer for a millisecond so the
subconscious picks up on it
Voice-over; playing a message on a level that the subconscious picks up on for
example at a store
Neuromarketing; When a company researches which subliminal messages the brain
reacts to and uses them in their advertising.
5. A) What’s your favorite brand? It doesn’t matter what category it is.
B) Imagine that this brand was outed to have used subliminal marketing, how would you react
and continue your relationship with this brand?
C) Imagine that the Red Cross had been outed to have used subliminal marketing, would your
attitude towards this brand be affected? How?
D) Imagine that Louis Vuitton had been outed to have used subliminal marketing, would your
attitude towards this brand be affected? How?
6.
•
•
•
Drink AB is about to launch a new soda. While creating their marketing campaign
they want to make sure that their commercial will appeal to consumers. Therefore,
they invite a random group of people whom they show video clips of various different
colors, flashing words, pictures and so on while the viewer is wearing EKG-equipment
to track the body’s reaction. Afterwards, they use the information they got from the
observation to finalize their commercial. Is this ok? Why or Why not?
Computers Inc. want to signal to consumers that their product is a luxury product and
worth spending money on. Therefore, when a new tv-show about the wealthy
teenagers of Manhattan is about to start filming, Computers inc. decide to sponsor the
show so that every important character can be seen with one of their laptops at least
twice per episode. Is this ok? Why or why not?
Healthy AB wants to create a new commercial for their long-time best selling
headache medicine, which lately has had a dip in sales. They create a national wide
TV commercial that is packed with information about why, when, and who should be
buying their medicine. Is this ok? Why or why not?
A) A new clothing store is opening in town. To be of interest for bypassing consumers and to
stand out from the already established shops on the street they have done extensive research
on how to create an appealing atmosphere for the consumer by using psychological tricks.
The color scheme they have chosen is to create a calm and luxurious atmosphere so the
customer will stay longer, there are comfortable mocha-colored chairs to relax in for passive
shoppers, a hint of lavender scent, and any songs with a stressful beat is avoided. Is this ok?
Why or why not?
B) The same store also start using a voice-over in their music at a sound pitch that the
customers’ conscious won’t hear. However, the subconscious will pick up on the words
“don’t steal” and the amount of shoplifting goes down with 15%. Is this ok? Why or why not?
C) The store next door uses the same technique of voice-over, but their message is “buy
more”. Is this ok? Why or why not?
•
Every year The Beauty Gala promises an eventful and fun night with a lot of celebrity
guests and handing out prices to the best beauty brands. There are over 600 attendants
at the event and it is broadcasted live on television. The popular beauty brand
66
“Perfection” sees this as a great opportunity to reach a lot of potential consumers.
During the event there is a millisecond pop-up of their logo on all of the big screens.
This is aimed to be noticed by the viewers’ subconscious. Is this ok? Why or why not?
7. A) Do you think it is more acceptable to use subliminal messages in either one of these
categories; Luxury products vs Necessary/ Everyday products.
B) Why?
8. A) Do you think it is more acceptable to use subliminal messages in advertisement aimed
to either one of these categories: Lower income vs Middle income vs Higher income.
B) Why?
9. A) Do you think it is more acceptable to use subliminal marketing to help a good cause?
For example, collecting money for refugees. Yes vs No.
B) Why?
10. Is it more unethical to use subliminal messages or psychological methods in any of the following
categories or price ranges?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Toilet paper vs A designer bag
Milk vs Nail polish
A luxury car vs A place to live
An expensive shaver vs Washing powder
Fashion magazine vs Free news magazine - in the magazine
The cinema vs A food store
Clothes vs A weekend trip
Candy vs Toothpaste
Milk vs Champagne
Toys vs Flowers
Fitness center vs University
11. Would it matter if the message is aimed to create a positive outcome (for example, a
toothpaste commercial subliminally displaying “brush your teeth every day”) or if the
message is aimed to get customers to buy more unnecessary things (for example, a candy
commercial subliminally displaying “eat candy every day”)? Why?
12. Do you think it’s more acceptable for a company to use subliminal messages through
marketing while the consumer is actively involved in an activity than when the consumer is a
passive receiver? Check the ones that you find acceptable
At an event
At the mall
At the cinema
In the car passing by a billboard
Browsing the Internet with no specific goal
Browsing the Internet searching for specific information
Watching TV
Listening to a podcast while cooking
13. If subliminal messages are used, in which area or areas do you believe it to be unethical?
a. In advertisements aimed at children
b. In advertisements for alcohol
67
c. In advertisements for tobacco
d. In advertisements fashion
e. In advertisements food and beverages
f. In politics
g. In war propaganda
h. In music
i. In advertisements overall? (Advertisement is meant to affect consumers to buy the
company's product)
8.2 Questionnaire Layout Interview
How old are you?
What is your working history, regarding marketing?
1. What do you think about when you hear subliminal advertising?
2. Do you believe it is a technique marketers use? Today or through history?
If no, what do you think of all commercials that are accused of being subliminal or containing
subliminal material? Is it something the mind makes up?
If no, why do you think people talk about it?
If yes, why? How? How common?
Do you think it was more often used earlier when it was new the technique and everything
about it?
3. Do you think it can be described as mind-control? Why? Or what else?
4. Do you think it is possible to control or influence consumers with subliminal advertising
and if it is, to what degree?
Examples?
5. Have you heard of or seen any commercials using subliminals?
Have you ever heard of it personally or like you heard of like “yeah I think they were using
that” in a commercial?
6. What types of subliminals have you heard of? (pop-up, embedded, voice-over in a track)
7. What are your thoughts about it? --> ethically, good or bad?
Example, in a children’s movie a voice that says “everyone is of equal worth”. Politics,
military.
What or who does it hurt if Subway (show example) has sex in the steam from the sandwich?
Or skittles spells sex on their package?
If not in advertising do you think there is another area where it would be ethical? (self-help
tapes etcetera)
Do you think there’s a thin line between what’s bad subliminal advertising and what everyone
practices?
Example alcohol commercials where they made a woman’s body out in the ice ..
Do you think that some companies do that on purpose or is it just in the mind of the
consumer?
8. Have you ever had any personal experience of it being used?
Yes: How? Secretive? Is it something that people talk about in general within the business?
(Have you ever been accused of it at this or any previous company you worked at?)
Examples FedEx, Amazon
9. If it exists, do you believe it works on influencing the consumer?
10. Do you believe it has greater effect than a regular commercial?
11. What do you think is the best way to influence consumers to buy a product? (Sex sells?)
12. In general, is it looked upon as something bad in the industry?
Or have you never heard someone talking about it in a professional manner?
68
Vickie Hedgren, International
Marketing student at Halmstad
University.
Angelica Persson, International
Marketing student at Halmstad
University.
PO Box 823, SE-301 18 Halmstad
Phone: +35 46 16 71 00
E-mail: [email protected]
www.hh.se