Commercial Conditioning

[Morkeliph]

Commercial advertising has changed dramatically in its approach since just the 1980's. Formerly, advertisments focused on the qualities of the product and what it could do. Now, advertisers attempt to make their product a symbol by suggesting that ownership of their product creates a sense of meaning for the individual. This advertising technique was contrived after studying why people join particular cults and remain loyal to them. In a sense, advertisers are trying to convert you to the "Coca-Cola Cult," or the "Nike Shoe Cult." Do you think that this sort of advertising is misleading and manipulative? Are their ethical questions at stake in the use of these techniques? Give us your opinion. Below is a quote and some articles that make reference to this topic.
Subliminal persuasion refers to the subliminal presentation of stimuli by people (e.g., advertisers) who intentionally try to influence our behavior. Vicary claimed in 1957 that he increased the sales of popcorn and cola after subliminally flashing "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coke" in a New Jersey cinema. This caused a stir both inside and outside the scientific community. A few years later, Vicary admitted that his (nonreliable) results did not warrant strong conclusions and that there was no evidence at all for subliminal persuasion, but the damage had already been done. Some indicated that the chance that subliminal persuasion could ever work was extremely remote (Moore, 1982) or worse, that the whole idea was just a myth and that we should stop investigating it altogether (Pratkanis, 1992; see also Packard, 1978). But is it a myth? Should we stop? In this chapter, we argue that we should not stop and that subliminal persuasion and other applications of subliminal stimulation should be investigated, not ignored. The remainder of this chapter is divided into four parts. First, we discuss our definition of subliminal perception. We also present arguments for why it is impossible, or at least difficult, to maintain that all (important) behavior should be the result of conscious thought. In the second part, examples of basic effects of subliminal stimulation are used to demonstrate what subliminal stimulation can do. Third, a crude theoretical basis for the effects of subliminal persuasion and other applications is provided, relying largely on social cognition research. In the fourth and most important part, we discuss research relevant for the practical, commercial, or political use of subliminal stimulation. A distinction is made between (a) the manipulation of attitudes by subliminal evaluative conditioning, (b) the influence of subliminal messages on consumer behavior, and (c) the influence of subliminal messages on health. With these empirical results, we hope to show that applications of subliminal stimulation are worthy of space on the scientific agenda. In our concluding section, we discuss three arguments in favor of the study of subliminal perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved)
Check out these articles as well:
Effects of Background Music in Advertising (http://web19.epnet.com/externalframe.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+8DE543FF%2D6B6C%2D4D2E%2D8FB6%2DFFF9F1A814 80%40sessionmgr3+dbs+psyh%2Cpbh+cp+1+4509&_us=hd+False+hs+False+or+Date+fh+False+ss+SO+sm+ES +sl+%2D1+ri+KAAACB2B00197479+dstb+ES+mh+1+frn+1+D0 25&_usmtl=ftv+True+137E&_uso=hd+False+tg%5B2+%2D+tg%5B1+%2D+tg%5B0+%2D+st% 5B2+%2D+st%5B1+%2DCommercial+st%5B0+%2DConditionin g+db%5B1+%2Dpsyh+db%5B0+%2Dpbh+op%5B2+%2DAnd+op%5B 1+%2DAnd+op%5B0+%2D+2DB6&fi=buh_4664870_AN&lpdf=true&pdfs=&tn=&tp=PC&es=cs%5Fclient%2Easp%3FT%3DP%26P%3DAN%26K%3D466487 0%26rn%3D15%26db%3Dbuh%26is%3D0093%2D5301%26sc%3D% 26S%3D%26D%3Dbuh%26title%3DJournal%2Bof%2BConsumer %2BResearch%26year%3D1989%26bk%3DS&fn=1&rn=15&bk=S&EBSCOContent=ZWJjY8Pr5HePp7RrveX1a6Gmr4CPp7eFoqq5f KKWxpjDpfS/0N7yv+Sk7KzY5K274u/iswAA&an=4664870&db=buh&)
Classical Conditioning Approach to Background Music in Advertising (http://web19.epnet.com/externalframe.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+8DE543FF%2D6B6C%2D4D2E%2D8FB6%2DFFF9F1A814 80%40sessionmgr3+dbs+psyh%2Cpbh+cp+1+4509&_us=frn+21+hd+False+hs+False+or+Date+fh+False+ss+S O+sm+ES+sl+%2D1+dstb+ES+mh+1+ri+KAAACB2B00197479+1 A96&_usmtl=ftv+True+137E&_uso=hd+False+tg%5B2+%2D+tg%5B1+%2D+tg%5B0+%2D+st% 5B2+%2D+st%5B1+%2DCommercial+st%5B0+%2DConditionin g+db%5B1+%2Dpsyh+db%5B0+%2Dpbh+op%5B2+%2DAnd+op%5B 1+%2DAnd+op%5B0+%2D+2DB6&fi=buh_5006578_AN&lpdf=true&pdfs=&tn=&tp=PC&es=cs%5Fclient%2Easp%3FT%3DP%26P%3DAN%26K%3D500657 8%26rn%3D22%26db%3Dbuh%26is%3D0022%2D2429%26sc%3D% 26S%3D%26D%3Dbuh%26title%3DJournal%2Bof%2BMarketin g%26year%3D1982%26bk%3DS&fn=21&rn=22&bk=S&EBSCOContent=ZWJjY8Pr5HePp7RrveX1a6Gmr4CPp7eFoqu5g KCWxpjDpfS/0N7yv+Sk7KzY5K274u/iswAA&an=5006578&db=buh&)

[GenocideAlive]

Well, I think it's an offshoot of large-scale businesses. Sure at the mom&pop level you want to advertise your stock, your quality, etc. etc., but when people become familiar with nearly every aspect of your business (hello, Wal*Mart) your strategy has to switch. You go from largely going for aquisition to retention.

From there, you need customer support...continued good service, selection, etc. and culture-like atmosphere. Things like new items and cutting edge fad-type stuff are less attractive for anything other than some short term investments. Sort of an immersion technique. Anyway, this is my uneducated opinion.

[Morkeliph]

I think you make a genuine point, uneducated or not. When a company, such as Wal*Mart, grows to a certain level, they deal in a variety of products. As such, focusing on the individual strengths of each product is repetitive and ineffective, whereas focusing on the meaning behind being a Wal*Mart customer (ie. savings and convenience), then you create a loyalty to your company. Its really a very effective and powerful strategy, no doubt. Is it ethical? Well, that's open to interpretation. Should Coca-Cola be advertising their product as trendy, friendly, and "cool," or should we be focusing on the quality of the product. Does focusing on the "meaning" of a product cause quality to be neglected, as in the automotive industry? Take Saturn for example. What are your takes on that? Saturn advertised premierly on the meaning of the American automobile, and being a part of the Saturn Family. Did that sort of emphasis cause Saturn to neglect quality because attention was deflected away from it? This is the sort of problem I'd like to address.

That being said, GenocideAlive makes a very strong point. For large or diverse businesses, there is a necessity to focus on something other than quality alone in order to retain customer loyalty. Are we going about it in a deceitful way?

[Trotters]

Are we going about it in a deceitful way?

Not at all, but yet... shouldn't we? That's almost the basis of customer-to-owner relationship right? The next time you're at the Grocerie store, how many times do you have an employee walk up to you and give his opinion on the food, and what it goes well with.
The problem is, the "customer-to-boss" relationship went to hell. Like Genocide stated, more buiness's mean more employee's these employee's are usually highschool kids looking for a decent job in the suburbs for some extra cash for their stash. Or just so their parents arn't on their back about the following test the next day.
See what I'm getting at, is the averadge age at say, Zellers, or Home Depot, WallMart, and all the other chain-companys is usually late or mid-teens like 17-22 these kids or 'adults' as they'd prefer lives arn't just focusing about these jobs, they're thinking about women, men, and women (I didn't forget about the lesbiens) tests, and their social lives or the new video game coming out, these kid's arn't going to give-it-their-all in this job.
That's exactilly why (or that's what my theory says) the "Mothership Office" as I'll call it, results to hard-core marketing of their product, and mabye even a little psychological comercial retail. It's kinda like the classic "leave the door open" trick, when a person's walking down a street, if the store has it's door open, it's a psychological thing (yes it's proven) that the customer feels welcome, sometimes in bakery's they have fans pointing at the door pushing the intreaging scent to the desperate hungry traveller.

Anyways back to the point- these companys arn't going to rely on a 17 year old grade twelve student looking for an easy buck, their going to rely on their Advertisement crew, let's call it, to make this certain advertisment to intreague people from a certain age range into these buisness's to purchase this product, making it sound usually 100% better then it really is.

That's my theory, sorry for some of the spelling, Im sorta-in a rush.