Influence Subconsciously, Not Subliminally

Camouflage can boost success, whether in warfare on the battlefield or in the struggles of plant and animal species to survive. Camouflage also can boost retailing success, but only if used responsibly.
     Consider what your customers would think of you if you said you wanted to influence them to make certain purchases. My guess is that they’d consider you as fulfilling your proper role as a retailer. Contrast that, please, with what you predict your customers would think of you if they overheard you saying to one of your staff that you wanted to manipulate the customer into making certain purchases. My guess is that the customer would promptly become uncomfortable shopping in your store.
     Researchers at Stanford University point out how retailers have reported success getting customers to make a purchase by having text—such as on signage and packaging—set in narrow adjacent columns. The reason this is said to work: In order to read the text, a shopper needs to slowly nod their head up and down, and this sign of yes subconsciously produces even more positive evaluations of products the customer already likes.
     Is the head nodding production tactic manipulation? And what if you said it was subliminal? The reality is that you can sway consumers by using cues below the level of conscious awareness. Psychologists at Princeton University had study participants watch an episode of The Simpsons. During the program, phrases and pictures related to thirst were shown to some of the participants, but each phrase and picture was presented too quickly for the human brain to consciously recognize what it was.
     Sure enough, those participants shown the subliminal thirst prompts reported being more thirsty after than before the program and more thirsty than the group not shown the prompts.
     People are bombarded with too much information to process it all in a conscious, deliberative way. As retailing professionals, we’re more likely to behave responsibly when we all acknowledge our power to influence consumers subconsciously. Don’t call it subliminal manipulation, though. That frightens the shoppers.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more:
Profit from Shoppers’ Positive Moods
Interpret Brain Science Advice Cautiously