Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
---_________________________________________________________________________________
Impact Of Subliminal Messages In TV Advertisements on
Customer Behaviour
(A Case Study of Youth in Kashmir Province of J&K)
Shakeel Ahmad Sofi , Research Scholar, Department Of Management Studies, Central University Of Kashmir, Srinagar
(J&K) India
Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Nika , Associate Professor, Department Of Management Studies, Central University Of Kashmir Sonwar Srinagar (J&K) India
Abstract
The topic subliminal advertising has had long controversy ever since 1958 when James vicary published a study based on
the effects in add “Drink Coke, Eat Pop Corn”, wherein he had found increase in sales after movie at refreshment Box
(Russel, Rowe and Smouse, 1991).Subliminal basically means below threshold and subliminal advertisements are directed
at subconscious level where a consumer is not able to evaluate consciously what is happening to him or her but its impact
is seen through indirect way as what is impact on feelings, how cognitive aspect of a consumer is affected ,whether consumers of such ads are able to evaluate such type of ads ,how much thrilled and involved they feel towards characters depicted in such subliminal ads and many other aspects as well. Here in this study we have considered few of the ads containing subliminal messages so as to see what kind of impact they are able to make on consumer behaviour.This study has
been limited to Student class of colleges ,Universities and High School as well. A sample of 390 was chosen which included male , female ,married ,unmarried ranging in the age group of 18-35 from different Professional and NonProfessional Back grounds. Results have shown positive impact on some of the components of Consumer behaviour .The
subliminal ads is a tool for a company for generating sales but their are other concerns as well like Male show higher involvement in depicted characters than female though both show involvement ,increase in sales is a legitimate goal of any
organization but how such exposure is going to affect life pattern of a consumer in long run is a matter of concern.
Keywords: Subliminal Ads ,Subjugation ,Emotions,Cognitions and Irrational Behaviour
Hundreds of experiments conducted over the last 85
years have established that people are influenced by certain latent information in the advertisements. This phenomenon is known as "subliminal perception" and has
been popularized in science fiction stories. Subliminal
message is a Visual or auditory message presented so
fast or at so low intensity that people cannot detect it.
Literally speaking of subliminal messages it means below threshold. There has been continuous research in
subliminal messages in biological sciences, psychology
and other social science fields including Management. A
highly publicized study in 1950’s by James Vicary incorporated a subliminal message in an add, “Drink Coke,
Eat Pop Corn”, and the effect was increase in sales after
movie at refreshment Box (Russel, Rowe and Smouse,
1991).
ads ,the back ground language influence,love messages
in advertisements, Social proof/cult feelings but certain
messages are there which may conflict with the sound
principles of business ethics.Therefore certain aspects
need to be addressed like how far is it reasonable to have
so much pornography which is apparent in most of the
advertisements, what about the half sexual actions ,how
far ethical is it to use metaphor in advertisements and
more importantly the question of celebrity endorsement?
The study therefore focusssed mainly on three categories
i.e (Pornography and Half Sexual actions, Metaphor and
Celebrity Endorsement). Pornography and Sexual actions in advertisement may help promote a product but
implications associated with such advertisements like
inclination/excitement may tempt the youth viewers to
satisfy their biological needs through illicit relationships,
causing anxiety and stress which may force them to become drug addicts catching them in a vicious circle.
Advertisements are not only important to advertiser but
to customer as well as it is an important source of information for customers and technique of generating sales
for advertisers .The advertisers have been always seen
alert to catch the potential buyers unawareness by igniting their state of mind to feelings and emotions which
prompt them to buy the product as the message contained therein is more addressed to psyche than the vision. Though there are a number of ways how advertisers can subliminally persuade customers like Music in
Metaphor is being used in advertisements where actions
and messages shown are directed at something else than
only the product information like the advertisement of
Hero Honda Igniter, though advertisement is about bike
but in this advertisement there are certain things that
should be taken into consideration like why in this advertisement an employee who has recently purchased
Igniter is shown to have lured a female who incidentally
happens to be his boss. The metaphor is that by purchas-
Introduction
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Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
ing ---Igniter you will be able to get hold of girl friend and
chological and other social science fields including
another case of metaphor is that you will not just be able
Management. For example ,Cheeseman and Merikle
_________________________________________________________________________________
to have
girl friend but you will be able to get hold of that
(1986) cited the Psychodynamic Activation theory and
celebrity which others die for. Celebrity endorsement
theorized how subliminal messages work in an individmostly affects youth because of their vulnerability and it
ual and according to this theory subliminal message prois believed that endorsements which promote fictitious
vides a subliminal stimulation, which conscious mind
and misleading information often affect consumer’s bemay be unaware of, to either the visual or auditory corhavior or decisions about the product or service.
tex of the brain. According to this theory the subliminal
message bypasses the gatekeeper in the conscious mind
Though there are certain clinical devices like Tachistoand plants those messages straight into the individuals
cope which may directly measure the impact of sublimisub consciousness (Stress Relief Management, 2005;
nal advertisements. However in the area of behavioural
Emergeman, and Kopiez, 2006).
sciences we can get response from customers by using
Developed Stimulus Instruments. There are different
James Vicary a researcher ,claimed in a press release that
models of customer behaviour like Economic Man
subliminal messages had motivated movie viewers to
where customer is supposed to make rational decisions
purchase popcorn and coca cola (Packard,1957).He used
and Psychodynamic Model where behaviour is detera technique called Tachistoscope to project the words “
mined by biological drives, rather than individual cogniDrink Coca Cola ’’ and “ Eat pocorn’’ for 1/3000 of a
tion, or environmental stimuli, this process where cussecond at five second intervals during the presentation of
tomer makes decisions on the basis of emotions and not
movie entitled Picnic. Soon after Coca Cola study subon cognitive abilities is irrational behavior which this
liminal messages caught attention of business world
research proposal is intended to study. If customers emo.Federal funding started being funded for related retional capabilities are lesser than cognitive capabilities
search projects(Russel, Rowe &Smouse ,1991).The pubthen customer would make rational decisions and if
lic and academia viewed subliminal messages as a chanhis/her emotional capabilities overcome cognitive capanel that indirectly creates antisocial behavior such as
bilities then whatever decisions customer is taking
early sex stimulation in children,chane in value system
would be irrational and this irrational decision making
of an individual, cultural change, suicidal acts and Drug
may lead to compulsive buying and this may be because
use(Taylor Retrie December,5,2007).There has been
of internal factors or external stimuli like subliminal
research on two types of subliminal messages which
advertisements and here focus has been only on the imincludes
auditory
and
visual
mespact of external stimuli i.e subliminal advertisements.
sages(Moore,1982).According to urban (1992) the phenomenon of visual subliminal stimulation is real
The controversy of subliminal tactics started way back in
,however the disagreement continuous on the effective1950’s and it has been used for increasing sales and also
ness of these messages .The visual stimulus can be in
to bring changes in consumer behaviour. Subliminal
terms of graphics and videos where as auditory includes
messages also create anxiety and as a result of it people
audios such back ground message in music .However
tend to lessen their anxiety through smoking, drugs and
there has been no strong evidence of these auditory
over eating. Persuasion is about messaging one-to-one or
messages
like
in
a
study
concluded
by
one-to-many. Subliminal persuasion occurs when you
Merikle(1998).Apart from this, there has been so many
are able to successfully implant a message in the mind of
empirical studies concluded by various scholars includa person or group of people whom you target for change
ing Benes and Gutkin(1998) who analysed relationship
without their conscious evaluation of the change, and
between music masking and free association.Dukeencourage them to spread the idea organically to their
Budzynesss(1998) conducted a study to enhance the self
associates. Subliminal persuasion is about getting people
esteem in adult type.Schnell(1986)investigated the effecto change their minds, to change their beliefs, and to
tiveness of subliminal tapes for improving public speakaccept new information as not only being correct, but
ing.Russel,Rowe and Smouse (1911) evaluated the effect
having the necessity to spread. Advertising, marketing,
of subliminal self-helf tapes on academic achievement.
movie making, public relations, propaganda, negotiation,
and religion all rely on subliminal persuasion.
Objectives
There has been long controversy regarding the impact of
Literature Review
subliminal advertisements i.e. to say whether these kinds
Subliminal message is visual or auditory message preof advertisements do actually affect the feeling composented so fast or at so low intensity that people cannot
nent of an individual, whether it affects the cognitive
detect it. Literally speaking of subliminal messages it
part of a customer whereby he/she then goes for compulmeans below threshold .There has been continuous resive buying. This research proposal tried explore some
search regarding subliminal messages in biological, psyof the behavioural aspects of a customer that can be
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Blue Ocean Research Journals
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Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
affected
H1: Male and female subjects exposed to sublimi---- by subliminal advertisements like feelings,
likely involvement in depicted behaviour, believability
nal advertisements will report significant difference
_________________________________________________________________________________
in actions
and ideas promoted through these advertisein ad involvement component.
ments ,whether such advertisements create any confusion, Compulsive buying habits if any, purchase inten5) H0: Subjects of different age group exposed to
sions and purchase privacy. This study has been consubliminal advertisements will not report any sigducted in Kashmir province of J&K, and has been undernificant difference in ad involvement component.
taken in three major regions namely Central Kashmir,
H1: Subjects of different age group exposed to subNorth and South Kashmir and respondents under study
liminal advertisements will report significant differare youth from both the sexes in the age group of 18 to
ence in ad involvement component.
35. The study was extend to educated youth whether
employed, unemployed or undergoing process of educa6) H0: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
tion.
in TV advertisements will report same believability
The main objectives of the study are:
about facts, ideas, and messages depicted in advera) To study the influence of TV advertisement on
tisements than female subjects.
the feelings, beliefs of customer,purchase
H1: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
b) intentions.
in TV advertisements will report Significant differc) To study the perceptions customers are having
ence in believability about facts, ideas, and mesabout the actions, emotions, depicted in subsages depicted in advertisements than female subliminal advertisements and their likely injects.
volvement in such behaviours.
d) To analyse whether subliminal advertisements
7) H0: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
do create any confusion in customer’s mind.
in TV advertisements will report same feelings as
e) To see whether different customer groups differ
reported by female subjects.
in compulsive buying.
H1: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
f) To suggest ways to counter negative aspects of
in TV advertisements will report significant differSubliminal TV advertisements.
ence in feelings component compared to that of female subjects.
Hypothesis
This study tested following hypothesis:
Main Hypothesis
H0: Subliminal Messages do not tend to create differences in customer behaviour.
H1: Subliminal Messages do tend to create differences in
customer behaviour.
Sub-Hypothesis
1) H0: Feelings and Cognition generated by Subliminal ads are not effective in creating Compulsive
buying behaviour.
H1: Feelings and Cognition generated by Subliminal ads are effective in creating Compulsive
buying behaviour.
8) H0: Male and Female subjects exposed to Subliminal ads will not report significant difference in ad
confusion component.
H1: Male and Female subjects exposed to Subliminal ads will report significant difference in ad
confusion component.
9) H0: Subjects of different age group exposed to subliminal ads will not report any significant difference
in ad confusion component.
H1: Subjects of different age group exposed to subliminal ads will report significant difference in ad
confusion component.
2) H0: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertisements will report same feelings.
H1: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertisements will report different feelings.
10) H0: Subjects from different areas exposed to subliminal advertisements will not show any significant difference in purchase intensions.
H1: Subjects from different areas exposed to subliminal advertisements will show significant difference in purchase intensions.
3) H0: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertisements will report same Cognition.
H1: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertisements will report different Cognition.
4) H0: Male and female subjects exposed to subliminal advertisements will not report any significant
difference in ad involvement component.
11) H0:Male and female respondents exposed to subliminal advertisements will not report any significant difference in compulsive buying.
H1: Male and female respondents exposed to subliminal advertisements will report significant difference in compulsive buying.
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Blue Ocean Research Journals
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Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
pling. Efforts have been made to choose a representative
sample from each strata and sub-strata of the population
Sources
of
Data:
_________________________________________________________________________________
and a sample of 390 was chosen which included male ,
The source of data was both primary as well as seconfemale ,married ,unmarried ranging in the age group of
dary .The primary data was obtained from youth in the
18-35 from different Professional and Non-Professional
age group of 18 to 35. The instrument for empirical
Back grounds.
study consisted of structured questionnaire based on
established scales along with a case study about sublimiTools and Analysis:
nal advertisements which included three categories of
Apart from Mean and Percentages the following research
advertisements containing subliminal messages namely
techniques were also used to test the hypothesis:
Half Sexual actions and Pornographic pictures, Metaa) Mann Whitney U Test
phor and Celebrity endorsement. The instrument was
b) ANOVA
pre-tested before actual use.
The various components of the questionnaire are :
Since dependent variable being non-metric and indea) Feeling component
pendent variable being metric, the suitable research
b) Likely Involvement Component
technique would be Mann Whitney U Test.
c) Scale on Cognitive Component
Also variables in the study included dependent and inded) Purchase Intension Component
pendent variable; hence ANNOVA was also an option.
e) Compulsive buying Component
All this was carried through SPSS.
f) Purchase Privacy Component
g) Confusion Related component
Results And Discussions
h) Demographics Component
All the hypothesis except 2,6,8 and 9 are supporting
main hypothesis that consumers exposed to subliminal
Sampling Frame, Type & Size:
The Kashmir region was divided into three sub-regions
ads in TV advertisements do tend to create differences in
namely Central, North and South Kashmir and the data
their behaviour that is to say that these advertisements do
was obtained from educated youth in these areas. The
affect consumer behaviour in different ways such as
sampling frame consisted institutions of higher learning
male and female are showing differences in their feelings
(both Government owned or Private owned) in the suband affection components ,compulsive buying as well
regions. The method of sampling used is stratified
,residents from different areas are showing differences in
wherein the entire youth population of these sub-regions
purchase intensions ,customers of different age group
has been divided into the strata of educated employed,
showing differences in add involvement ,ad understandeducated unemployed and youth undergoing the process
ing and so does consumers on the basis of gender and all
of education. Both male and female respondents were
this has been explained below :
chosen from each strata on the basis of judgement sam-
Research
Design
----
Fig. S.3: Irrational Buying and some of the components
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Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
Here we are to examine the impact of feelings, cognition
A.) ---H0: Feelings and Cognition generated by Sublimigenerated by subliminal ads on buying behaviour i.e to
nal ads are not effective in creating Compulsive Buying
_________________________________________________________________________________
say whether generated feelings, cognition can lead to
behaviour.
compulsive buying. For this we have run Two way
H1: Feelings and Cognition generated by Subliminal
ANOVA between Feelings, Cognition and Compulsive
ads are effective in creating Compulsive Buying beBuying which in this case is dependent variable. Test
haviour.
statistics are given below:
Fig.1 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects
Dependent Variable: Compulsive Buying
Source
Type III Sum
df
Mean
of Squares
F
Sig.
Square
FEELINGS
2715.194
39
69.620
3.957
.000
COGNITION
2174.545
27
80.539
4.577
.000
FEELINGS * COGNITION
7410.349
153
48.434
2.753
.000
373268.438
220
1696.675
96.423
.000
Error
2938.562
167
17.596
Total
376207.000
387
Model
a. R Squared = .992 (Adjusted R Squared = .982)
The test statistics for the significance of the overall effect is:
F=(1696.675/17.596) = 96.423
2.) H0: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertisements will report same feelings.
H1: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertisements will report different feelings.
With 220 and 167 degrees of freedom, the critical value
of F is in between 1.22 and 1.Hence calculated value of
F is greater than tabulated which supporting alternative
hypothesis thus it is significant at 0.05 level.
Since overall effect is significant lets examine interaction effect which is
Ranks
Age
N
Mean
Rank
FEELINGS
18-20
100
200.97
F=(48.434/17.596) = 2.753
21-23
101
210.30
With 153 and 167 degrees of freedom, the critical value
of F is in between 1.22 and 1.Hence again calculated
value of F is greater than critical value which is again
significant at 0.05 level. Hence the effects of Feelings
depend on Cognition. That’s is to say that Compulsive
Buying is dependent on cognition and type of feelings
generated by subliminal ads and for a company it is of
greater importance so as to increase sales, also to achieve
such objective companies will need to control cognitive
component while increasing emotional part of a consumer because as long as feelings are greater than cognition
consumers will always be inclined towards compulsive
buying.
24-27
97
197.34
27-30
92
171.36
Total
Test Statistics
390
a,b
FEELINGS
Chi-Square
Df
6.230
3
Asymp. Sig.
.101
a. Kruskal Wallis Test
b. Grouping Variable: Age
Now to find whether the groups show any statistical significance we have conducted K-Sample independent test
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Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
and ---Fig.2 above reveals that the differences among difa. Kruskal Wallis Test, b. Grouping Variable:
ferent age groups are not statistically significant though
Age
from_________________________________________________________________________________
table it may appear that there are differences but
under Test Statics with 3 and 0.05 significance level
Again we conducted K-sample independent test to see
theoretical value of Chi-Square is 7.815 which is more
whether consumers of different age group show any stathan calculated and hence supporting hypothesis of no
tistical difference in their cognition. Here in this case as
significant difference. Also the value of probability beagainst to Feelings case discussed above the differences
ing more than the significance level supports null hypoare significant as the probability associated with test that
thesis that ssubjects exposed to similar subliminal adveris 0.002 is less than significance level of 0.05 which
tisements will report same feelings.
supports alternative hypotheis. Also with 3 and 0.05 significance level, the critical value of Chi Square is 7.
3. H0: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal adver7.815 which shows that the calculated value of Chitisements will report same Cognition.
Square is more critical value rejecting null hypothesis
H1: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertiseand leads to selection of alternative hypothesis that subments will report different Cognition.
jects exposed to similar subliminal advertisements will
report different Cognition.
Fig.3 Ranks
Now what are the implications of the figures (Fig.1 and
Age
N
Mean Rank
Fig.2) discussed and depicted above ,now we have two
COGNITION
18-20
100
220.86
components under age group that is Affection(feelings)
21-23
101
161.79
and Beliefs (Cognition). Consumer behaviour is dependent on different factors and so is on age .Consumer
24-27
97
203.26
would be considered rational decision maker if his cog27-30
92
196.76
nitive power is more than affection or feelings as higher
cognition means proper planning and self control where
Total
390
as higher affection means greater dependence on emoa,b
Test Statistics
tions which would always promote irrational buying.
COGNITION
Below in Fig.S.1 we have compared both the factors so
as to determine rational or irrational buying behaviour
Chi-Square
14.619
whatsoever may be the case.
Df
3
Asymp. Sig.
.002
Figure S.1:
Age
Comparison of Feelings and Cognition with respect to age
Cognition Mean Ranks
Feelings Mean Rank
18-20
220.86
200.97
Remarks
Rational Behaviour
21-23
161.79
210.30
Irrational Behaviour
24-27
203.26
197.34
28-30
196.76
Rational behaviour&Minute
difference
Rational Behaviour
171.36
above in age group indicates that subliminal ads don’t
pose any threat as far as irrational buying is considered
apart from one that falls in 21-23 age group that could be
because of other factors such as personality ,gender difference etc.
In above Figure S.1 consumers under (18-20) age group
show rational behaviour as cognitive mean rank is higher
than Feeling Mean Rank though difference is very small
but it is still approaching rational behaviour as cognition
is on higher side. But contrary to what we supposed that
consumers under age group (21-23) are showing irrational behaviour as cognitive means are lower than feelings mean. With rest two groups of (24-27) and (28-30)
cognition as expected is on higher side indicates rational
buying . Cognition being higher in most of the cases
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4. H0: Male and female subjects exposed to subliminal
advertisements will not report any significant difference in ad involvement component.
H1: Male and female subjects exposed to subliminal
advertisements will report significant difference in ad
involvement component.
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Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
Here---ad Involvement component as mentioned above is
Fig.5
the likely involvement of respondents in depicted charRanks
_________________________________________________________________________________
acters
in subliminal ads.To test this hypothesis we conAge
N
Mean Rank
ducted Mann Whitney U Test whose statistics are given
INVOLVEMENT
18-20
100
226.55
below:
Fig.4
Ranks
Gender
Involvement
Male
N
202
Female
Total
188
Mean Rank
Sum of
Ranks
218.97
44231.5
0
170.28
32013.5
0
390
Test Statisticsa
INVOLVEMENT
Mann-Whitney U
Wilcoxon W
Z
Asymp. Sig. (2tailed)
14247.500
32013.500
-4.295
.000
a. Grouping Variable: Gender
The test statistics shows significant difference in ad involvement component as value of Z(-4.295) lies outside
acceptance region ,also from above table since probability (0.000) is less than level of significance 0.05 and also
value of Z does not fall in the acceptance region of ( +1.96) hence we reject null hypothesis of no significance
infact male and female respondents do show significant
difference in ad involvement component with
male(218.97) on higher side than females(170.28).
That’s why most of the ads include female characters as
this has significant effect in arousing sexual desires
mostly among male respondents. This has greater and
serious implications and importance as well both from
consumers and companies point of view respectively .
With male showing higher involvement means they will
be more prompted towards irrational behaviour and vulgarnous than females which is the concern for society
but on the other hand it has become a technique for
companies to involve consumers in compulsive buying.
5. H0: Subjects of different age group exposed to subliminal advertisements will not report any significant
difference in ad involvement component.
H1: Subjects of different age group exposed to subliminal advertisements will report significant difference
in ad involvement component.
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Test Statistics
21-23
101
163.34
24-27
97
209.19
27-30
92
182.63
Total
390
a,b
INVOLVEMENT
Chi-Square
Df
Asymp. Sig.
18.732
3
.000
a. Kruskal Wallis Test
b. Grouping Variable: Age
Here null Hypothesis was rejected as the value of probability associated with the test is less than significance
level of 0.05 also with 3 degrees of freedom and 0.05
significance level the critical vale of Chi-square is 7.815
which is less than calculated value of 18.732 which is
supporting alternative hypothesis that subjects of different age group exposed to subliminal advertisements will
report significant difference in ad involvement component which is also evident from the Fig.5 as mean ranks
are different for each age group with 18-20 showing
highest involvement and with exception under age group
21-23 which is on lower side than next two age
groups.The respondents with higher mean values will
show higher irrational buying and it has implications on
other demographics as well because if one need such as
sexual desire does not get fulfilled then the consumer of
the particular ad will always look for alternative options
in order to satisfy himself or herself that is why we see
young college girls and boys using drugs in colleges
because they have been affected by exposure to subliminal ads wherein they find themselves highly involved or
in other words want to perform same what is shown in
ads but not having scope to do the same they find themselves involved in number anti social activities such as
masturbation ,drugs and undesirable sexual relationships.One example of such subliminal advertisement is
TRY OUR HARD PACK Where young woman is
showing agressively embracing towards a young manbut
apart from it there is one more item in the advertisement
that is hard pack of Benson and Hedges Cigerate pack
and thus the ad if don’t get satisfied try our hard pack ,
that is if you don’t get satisfied when you don’t have any
sexual intercourse then you can leverage this desire
through use of hard pack which is cigerates in this case
and that is why we see most of the young people involved in drugs because their desire for sexual inter-
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Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
course
feelings component compared to that of female sub---- activated by subliminal ads does not get full filled
which ultimately leaves in no mans land and hence they
jects.
get _________________________________________________________________________________
involved into irrational buying behaviour of drugs
Fig.7
and also find themselves involved in social evils such as
masterbation.
Ranks
6. H0: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
in TV advertisements will report same believability
about facts, ideas, and messages depicted in advertisements than female subjects.
H1: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages in
TV advertisements will report significant difference in
believability about facts, ideas, messages depicted in
advertisements than female subjects.
Believability/Cognition has been checked using seven
point differential scale including various adjectives asking respondents how they feel about that particular adjective (for complete informationseeInstruement details).
Mann-Whitney U Test was carried between Cognition
and Gender Component whose details are given below:
Fig.6
Ranks
Gender N
COGNITION Male
Mean
Rank
Sum
Ranks
202
195.81
39553.00
Female 188
195.17
36692.00
Total
of
390
Test Statisticsa
Gender
a. Grouping Variable: Gender
Here no such significant difference is found as indicated
by ranks and also probability (0.955) is greater than significance level of 0.5 supports null hypothesis of no difference in cognition. Z value(-0.56 falls in the region of
+
-1.96) also supports null hypothesis.
7. H0: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
in TV advertisements will report same feelings as reported by female subjects.
H1: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages in
TV advertisements will report significant difference in
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Sum of Ranks
202
180.78
36517.50
Female
188
211.32
39727.50
Total
390
Test Statistics
a
FEELINGS
Mann-Whitney U
Wilcoxon W
Z
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
16014.500
36517.500
-2.675
.007
a. Grouping Variable: Gender
Here null hypothesis was rejected as the value of probability which in this case 0.007 is less than significance
level of 0.05 ,also value of z(-2.675) lies in the rejection
region supporting alternative hypothesis that male subjects exposed to subliminal messages in TV advertisements will report significant difference in feelings
component compared to that of female subjects as mean
rank of females(211.32) is greater than males (180.78)
indicating that females show high negative feelings than
males and will be more prompted to irrational buying.Now moving further lets draw the comparison between Feelings and Cognitive Components with regard
to gender in order draw remarks about the type of possible behaviour the consumer will show.
Figure S.2:
18926.000
36692.000
-.056
.955
Mean Rank
FEELINGS Male
COGNITION
Mann-Whitney U
Wilcoxon W
Z
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Gender
Male
Female
Comparison of Feelings and Cognition
with respect Gender.
Cognition
Mean
Ranks
Feelings
Mean
Rank
195.81
180.78
195.17
211.32
Remarks
Rational
Behaviour
Irrational
Behaviour
As is clear from above Figure S.2 where feelings are
more than cognition in case of Females that is why it has
been remarked as Irrational Behaviour whereas Cognition is on higher side in case of males and hence is remarked as rational behaviour. So clearly gender difference does affect the cognition and affection process and
from above statistics we can conclude that female consumers of subliminal ads will be more prompted towards
irrational buying than males as their cognition power in
Blue Ocean Research Journals
24
Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
against
---- to the subliminal ads is reported lower than that
of feelings.
Fig.9
Ranks
_________________________________________________________________________________
8) H0: Male and Female subjects exposed to Subliminal ads will not report significant difference in ad confusion component.
Age
N
Mean Rank
UNDERSTANDING 18-20
100
194.43
21-23
101
195.79
24-27
94
192.65
27-30
92
192.94
Total
387
H1: Male and Female subjects exposed to Subliminal
ads will report significant difference in ad confusion
component.
As discussed earlier ad confusion component means confusion created by advertisements and here in this case it
is confusion created by subliminal ads ,in other words it
means whether consumers of such ads are able to understand such type of because understanding and not understanding has a lot to do consumer behaviour . As mention by Dave Lakhani in Hidden Persuaders, advertising
agencies create confusion in the mind of customer
through different ads which then triggers irrational buying because mind has already being corrupted by subliminal ads. Again Man Whitney U Test was conducted
whose test statistics are given below:
Fig.8
Ranks
Gender
UNDERSTANDING Male
N
Mean
Rank
Sum
of
Ranks
202 196.97
39788.50
Female
185 190.75
35289.50
Total
387
Test Statistics
a,b
UNDERSTANDING
Chi-Square
Df
Asymp. Sig.
.050
3
.997
a. Kruskal Wallis Test
Again Null Hypothesis was selected as the probability
associated with the test statics is more than the significant level of 0.05 ,also with 3 and 0.05 degrees the critical value of Chi-Square is 9.488 which is more the tabulated value(0.050) in this case which again supports the
null hypothesis that subjects of different age group exposed to subliminal ads will not report any significant
difference in ad confusion component.
10) H0: Subjects from different areas exposed to subliminal advertisements will not show any significant
difference in purchase intensions.
Test Statisticsa
UNDERSTANDING
Mann-Whitney U
Wilcoxon W
Z
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
18084.500
35289.500
-.549
.583
a. Grouping Variable: Gender
Here alternative hypothesis was rejected as the value of
probability associated with the Test statistics is higher
than significance level of 0.05,also value of Z being (0.549) falls in the acceptance region supports null hypothesis that is male and female subjects exposed to Subliminal ads will not report significant difference in ad
confusion component which means they would not report significant difference in compulsive buying.
H1: Subjects from different areas exposed to subliminal advertisements will show significant difference in
purchase intensions
.Fig.10
Ranks
PURCHASE
INTENTION
Residence
N
Mean Rank
South Kashmir
127
217.31
North Kashmir
129
178.29
Central Kashmir 134
191.40
Total
Test Statistics
PURCHASEINTENTION
9) H0: Subjects of different age group exposed to subliminal ads will not report any significant difference in
ad confusion component.
Chi-Square
Df
Asymp. Sig.
H1: Subjects of different age group exposed to subliminal ads will report significant differencein ad confusion component.
a. Kruskal Wallis Test
b. Grouping Variable: Residence
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390
a,b
7.981
2
.018
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25
Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
Does
significant difference, so gender differences also play
----products, actions and messages in subliminal ads
affect purchase intensions of consumers from different
significant role in compulsive nature of a consumer. As
_________________________________________________________________________________
areas
.in other words does it leave any mark on subconsdiscussed above in hypothesis H7 females show higher
cious mind of a consumer? For this we carried Knegative feelings than male respondents thus as proposed
Independent sample test between Residence and Purthat female would be showing more compulsive buying
chase Intensions. Test statistics include Ranks ,Chi
than males which is evident from Test statistics
Square and Probability.With 2 degrees of freedom and
0.05 significance level the critical value from Chi Square
Conclusion
table is 0.103 is less than calculated value of 7.981
The main objective of the study was to evaluate the
which supports alternative hypothesis of significant difimpact of subliminal ads on customer behaviour and
ference which is also indicated by ranks 217.31, 178.29,
the results of the study revealed mixed findings with
191.40 where people from south show higher purchase
some people showing positive differences in some of
intensions than Central Kashmir and North Kashmir.
the components like when subjects of different age
group are exposed to subliminal ads report significant
11. H0: Male and female respondents exposed to subdifferences in cognition and having figures of Affecliminal advertisements will not report any
tion we have drawn comparison between cognition
significant difference in compulsive buying.
and affection (Fig.S.1) which revealed most of the
people show rational behaviour . Gender differences
H1: Male and female respondents exposed to sublimiare also effective in case of feelings but not in case of
nal advertisements will report
cognition but the comparison on gender basis has
significant difference in compulsive buying.
again revealed that females exposed to subliminal ads
are most likely to show irrational behaviour. The
Compulsive buying can vary with respect to age ,gender
involvement component also shows significant difand other factors as well but we have considered only
ferences in possible involvement as males show
one factor which is gender,we presumed that male and
higher involvement than females thus indicating the
female respondents will not report any significant differpossible impact of subliminal ads on customer behaence in compulsive buying and for this again Mann
viour . Subjects from different areas showing signifiWhitney U Test was carried between two components i.e
cant differences in purchase intensions indicates that
Gender and Compulsive Buying which is given below:
as emotional stability and control of emotional deFig.11
sires varies from region to region so does purchase
Ranks
intensions with people from south showing higher
impact as their purchase intensions are higher than
Mean
Sum
of
other two regions. But there are other components
Gender N
Rank
Ranks
where consumers don’t show any significant differCOMPULSIVE Male
202 187.33 37840.00
ence such as subjects of different age group exposed
BUYING
to subliminal ads report same feelings ,female and
Female 185 201.29 37238.00
female subjects exposed to such ads do not show any
Total
387
significant difference in cognition ,male and female
subjects also report insignificance regarding ad conTest Statisticsa
fusion component of consumer behaviour. These
differences could possibly because of the personality
COMPULSIVE
factor, perception , Experience ,income and many
BUYING
other exogenous factors and that could be explored
Mann-Whitney U
17337.000
by one more study in the same field concentrating on
the exogenous factors only. The exogenous factors
Wilcoxon W
37840.000
could lead to differences because of many factors
Z
-2.675
such as the difference in evaluating ads does occur in
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .007
a young and old person both focusing on two differa. Grouping Variable: Gender
ent things where a young person could be found looking for products and female characters but at the
same time an old man could be found describing and
It clear from Mean Rank values which shows difference
explain the message contained in advertisement.
in compulsive buying with females showing higher
compulsiveness than males and overall test statistics
Subliminal ads be it through subconscious mechanism or
shows this difference significant as the value of probabilindirect advertising and as reported in this study and by
ity associated with test (0.007) is less than significance
many other studies do effect consumer behaviour. The
level of 0.5 which is supporting alternative hypothesis of
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Blue Ocean Research Journals
26
Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
ISSN No: 2319-5614
authors
[9] Damasio, et al(2000). The Feeling of What Hap---- like Dave Lakhani and Vallance Pakard in their
books go deeper while saying that subliminal ads are
pens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Conused_________________________________________________________________________________
as a technique not only to increase sales but is also
sciousness. San Diego : Harvest Books.
used to divert youth and involve them in such type of
[10] Dawkins , et al (2006)Richard . The Selfish Gene.
behaviour which is only hazardous to the consumer. AdNew York: Oxford University Press, USA.
vertisements are good source of information for consumers that too at cheap rates and it is because of these ad[11] Dillard , et al (2002) . The Persuasion Handbook:
vertisements we have pay only little amount on newspaDevelopments in Theory and Practice . Thousand
pers ,not only this corporates use advertisements for geOaks, CA : Sage Publications, Inc.
nerating sales which is their legitimate goal and can do
it as per Standards of Advertising Councils but restric[12] Green (2003). The Art of Seduction. New York :
tions have been imposed by such bodies against number
Penguin , .
of messages contained in advertisements and no moral
society would bear representation of products, messages,
[13] Green (2006) .The 33 Strategies of War . New York
actions ,celebrities in such a manner as given in the case
: Viking Adult.
study of this research proposal. Advertisements have to
be there but regulations such as described in the ASCI
[14] Green (2000) .The 48 Laws of Power. New York :
(Advertising Standard Council of India) have to be folPenguin .
lowed not only for the legal purpose but for societal concerns as well. All most all the societies are talking about
[15] Goldman, et al (2007 ).Social Intelligence: The
sustainable development but the important aspect of such
New Science of Human Relationships. New York.
development is what next generations are going to have
and so does consumer but I fear through subliminal ads
[16] Hawkins, (2002). Power vs. Force:The Hidden Dewe are only going to ruin the consumer which needs to
terminants of Human Behaviour. Carlsbad, CA:
be given a deeper thought.
Hay House .
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