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Mind Control
By Ryan Cleek
December 18, 2007
How Retailers Harness the Subconscious
Shopping lists and budgets aren’t the only things influencing our holiday purchases. Whether we realize it or not, priming plays an increasingly important role in our lives as consumers. While most people haven’t heard of priming, many companies live by it. Priming is a psychological term that describes how words, sounds or images can subconsciously influence behavior. When used well, priming can help companies drive sales to new heights.
There is a growing mountain of scholarly research on the subject of priming and the role of subconscious thought in human behavior. Gerald Zaltman’s book How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Markets, focuses on the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds of consumers.
Zaltman explains that successful companies are skilled at “mining their customers’ unconscious.” For example, take Apple’s use of silhouettes in its iPod billboard ads. Apple’s savvy marketers discovered that it’s easier for consumers to project themselves into a silhouette than a photograph.
There is also an interesting example of priming on the British television show Darren Brown’s Mind Control. In one episode, Brown primes two advertising executives to create a taxidermy store ad campaign identical to his own pre-made campaign. He hires a taxi to drive them to his office, saturating their route with words and images suggestive of his pre-made themes. He then asks them to create a name, logo and tag line for the taxidermy chain. They duplicate his original ideas without ever consciously seeing them.
So, if you’re planning to brave the surging mob rather than shop online this holiday season, take a break from pushing your way through the crowd and consider the subconscious factors influencing your shopping patterns. You might be surprised. Then again, if you’re primed well, you may not notice a thing.
Ryan Cleek is a Project Coordinator at Vox, Inc., a customer experience research and consulting firm. Contact him through the feedback form on our Contact Us page. Copyright 2007 Vox, Inc. All rights reserved.
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