How subliminal advertising works

I read with interest this 1/4/09 Parade magazine article by Martin Lindstrom. My marketing education never touched on the subject other than to announce that showing one frame of popcorn and soda inserted every 30 seconds of frames will make a movie theater audience head out to the lobby for refreshments. And being warned that doing this is illegal.

The Parade article discusses legal types of "subliminal" persuasion that happen every day. How shoppers are encouraged to buy with subtle appeals to senses or unconscious assumptions presented. The article discusses five techniques that he says we advertisers use to mess with consumer minds. Hyperlink to read the other four, the fifth is worth discussing.

Invoking ritual may persuade us to buy a product

The author talks some about how the ritual of squeezing a lime into a Corona beer came about. It turns out not to be a time-honored Mexican custom but a 1981 bar bet. We all know it caught on like wildfire and is generally credited with helping Corona become the best-selling imported beer in the U.S. Market.

Interesting piece of trivia that the author uses as an example of a "ritual that marketers know full well and exploit it knowing that the more stressed-out we are the more we unconsciously adhere to familiar, comforting rituals."

And yours truly is guilty, albeit unknowingly. Last year I created a lime ad with our limes posed above beer bottles. My initial reaction to the article was more of a “so that's why the ad was a hit.” To my credit or discredit (however you view it) it was so subliminal that I didn't know why the ad was so popular until I read this article.

I'm sure my upper management read the article, what I don't know is whether I'll be considered clever or deceitful. Marketing such a thin line we walk.