How Subconscious Marketing Influence Buying Decision

You may have heard a lot about the power of our subconscious mind. But do you know, it also influences our buying decisions? Yes, it’s true! How? Well, you will learn all about it by the time you finish reading this piece. So, let’s start from the start!

Studies reveal that our subconscious mind has the capacity to process 20 000 000 bits of information per second. On the other hand, our conscious mind can merely process 40 bits of information per second. Our subconscious mind keeps storing all this information. Now, it is also said that our subconscious mind is an unquestioning servant. Hence, it just keeps storing information without ever questioning it. The information stored tends to impact our thinking, behaviour as well as actions.

So, you see it is all a mind game. If you can trick the subconscious mind and make it believe in something, it will act accordingly and never question back. Several self help books have been written explaining the power of our subconscious mind. A lot has been said about how we can change our life for the better by giving it positive and powerful messages. While most of us are struggling to train our subconscious the right way, the marketing industry is making the most of this nature of human brain. Marketers keep coming up with new and innovative ways to influence our subconscious mind and brands are cashing in big time due to this strategy.

The Need for Subconscious Marketing

No matter how much we question things and analyze different factors before making a decision, the truth is that our feelings and emotions overpower and influence it. It has been proved time and again that humans make most of their decisions mainly on the basis of the feelings embedded deep in their subconscious. This holds good for all our decisions including our buying decisions. Wait, what? You don’t think so? Well, nor did I before I studied this subject in detail. After all, what do emotions and feelings have to do when it comes to materialistic things? This decision should purely be based on logic, isn’t it? You read about the features, durability, reviews and price of the things you plan to purchase. You process the information, analyze the pros and cons and take a conscious decision to make a purchase or not, right? WRONG!!! This is not how it works even though it should and even though we are quite sure it does. A study conducted by Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman shows that 95% of buying decisions are made subconsciously. Hence, there’s a dire need of subconscious marketing.

How does Subconscious Marketing Influence Buying Decisions?

Now that you know, how our subconscious mind works and have also learned that brands are targeting it using different methods to thrive in the market it is time for the big question! How exactly does subconscious marketing influence our buying decisions? What are the triggers that influence us to pick one product over the other? Let us learn about this in detail.

The Human Brain Looks for Shortcuts

Customer experience professional, Isabelle Zdatny, from the esteemed Qualtrics XM Institute, states that humans are faced with numerous choices each day. If our brain analysis and thinks deeply before making every choice, it would literally paralyze us. Therefore, our brain looks for mental shortcuts for making any decision. This is called the science of heuristics. This helps us make decisions quickly without much brainstorming. One of the shortcuts we use when faced with different options is familiarity. If we see something over and over again we get familiar with it and assume that it is safe. This is the reason why brands world over try to reach us constantly and increase their visibility. The more we see a brand, the more familiar we get with it and prefer it over others. So, this tactic is very much a part of subconscious marketing. It influences our buying decisions to a great extent.

Emotions/ Feelings Drive Buying Decisions

As already mentioned, our feelings and emotions play a vital role in making buying decisions. Brands are well aware about this. So, they keep coming up with strategies to trigger emotions rooted in our subconscious to persuade us to make a purchase. Here is a look at some of the emotions marketers invoke to boost their sales:

• Urgency

Creating a feeling of urgency always works for brands. It forms a major part of the subconscious marketing strategy. We often see campaigns stating, ‘Hurry, Limited Period Offer’! These words are highlighted more than anything on a banner. Why? This is because it urges consumers to take quick decision. It also gives out the message that they are going to miss out on something big and regret later if they let go of this brilliant offer. Now, this is not a good feeling. Hence, most consumers end up making purchase during such offers.

• Trust and Commitment

Brands that make promises via their ad campaigns and deliver them give the message that they can be trusted. Building trust marks is also a good way to create goodwill in the market. You can do so by including testimonials and positive reviews from clients on your site. Both these tactics render a feeling of security and assurance. Customers keep going back to such brands without thinking twice.

• Feel Valued and Confident

We all want to feel valued. We also look for ways to feel confident. This helps in raising our status in the society as people tend to look up to those who are confident. Brands try to sell the products by using taglines that evoke these feelings. For instance, L’Oreal Paris’ tagline, ‘Because you’re worth it’ urges the consumers to purchase its products even though they cost higher than their competitors.

Likewise, the tagline of another cosmetic brand, Maybelline, “Make it Happen” boosts sense of confidence that we all need.

• Happiness and Positivity

Everyone wants to feel happy. By embedding a message of happiness in the marketing campaigns, brands can win over good number of customers. After all, who doesn’t want to be associated with happiness? It would not be wrong to say that Coca Cola’s slogan, ‘Open Happiness’ has benefitted it big time.

• Feel Good Factor/ Feeling of Superiority

Bands that talk about good lifestyle and luxury also influence our subconscious that in turn impacts our buying decision. These things give a feeling of superiority which we humans love.

Psychological Pricing Techniques

This is another arena where you can trick the mind. Brands use psychological pricing techniques to influence their prospects. Here are few such effective techniques:

• Nine Ending Prices:  Research shows that prices ending with 9 are perceived to be reasonable compared to those that are a cent higher.
• Bundling: Grouping or bundling products that are complementary and offering discount on the total amount is also good way to increase sales orders.
• Decimals: Using decimals with the price while offering discounts tricks the mind to believe that the discount is huge. On the other hand, decimals must never be used for quoting the actual price of an item for the same reason.

Colour Scheme

We, humans also give high weightage to a product’s colour. This is because we have preconceived notions about different colours and associate them with different feelings. These notions are rooted in our subconscious and influence our decisions majorly.

Conclusion

All in all, our subconscious mind is largely responsible for making all the buying decisions. It is mainly driven by emotions and sees things as they are without questioning or analyzing them. Subconscious marketing techniques can thus help brands influence the consumers and boost sales.

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Aspirze Content Team

Expertise in Marketing, Technology, Education

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