Abstract:Marketers use subliminal advertising and semiotic communications to attempt to influence consumers into purchasing, using or thinking about their product. Although they are two different techniques, they are often combined with semiotics used in a subliminal manner. This paper will explore what the two techniques are, discuss some examples of each of debate whether or not they actually work.
Part 1: Definitions of subliminal advertising and Semiotic communicationSubliminal advertising:1. 'Such practices are purported to influence consumer behaviour by subconsciously altering preferences or attitudes toward consumer products'. (Moore, 1992)2. 'Subliminal advertising 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 stimulus'. (Sponiletti, 2007)Semiotic Communication:1. 'An approach grounded in the social sciences and devoted to the analysis of symbolic communication to link the consumer world to brand associations'.
An 1890s advertisement showing model Hilda Clark i...
Advertising
A screenshot of the man page for the SoX program, ...(Groeger, 1984)2. 'Semiotics investigates the relationship between branding and culture through the medium of signs'. (Deely, 2005)Part 2 & 3: How subliminal advertising and semiotic communications are alleged to work and a few examplesThe premise of subliminal perception has been that the unconscious mind can receive information presented below the threshold for conscious perception. (Rogers & Smith, 1993)Subliminal advertising aims to subject a consumer's subconscious to stimuli in order to communicate and influence their decisions. Once consumers have been exposed to these 'under the radar' stimuli and ultimately act upon them, they are often unable to identify the origin of any stimuli associated with the product (Vicary, 1994). Consumers can be subjected to many different types of subliminal advertising. A classic case-study was conducted in 1957, where a market researcher subjected nearly 50,000...