Not-so-hidden persuaders

The screen flashes “intermission”. You get up from your comfortable seat at the theatre. You feel like grabbing your favourite popcorn and, yes, a can of Coke. You rush out, to beat the others to the snack counter. Grab your popcorn and Coke. Start taking a sip of the Coke and stop. When did you start thirsting for a Coke? Were you not off sugary drinks for a bit? Did something motivate you to run for the Coke can?

In 1957, a researcher by the name of James Vicary ran an experiment in a cinema hall in the US. During the movie he flashed words on the screen that said “eat popcorn” and “drink Coca-Cola”. The interesting thing was that these were just single frames images (normally each second has 24 or 25 frames). And a single frame is barely discernible to our conscious mind. The researcher published his results that astounded readers: 18.1 per cent increase in Coke sales and 57.8 per cent increase in popcorn sales. Unfortunately or fortunately, Vicary’s results turned out to be a big hoax and could not be replicated.

Researchers have, however, done multiple experiments with other types of subliminal messaging and some of them have shown that even subliminal messages can affect our mental state.

In his book The Hidden Persuaders published in the late 1950s, journalist Vance Packard unearthed the many ways in which American consumers were being manipulated by marketers. His book was a kind of an exposé on the emerging field of motivational research pioneered by Ernest Dichter. Marlboro, which was originally launched as an ivory-tipped ladies’ cigarette, did a pivot to go after male smokers. The pack redesign (which continued till recently when all cigarettes have had to adopt a cautionary image) was boldly male, red and white. Its Marlboro Country image with cowboys is something that is folklore, at least in marketing classes. Ideas such as moving beyond features and rational benefits to emotions to sell cars, stimulating consumption by a series of planned obsolescence (iPhone14 was launched earlier this month continuing the tradition of planned obsolescence), using high price as a signalling device beyond benefits, and many more were “exposed” in the book.

Why are hidden persuaders relevant today? Haven’t we become wary of all these wily marketing methods in this digital age?

In reality, marketers are no longer hiding their persuasion efforts. The whole field of cookie-based marketing and “retargeting” is aimed at persuading you, wherever you may be. I got an early taste more than two decades ago. My flight had landed in Kochi and I switched on my mobile phone. I got an SMS message extolling the virtues of a hotel in Kochi. At first I was shocked. How did the hotel know I was in Kochi? But soon the fog cleared and I realised that the smart hotel had tied up with the mobile service provider (I think it was BPL Mobile) to flash the message when any of their Mumbai subscribers landed in Kochi.

If that was two decades ago, today brands are doing it to us all the time. You search for a running shoe on one of the e-comm platforms. You decide the price is too high and stop your search. You move on to read the news. What do you see next to the headlines? The shoe ad. You don’t notice it at first (one frame message saying “eat popcorn”). You go on to plan your holiday and go to a travel website. And what do you see? A message about how the running shoe is now available with a special discount; you may even get a contextual message saying how you can run well when you are on your holiday in Goa or wherever. Now you notice the message and wonder if you should really invest in that high-end shoe? You go back to Google to search for more information about that shoe and you see a sponsored message that tells you about yet another offer. You get the drift. This kind of targeting, known as “retargeting”, has become a common practice in digital marketing. Obviously the brand gives up at some point, but they know you did want to buy a shoe, so they may catch you after a week. Some of the new regulations around privacy may stop this kind of targeting. But it is also true that consumers, at least some of them, don’t mind this kind of reminder messaging. They feel good that the brand is following them.

Motivational research that was much criticised in books like Hidden Persuaders is alive and well in this digital era we live in. Unlike the age of “hidden persuaders”, today most of the efforts taken by brands are there for you to see, understand and decode. And I would add they are “no-longer-hidden persuaders”. Some of us feel this is an invasion of privacy (examples include a father finding out that his teenage daughter is pregnant from a message that he gets from a supermarket). Many of us are quite okay with all this retargeting and we believe that we are immune to all these techniques. Are we really insulated against these persuaders? I wonder.

Ambi Parameswaran is an award winning best-selling author, an independent brand coach and founder brand-building.com; he can be reached at ambimgp@brand-building.com