Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614

Volume 2, No.12, December 2013

----
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 Son-
war 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 con-
sumers of such ads are able to evaluate such type of ads ,how much thrilled and involved they feel towards characters de-
picted in such subliminal ads and many other aspects as well. Here in this study we have considered few of the ads con-
taining 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 in-
cluded male , female ,married ,unmarried ranging in the age group of 18-35 from different Professional and Non-
Professional 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 in-
volvement 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

Introduction ads ,the back ground language influence,love messages

Hundreds of experiments conducted over the last 85
years have established that people are influenced by cer-
tain latent information in the advertisements. This phe-
nomenon 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 be-
low 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 in-
corporated 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).
Advertisements are not only important to advertiser but
to customer as well as it is an important source of infor-
mation for customers and technique of generating sales
for advertisers .The advertisers have been always seen
alert to catch the potential buyers unawareness by ignit-
ing their state of mind to feelings and emotions which
prompt them to buy the product as the message con-
tained therein is more addressed to psyche than the vi-
sion. Though there are a number of ways how advertis-
ers can subliminally persuade customers like Music in
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 ac-
tions 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 be-
come drug addicts catching them in a vicious circle.
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 ad-
vertisement 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-

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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
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
_________________________________________________________________________________
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
mostly affects youth because of their vulnerability and it
is believed that endorsements which promote fictitious
and misleading information often affect consumer’s be-
havior or decisions about the product or service.
Though there are certain clinical devices like Tachisto-
cope which may directly measure the impact of sublimi-
nal advertisements. However in the area of behavioural
sciences we can get response from customers by using
Developed Stimulus Instruments. There are different
models of customer behaviour like Economic Man
where customer is supposed to make rational decisions
and Psychodynamic Model where behaviour is deter-
mined by biological drives, rather than individual cogni-
tion, or environmental stimuli, this process where cus-
tomer makes decisions on the basis of emotions and not
on cognitive abilities is irrational behavior which this
research proposal is intended to study. If customers emo-
tional capabilities are lesser than cognitive capabilities
then customer would make rational decisions and if
his/her emotional capabilities overcome cognitive capa-
bilities then whatever decisions customer is taking
would be irrational and this irrational decision making
may lead to compulsive buying and this may be because
of internal factors or external stimuli like subliminal
advertisements and here focus has been only on the im-
pact of external stimuli i.e subliminal advertisements.
The controversy of subliminal tactics started way back in
1950’s and it has been used for increasing sales and also
to bring changes in consumer behaviour. Subliminal
messages also create anxiety and as a result of it people
tend to lessen their anxiety through smoking, drugs and
over eating. Persuasion is about messaging one-to-one or
one-to-many. Subliminal persuasion occurs when you
are able to successfully implant a message in the mind of
a person or group of people whom you target for change
without their conscious evaluation of the change, and
encourage them to spread the idea organically to their
associates. Subliminal persuasion is about getting people
to change their minds, to change their beliefs, and to
accept new information as not only being correct, but
having the necessity to spread. Advertising, marketing,
movie making, public relations, propaganda, negotiation,
and religion all rely on subliminal persuasion.
Literature Review
Subliminal message is visual or auditory message pre-
sented 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 re-
search regarding subliminal messages in biological, psy-
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ISSN No: 2319-5614
Management. For example ,Cheeseman and Merikle
theorized how subliminal messages work in an individ-
ual and according to this theory subliminal message pro-
vides a subliminal stimulation, which conscious mind
may be unaware of, to either the visual or auditory cor-
tex of the brain. According to this theory the subliminal
message bypasses the gatekeeper in the conscious mind
and plants those messages straight into the individuals
sub consciousness (Stress Relief Management, 2005;
Emergeman, and Kopiez, 2006).
James Vicary a researcher ,claimed in a press release that
subliminal messages had motivated movie viewers to
purchase popcorn and coca cola (Packard,1957).He used
a technique called Tachistoscope to project the words “
Drink Coca Cola ’’ and “ Eat pocorn’’ for 1/3000 of a
second at five second intervals during the presentation of
movie entitled Picnic. Soon after Coca Cola study sub-
liminal messages caught attention of business world
.Federal funding started being funded for related re-
search projects(Russel, Rowe &Smouse ,1991).The pub-
lic and academia viewed subliminal messages as a chan-
nel that indirectly creates antisocial behavior such as
early sex stimulation in children,chane in value system
of an individual, cultural change, suicidal acts and Drug
use(Taylor Retrie December,5,2007).There has been
research on two types of subliminal messages which
includes auditory and visual mes-
sages(Moore,1982).According to urban (1992) the phe-
nomenon of visual subliminal stimulation is real
,however the disagreement continuous on the effective-
ness of these messages .The visual stimulus can be in
terms of graphics and videos where as auditory includes
audios such back ground message in music .However
there has been no strong evidence of these auditory
messages like in a study concluded by
Merikle(1998).Apart from this, there has been so many
empirical studies concluded by various scholars includ-
ing Benes and Gutkin(1998) who analysed relationship
between music masking and free association.Duke-
Budzynesss(1998) conducted a study to enhance the self
esteem in adult type.Schnell(1986)investigated the effec-
tiveness of subliminal tapes for improving public speak-
ing.Russel,Rowe and Smouse (1911) evaluated the effect
of subliminal self-helf tapes on academic achievement.
Objectives
There has been long controversy regarding the impact of
subliminal advertisements i.e. to say whether these kinds
of advertisements do actually affect the feeling compo-
nent of an individual, whether it affects the cognitive
part of a customer whereby he/she then goes for compul-
sive buying. This research proposal tried explore some
of the behavioural aspects of a customer that can be
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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
affected
---- by subliminal advertisements like feelings,
likely involvement in depicted behaviour, believability
_________________________________________________________________________________
in actions and ideas promoted through these advertise-
ments ,whether such advertisements create any confu-
sion, Compulsive buying habits if any, purchase inten-
sions and purchase privacy. This study has been con-
ducted in Kashmir province of J&K, and has been under-
taken in three major regions namely Central Kashmir,
North and South Kashmir and respondents under study
are youth from both the sexes in the age group of 18 to
35. The study was extend to educated youth whether
employed, unemployed or undergoing process of educa-
tion.
The main objectives of the study are:
a) To study the influence of TV advertisement on
the feelings, beliefs of customer,purchase
b) intentions.
c) To study the perceptions customers are having
about the actions, emotions, depicted in sub-
liminal advertisements and their likely in-
volvement in such behaviours.
d) To analyse whether subliminal advertisements
do create any confusion in customer’s mind.
e) To see whether different customer groups differ
in compulsive buying.
f) To suggest ways to counter negative aspects of
Subliminal TV advertisements.
Hypothesis
This study tested following hypothesis:
Main Hypothesis
H0: Subliminal Messages do not tend to create differ-
ences in customer behaviour.
H1: Subliminal Messages do tend to create differences in
customer behaviour.
Sub-Hypothesis
1) H0: Feelings and Cognition generated by Sublimi-
nal ads are not effective in creating Compulsive
buying behaviour.
H1: Feelings and Cognition generated by Sublimi-
nal ads are effective in creating Compulsive
buying behaviour.
2) H0: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal adver-
tisements will report same feelings.
H1: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal adver-
tisements will report different feelings.
3) H0: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal adver-
tisements will report same Cognition.
H1: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal adver-
tisements will report different Cognition.
4) H0: Male and female subjects exposed to sublimi-
nal advertisements will not report any significant
difference in ad involvement component.
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ISSN No: 2319-5614
H1: Male and female subjects exposed to sublimi-
nal advertisements will report significant difference
in ad involvement component.
5) H0: Subjects of different age group exposed to
subliminal advertisements will not report any sig-
nificant difference in ad involvement component.
H1: Subjects of different age group exposed to sub-
liminal advertisements will report significant differ-
ence in ad involvement component.
6) H0: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
in TV advertisements will report same believability
about facts, ideas, and messages depicted in adver-
tisements than female subjects.
H1: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
in TV advertisements will report Significant differ-
ence in believability about facts, ideas, and mes-
sages depicted in advertisements than female sub-
jects.
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 differ-
ence in feelings component compared to that of fe-
male subjects.
8) H0: Male and Female subjects exposed to Subli-
minal ads will not report significant difference in ad
confusion component.
H1: Male and Female subjects exposed to Subli-
minal ads will report significant difference in ad
confusion component.
9) H0: Subjects of different age group exposed to sub-
liminal ads will not report any significant difference
in ad confusion component.
H1: Subjects of different age group exposed to sub-
liminal ads will report significant difference in ad
confusion component.
10) H0: Subjects from different areas exposed to sub-
liminal advertisements will not show any signifi-
cant difference in purchase intensions.
H1: Subjects from different areas exposed to sub-
liminal advertisements will show significant differ-
ence in purchase intensions.
11) H0:Male and female respondents exposed to sub-
liminal advertisements will not report any signifi-
cant difference in compulsive buying.
H1: Male and female respondents exposed to sub-
liminal advertisements will report significant dif-
ference in compulsive buying.
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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013

Research
---- Design
Sources of Data:
_________________________________________________________________________________
The source of data was both primary as well as secon-
dary .The primary data was obtained from youth in the
age group of 18 to 35. The instrument for empirical
study consisted of structured questionnaire based on
established scales along with a case study about sublimi-
nal advertisements which included three categories of
advertisements containing subliminal messages namely
Half Sexual actions and Pornographic pictures, Meta-
phor and Celebrity endorsement. The instrument was
pre-tested before actual use.
The various components of the questionnaire are :
a) Feeling component
b) Likely Involvement Component
c) Scale on Cognitive Component
d) Purchase Intension Component
e) Compulsive buying Component
f) Purchase Privacy Component
g) Confusion Related component
h) Demographics Component
Sampling Frame, Type & Size:
The Kashmir region was divided into three sub-regions
namely Central, North and South Kashmir and the data
was obtained from educated youth in these areas. The
sampling frame consisted institutions of higher learning male and female are showing differences in their feelings
(both Government owned or Private owned) in the sub-
regions. The method of sampling used is stratified
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,
educated unemployed and youth undergoing the process
of education. Both male and female respondents were
chosen from each strata on the basis of judgement sam-
pling. Efforts have been made to choose a representative
sample from each strata and sub-strata of the population
and a sample of 390 was chosen which included male ,
female ,married ,unmarried ranging in the age group of
18-35 from different Professional and Non-Professional
Back grounds.
Tools and Analysis:
Apart from Mean and Percentages the following research
techniques were also used to test the hypothesis:
a) Mann Whitney U Test
b) ANOVA
Since dependent variable being non-metric and inde-
pendent variable being metric, the suitable research
technique would be Mann Whitney U Test.
Also variables in the study included dependent and inde-
pendent variable; hence ANNOVA was also an option.
All this was carried through SPSS.
Results And Discussions
All the hypothesis except 2,6,8 and 9 are supporting
main hypothesis that consumers exposed to subliminal
ads in TV advertisements do tend to create differences in
their behaviour that is to say that these advertisements do
affect consumer behaviour in different ways such as
and affection components ,compulsive buying as well
,residents from different areas are showing differences in
showing differences in add involvement ,ad understand-
ing and so does consumers on the basis of gender and all
this has been explained below :

Fig. S.3: Irrational Buying and some of the components

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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013

A.) ----
H0: Feelings and Cognition generated by Sublimi- Here we are to examine the impact of feelings, cognition
nal ads are not effective in creating Compulsive Buying generated by subliminal ads on buying behaviour i.e to
_________________________________________________________________________________
behaviour. say whether generated feelings, cognition can lead to
H1: Feelings and Cognition generated by Subliminal compulsive buying. For this we have run Two way
ads are effective in creating Compulsive Buying be- ANOVA between Feelings, Cognition and Compulsive
haviour. Buying which in this case is dependent variable. Test
statistics are given below:

Fig.1 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: Compulsive Buying

Source Type III Sum df Mean F Sig.

of Squares 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

Model 373268.438 220 1696.675 96.423 .000

Error 2938.562 167 17.596

Total 376207.000 387

a. R Squared = .992 (Adjusted R Squared = .982)

The test statistics for the significance of the overall ef- 2.) H0: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal adver-
fect is: tisements will report same feelings.
F=(1696.675/17.596) = 96.423 H1: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertise-
ments 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
Ranks
F is greater than tabulated which supporting alternative
hypothesis thus it is significant at 0.05 level. Age N Mean
Since overall effect is significant lets examine interac- Rank
tion effect which is
FEELINGS 18-20 100 200.97
F=(48.434/17.596) = 2.753 21-23 101 210.30

24-27 97 197.34
With 153 and 167 degrees of freedom, the critical value
of F is in between 1.22 and 1.Hence again calculated 27-30 92 171.36
value of F is greater than critical value which is again
Total 390
significant at 0.05 level. Hence the effects of Feelings
depend on Cognition. That’s is to say that Compulsive Test Statistics a,b

Buying is dependent on cognition and type of feelings FEELINGS

generated by subliminal ads and for a company it is of
greater importance so as to increase sales, also to achieve Chi-Square 6.230
such objective companies will need to control cognitive Df 3
component while increasing emotional part of a consum-
er because as long as feelings are greater than cognition Asymp. Sig. .101
consumers will always be inclined towards compulsive a. Kruskal Wallis Test
buying.
b. Grouping Variable: Age

Now to find whether the groups show any statistical sig-

nificance we have conducted K-Sample independent test

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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013

and ----
Fig.2 above reveals that the differences among dif- a. 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 sta-
than calculated and hence supporting hypothesis of no tistical difference in their cognition. Here in this case as
significant difference. Also the value of probability be- against to Feelings case discussed above the differences
ing more than the significance level supports null hypo- are significant as the probability associated with test that
thesis that ssubjects exposed to similar subliminal adver- is 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 sig-
nificance level, the critical value of Chi Square is 7.
3. H0: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal adver- 7.815 which shows that the calculated value of Chi-
tisements will report same Cognition. Square is more critical value rejecting null hypothesis
H1: Subjects exposed to similar subliminal advertise- and leads to selection of alternative hypothesis that sub-
ments will report different Cognition. jects exposed to similar subliminal advertisements will
report different Cognition.
Fig.3 Ranks
Age N Mean Rank Now what are the implications of the figures (Fig.1 and
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 depend-
24-27 97 203.26 ent on different factors and so is on age .Consumer
would be considered rational decision maker if his cog-
27-30 92 196.76 nitive power is more than affection or feelings as higher
Total 390 cognition means proper planning and self control where
a,b as higher affection means greater dependence on emo-
Test Statistics
tions which would always promote irrational buying.
COGNITION Below in Fig.S.1 we have compared both the factors so
Chi-Square 14.619 as to determine rational or irrational buying behaviour
whatsoever may be the case.
Df 3
Asymp. Sig. .002

Figure S.1: Comparison of Feelings and Cognition with respect to age

Age Cognition Mean Ranks Feelings Mean Rank Remarks
18-20 220.86 200.97 Rational Behaviour

21-23 161.79 210.30 Irrational Behaviour

24-27 Rational behaviour&Minute

203.26
28-30 196.76
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 irra-
tional behaviour as cognitive means are lower than feel-
ings 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
197.34 difference
171.36 Rational Behaviour
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 dif-
ference etc.
4. H0: Male and female subjects exposed to subliminal
advertisements will not report any significant differ-
ence 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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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013

Here----
ad Involvement component as mentioned above is Fig.5
the likely involvement of respondents in depicted char- Ranks
_________________________________________________________________________________
acters in subliminal ads.To test this hypothesis we con-
ducted Mann Whitney U Test whose statistics are given Age N Mean Rank
below: INVOLVEMENT 18-20 100 226.55

Fig.4 21-23 101 163.34

Ranks 24-27 97 209.19
Sum of 27-30 92 182.63
Gender N Mean Rank Ranks Total 390
Involve- Male 44231.5 a,b
202 218.97 Test Statistics
ment 0
INVOLVEMENT
Female 32013.5
188 170.28 Chi-Square 18.732
0
Df 3
Total 390
Asymp. Sig. .000
Test Statisticsa a. Kruskal Wallis Test
b. Grouping Variable: Age
INVOLVEMENT
Here null Hypothesis was rejected as the value of proba-
bility associated with the test is less than significance
Mann-Whitney U 14247.500 level of 0.05 also with 3 degrees of freedom and 0.05
Wilcoxon W 32013.500 significance level the critical vale of Chi-square is 7.815
Z -4.295 which is less than calculated value of 18.732 which is
supporting alternative hypothesis that subjects of differ-
Asymp. Sig. (2-
.000 ent age group exposed to subliminal advertisements will
tailed)
report significant difference in ad involvement compo-
a. Grouping Variable: Gender nent which is also evident from the Fig.5 as mean ranks
The test statistics shows significant difference in ad in- are different for each age group with 18-20 showing
volvement component as value of Z(-4.295) lies outside highest involvement and with exception under age group
acceptance region ,also from above table since probabili- 21-23 which is on lower side than next two age
ty (0.000) is less than level of significance 0.05 and also groups.The respondents with higher mean values will
value of Z does not fall in the acceptance region of ( +- show higher irrational buying and it has implications on
1.96) hence we reject null hypothesis of no significance other demographics as well because if one need such as
infact male and female respondents do show significant sexual desire does not get fulfilled then the consumer of
difference in ad involvement component with the particular ad will always look for alternative options
male(218.97) on higher side than females(170.28). in order to satisfy himself or herself that is why we see
That’s why most of the ads include female characters as young college girls and boys using drugs in colleges
this has significant effect in arousing sexual desires because they have been affected by exposure to sublimi-
mostly among male respondents. This has greater and nal ads wherein they find themselves highly involved or
serious implications and importance as well both from in other words want to perform same what is shown in
consumers and companies point of view respectively . ads but not having scope to do the same they find them-
With male showing higher involvement means they will selves involved in number anti social activities such as
be more prompted towards irrational behaviour and vul- masturbation ,drugs and undesirable sexual relation-
garnous than females which is the concern for society ships.One example of such subliminal advertisement is
but on the other hand it has become a technique for TRY OUR HARD PACK Where young woman is
companies to involve consumers in compulsive buying. showing agressively embracing towards a young manbut
apart from it there is one more item in the advertisement
5. H0: Subjects of different age group exposed to sub- that is hard pack of Benson and Hedges Cigerate pack
liminal advertisements will not report any significant and thus the ad if don’t get satisfied try our hard pack ,
difference in ad involvement component. that is if you don’t get satisfied when you don’t have any
sexual intercourse then you can leverage this desire
H1: Subjects of different age group exposed to sub- through use of hard pack which is cigerates in this case
liminal advertisements will report significant difference and that is why we see most of the young people in-
in ad involvement component. volved in drugs because their desire for sexual inter-

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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013

course
---- activated by subliminal ads does not get full filled feelings component compared to that of female sub-
which ultimately leaves in no mans land and hence they jects.
get _________________________________________________________________________________
involved into irrational buying behaviour of drugs
and also find themselves involved in social evils such as Fig.7
masterbation. Ranks
Gender N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks
6. H0: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages
in TV advertisements will report same believability FEELINGS Male 202 180.78 36517.50
about facts, ideas, and messages depicted in advertise- Female 188 211.32 39727.50
ments than female subjects.
Total 390
H1: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages in Test Statistics a
TV advertisements will report significant difference in
believability about facts, ideas, messages depicted in FEELINGS
advertisements than female subjects. Mann-Whitney U 16014.500
Wilcoxon W 36517.500
Believability/Cognition has been checked using seven
point differential scale including various adjectives ask- Z -2.675
ing respondents how they feel about that particular ad- Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .007
jective (for complete informationseeInstruement details). a. Grouping Variable: Gender
Mann-Whitney U Test was carried between Cognition
Here null hypothesis was rejected as the value of proba-
and Gender Component whose details are given below:
bility which in this case 0.007 is less than significance
level of 0.05 ,also value of z(-2.675) lies in the rejection
Fig.6
region supporting alternative hypothesis that male sub-
Ranks jects exposed to subliminal messages in TV advertise-
ments will report significant difference in feelings
component compared to that of female subjects as mean
Mean Sum of rank of females(211.32) is greater than males (180.78)
Gender N Rank Ranks indicating that females show high negative feelings than
COGNITION Male 202 195.81 39553.00 males and will be more prompted to irrational buy-
ing.Now moving further lets draw the comparison be-
Female 188 195.17 36692.00
tween Feelings and Cognitive Components with regard
Total 390 to gender in order draw remarks about the type of possi-
ble behaviour the consumer will show.
Test Statisticsa
Figure S.2: Comparison of Feelings and Cognition
COGNITION with respect Gender.
Mann-Whitney U 18926.000
Gender Cognition Feelings Remarks
Wilcoxon W 36692.000 Mean Mean
Z -.056 Ranks Rank
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .955 Male Rational
195.81 180.78
a. Grouping Variable: Gender Behaviour
Female Irrational
Here no such significant difference is found as indicated 195.17 211.32
Behaviour
by ranks and also probability (0.955) is greater than sig-
nificance level of 0.5 supports null hypothesis of no dif-
As is clear from above Figure S.2 where feelings are
ference in cognition. Z value(-0.56 falls in the region of
+ more than cognition in case of Females that is why it has
-1.96) also supports null hypothesis.
been remarked as Irrational Behaviour whereas Cogni-
7. H0: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages tion is on higher side in case of males and hence is re-
in TV advertisements will report same feelings as re- marked as rational behaviour. So clearly gender differ-
ported by female subjects. ence does affect the cognition and affection process and
from above statistics we can conclude that female con-
H1: Male Subjects exposed to subliminal messages in sumers of subliminal ads will be more prompted towards
TV advertisements will report significant difference in irrational buying than males as their cognition power in

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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013

against
---- to the subliminal ads is reported lower than that
Fig.9
of feelings. Ranks
_________________________________________________________________________________
8) H0: Male and Female subjects exposed to Sublimin- Age N Mean Rank
al ads will not report significant difference in ad confu- UNDERSTANDING 18-20 100 194.43
sion component.
21-23 101 195.79
H1: Male and Female subjects exposed to Subliminal 24-27 94 192.65
ads will report significant difference in ad confusion
27-30 92 192.94
component.
Total 387
As discussed earlier ad confusion component means con- a,b
Test Statistics
fusion created by advertisements and here in this case it
is confusion created by subliminal ads ,in other words it UNDER-
means whether consumers of such ads are able to under- STANDING
stand such type of because understanding and not under- Chi-Square .050
standing has a lot to do consumer behaviour . As men-
Df 3
tion by Dave Lakhani in Hidden Persuaders, advertising
agencies create confusion in the mind of customer Asymp. Sig. .997
through different ads which then triggers irrational buy- a. Kruskal Wallis Test
ing because mind has already being corrupted by subli- Again Null Hypothesis was selected as the probability
minal ads. Again Man Whitney U Test was conducted associated with the test statics is more than the signifi-
whose test statistics are given below: cant level of 0.05 ,also with 3 and 0.05 degrees the criti-
Fig.8 cal value of Chi-Square is 9.488 which is more the tabu-
Ranks lated value(0.050) in this case which again supports the
Mean Sum of null hypothesis that subjects of different age group ex-
Gender N Rank Ranks posed to subliminal ads will not report any significant
difference in ad confusion component.
UNDERSTANDING Male 202 196.97 39788.50
Female 185 190.75 35289.50 10) H0: Subjects from different areas exposed to sub-
liminal advertisements will not show any significant
Total 387 difference in purchase intensions.
Test Statisticsa
H1: Subjects from different areas exposed to sublimi-
UNDERSTANDING nal advertisements will show significant difference in
Mann-Whitney U 18084.500 purchase intensions
Wilcoxon W 35289.500
.Fig.10
Z -.549
Ranks
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .583
Residence N Mean Rank
a. Grouping Variable: Gender
Here alternative hypothesis was rejected as the value of PURCHASE South Kashmir 127 217.31
probability associated with the Test statistics is higher INTENTION North Kashmir 129 178.29
than significance level of 0.05,also value of Z being (-
Central Kashmir 134 191.40
0.549) falls in the acceptance region supports null hypo-
thesis that is male and female subjects exposed to Sub- Total 390
liminal ads will not report significant difference in ad Test Statistics a,b

confusion component which means they would not re-

port significant difference in compulsive buying. PURCHASEIN-
TENTION
9) H0: Subjects of different age group exposed to sub- Chi-Square 7.981
liminal ads will not report any significant difference in
Df 2
ad confusion component.
Asymp. Sig. .018
H1: Subjects of different age group exposed to subli- a. Kruskal Wallis Test
minal ads will report significant differencein ad con- b. Grouping Variable: Residence
fusion component.

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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
Does----products, actions and messages in subliminal ads
affect purchase intensions of consumers from different
_________________________________________________________________________________
areas .in other words does it leave any mark on subcons-
cious mind of a consumer? For this we carried K-
Independent sample test between Residence and Pur-
chase Intensions. Test statistics include Ranks ,Chi
Square and Probability.With 2 degrees of freedom and
0.05 significance level the critical value from Chi Square
table is 0.103 is less than calculated value of 7.981
which supports alternative hypothesis of significant dif-
ference which is also indicated by ranks 217.31, 178.29,
191.40 where people from south show higher purchase
intensions than Central Kashmir and North Kashmir.
11. H0: Male and female respondents exposed to sub-
liminal advertisements will not report any
significant difference in compulsive buying.
H1: Male and female respondents exposed to sublimi-
nal advertisements will report
significant difference in compulsive buying.
Compulsive buying can vary with respect to age ,gender
and other factors as well but we have considered only
one factor which is gender,we presumed that male and
female respondents will not report any significant differ-
ence in compulsive buying and for this again Mann
Whitney U Test was carried between two components i.e
Gender and Compulsive Buying which is given below:
Fig.11
Ranks
Mean Sum
Gender N Rank Ranks
COMPULSIVE Male 202 187.33 37840.00
BUYING
Female 185 201.29 37238.00
Total 387
Test Statisticsa
COMPULSIVE
BUYING
Mann-Whitney U 17337.000
Wilcoxon W 37840.000
Z -2.675
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .007
a. Grouping Variable: Gender
It clear from Mean Rank values which shows difference
in compulsive buying with females showing higher
compulsiveness than males and overall test statistics
shows this difference significant as the value of probabil-
ity associated with test (0.007) is less than significance
level of 0.5 which is supporting alternative hypothesis of
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ISSN No: 2319-5614
significant difference, so gender differences also play
significant role in compulsive nature of a consumer. As
discussed above in hypothesis H7 females show higher
negative feelings than male respondents thus as proposed
that female would be showing more compulsive buying
than males which is evident from Test statistics
Conclusion
The main objective of the study was to evaluate the
impact of subliminal ads on customer behaviour and
the results of the study revealed mixed findings with
some people showing positive differences in some of
the components like when subjects of different age
group are exposed to subliminal ads report significant
differences in cognition and having figures of Affec-
tion we have drawn comparison between cognition
and affection (Fig.S.1) which revealed most of the
people show rational behaviour . Gender differences
are also effective in case of feelings but not in case of
cognition but the comparison on gender basis has
again revealed that females exposed to subliminal ads
are most likely to show irrational behaviour. The
involvement component also shows significant dif-
ferences in possible involvement as males show
higher involvement than females thus indicating the
possible impact of subliminal ads on customer beha-
viour . Subjects from different areas showing signifi-
cant differences in purchase intensions indicates that
as emotional stability and control of emotional de-
sires varies from region to region so does purchase
intensions with people from south showing higher
of impact as their purchase intensions are higher than
other two regions. But there are other components
where consumers don’t show any significant differ-
ence such as subjects of different age group exposed
to subliminal ads report same feelings ,female and
female subjects exposed to such ads do not show any
significant difference in cognition ,male and female
subjects also report insignificance regarding ad con-
fusion component of consumer behaviour. These
differences could possibly because of the personality
factor, perception , Experience ,income and many
other exogenous factors and that could be explored
by one more study in the same field concentrating on
the exogenous factors only. The exogenous factors
could lead to differences because of many factors
such as the difference in evaluating ads does occur in
a young and old person both focusing on two differ-
ent things where a young person could be found look-
ing for products and female characters but at the
same time an old man could be found describing and
explain the message contained in advertisement.
Subliminal ads be it through subconscious mechanism or
indirect advertising and as reported in this study and by
many other studies do effect consumer behaviour. The
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 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR)
Volume 2, No.12, December 2013
authors
---- like Dave Lakhani and Vallance Pakard in their
books go deeper while saying that subliminal ads are
used_________________________________________________________________________________
as a technique not only to increase sales but is also
used to divert youth and involve them in such type of
behaviour which is only hazardous to the consumer. Ad-
vertisements are good source of information for consum-
ers that too at cheap rates and it is because of these ad-
vertisements we have pay only little amount on newspa-
pers ,not only this corporates use advertisements for ge-
nerating sales which is their legitimate goal and can do
it as per Standards of Advertising Councils but restric-
tions have been imposed by such bodies against number
of messages contained in advertisements and no moral
society would bear representation of products, messages,
actions ,celebrities in such a manner as given in the case
study of this research proposal. Advertisements have to
be there but regulations such as described in the ASCI
(Advertising Standard Council of India) have to be fol-
lowed not only for the legal purpose but for societal con-
cerns 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
development is what next generations are going to have
and so does consumer but I fear through subliminal ads
we are only going to ruin the consumer which needs to
be given a deeper thought.
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