Their subjects were called for a "visual acuity test" where they had to watch a screen and call from which side a colored square came from. During the test, either an Apple logo or an IBM logo was flashed during 30 milliseconds. The group who was exposed to the Apple logo came up with more creative ideas to use a brick than the group exposed to the IBM logo.
Watch the video here.
Don Reisingher from techradar.com, also commented about this experiment in his recent article Subliminal ads coming to a PC near you?
A little bit of history and definitions:
The use of Subliminal Messages is not new. These type of messages have been used since the 1930's on radio and heavily during the 70's by some music bands. Although in Britain and in Australia, the use of Subliminal Messages is illegal, banned and severely punished, in the USA the grip does not seem to be as fierce. The FCC's Manual for Broadcasters says:
"We sometimes receive complaints regarding the alleged use of subliminal techniques in radio and TV programming. Subliminal programming is designed to be perceived on a subconscious level only. Regardless of whether it is effective, the use of subliminal perception is inconsistent with a station's obligation to serve the public interest because the broadcast is intended to be deceptive. (Federal Communications Commission Record, 2001)"
"The FCC has no rules on what is, or is not, a "subliminal" message. Consequently, there is no basis for it to determine whether any advertisement contains a "subliminal" message." (FCC, September 19, 2000)According to Wikipedia, a Subliminal message is:
"A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of perception."
My conclusions:
1. Each brand, like each person, has a distinct personality. Brand Managers try to build that personality according to the revenue stream needs. For example an apparel brand for young people will try to look young, trend-setter and whatnot. This brand will be appealing to young people and their wallets (the final target). On the other hand, a brand cannot build equity on personality traits that do not correspond to it. For example, it will be difficult to believe if a coal power plant starts proclaiming itself as eco-friendly. I will expand on this subject on a future blog.
2. Apple's commercials where they have personalized their brand against the PC with different guys combined with their new cool computers, the iphone, ipod and other gadgets, are clearly delivering their message of creativity as found by Duke's experiment.
3. Although IBM was not perceived as creative in that experiment, IBM probably has geared its efforts to obtain revenues from a different stream, thus building different traits for their personality. This brand equity will appeal to a different audience than Apple's, hopefully being the core target for IBM's revenue stream.
4. Can a brand use other brands to enhance how it is perceived? In this experiment, the students exposed to Apple logo came up with more creative ways to use a brick. Can a consumer be more wiling to purchase certain brand when that brand has used another brand to enhance its personality?
5. Definitively marketers need to find better ways to deliver messages. This is a never ending quest. I will expand on this on future blogs, so for now I can tell you that each day there are new media, new technologies and new ideas that push us further in this quest. The perfectly delivered message does not exist. It is an illusion, but as most illusions, we must seek it in order to continuously improve and evolve. Marketers should never lose sight of the core revenue stream.
Will we be exposed to subliminal messages? Are we being exposed to subliminal messages now? Which challenges are brand managers facing now?
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