Chapter 5 - Subliminal Advertising

Consumer behavior is the main topic discussed in chapter 5. When analyzing consumer behavior, market researchers aim toward revealing the process involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, and dispose of goods & services to satisfy their needs. In turn, marketers often propose different strategies to help accelerate the consumer behavior process, either directly or indirectly. One form of indirectly activing consumer behavior is through subliminal advertising. Professor Featherman describes subliminal advertising as "hidden messages in vendor messages. these are messages that are not consciously received, but they still affect consumer decisions - such as hidden shapes in pictures, or perhaps the use of music or noises in TV ads." Take this into consideration, a videoclip of the show Iron Chef (linked provided at bottom of blog), shows gormet chefs competing to make the most ecsquisite meal. Sadly, most Iron Chef viewers are not expert chefs and even though they may be interested in preparing an extravagent meal, most of the time viewers will settle with any food in order to spark the hunger they feel from watching the show. Carefully watch the video and see if you notice any subliminal advertising. If you paid attention, around 44 seconds into the video the McDonald's logo flashes onto the screen. Descrete and simple, the logo alone may have been responsible for increased sales shortly after being aired on television. Broadcasting error? I think not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzbwa6PvEE