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Running Head: Mind Control

Mind Control: How Corporations are Manipulating the Subconscious

Alyssa H. Raschke
Glen Allen High School

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Introduction
Humans are impressionable, emotional, and irrational creatures. Today, there are
countless discoveries that reveal how bad individuals are at making decisions. For instance,
when a store plays music, consumers will idle in the store for longer, typically prone to spending
more. And, when customers are in a good mood, they are more susceptible to persuasion (Sex
and Advertising Retail Therapy, 2011). In order to get something free, regardless of its quality or
significant value, individuals will waste valuable and extensive amounts of time. Such
discoveries are vital in the marketing world today. For in the competitive and aggressive race
towards success in todays business world, companies are required to utilize marketing
techniques that are both effective and revolutionary. With the abundant presence of social media
in day-to-day life, individuals are faced with an over-stimulating and desensitizing amount of
advertising. Companies are struggling to stand out amidst the clutter in marketing of today,
therefore required to unlock the irrational desires hidden deep within the human subconscious.
The Importance of Brand Zealots
Researchers have noted that consumers differ in not only how they perceive and interpret
different brands, but also in how they relate to brands. For it has been suggested that individuals
sometimes form relationships with brands in much of the same way in which they form
relationships in a social context. Brand zealots are individuals who develop a relationship with a
particular brand that goes well beyond the fulfillment of functional needs (Aggarwal, 2004).
There is abundant anecdotal evidence of the existence of brand zealots the suggests that some
individuals form very intimate bonds with brands, such as Nike or Apple, and in extreme cases
develop a passion that is often only reserved for a close circle of friends and family (Aggarwal,
2004). Brand zealots are militant in their commitment to their brand, creating positive word of

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mouth for the brand and experiencing the products to the fullest (Rozanski et al., 1999). If a
brand betrays their core values, then a trust is broken. If brand zealots feel betrayed by a brand,
they could possibly launch frontal attacks on the company (Rozanski et al., 1999). Therefore,
brand managers are required to act as chaperones of these relationships, for they have the
difficult task of attempting to strike a balance between commitment to the core of the franchise
and the desire to reach out to new segments (Rozanski et al., 1999). Currently, companies
spend billions of dollars in creating positive feelings towards brands in the form of advertising.
Most brands have emotionally loyal consumers at their core, so are companies obtaining enough
value from these investments? Today, most marketing practitioners approach their consumers
without further distinction, which under-leverages the value of emotional loyalty (Rozanski et
al., 1999).
What is emotional loyalty? Technically, consumers cross the threshold from a mere
brand relationship into emotional loyalty when they animate the brand, thus giving it quasihuman qualities and relating to the brand in the same way in which they relate to human beings
(Rozanski et al., 1999). Crossing such a threshold leads to a deeper bond, which has the potential
for negative feelings of betrayal or infidelity. Emotionally loyal consumers relate to the brand as
they would to another human beings-- feeling affection, a common history, possibly a sense of
trust and two-way commitment, which goes well beyond the satisfaction of a specific need
(Rozanski et al., 1999). Most brands have some proportion of emotionally loyal consumers
within their franchise, and yet there is no one specific pattern or sequence for forming emotional
loyalty. Professor Susan Fournier of Harvard University suggests that there is a broad window of
opportunity for creating emotional loyalty, which ranges from the sublime to the mundane and
from conspicuous consumption to private delight. She states that the key to emotional loyalty in

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less about marketing honed in on creating a specific feeling within the consumer, but about
crossing major thresholds in the very relationship between the consumer and the brand.
The Evolution of Marketing in American Society
Sigmund Freud the father of psychoanalysis and critic of all things American was an
unwilling contributor to the rise of Western consumer culture (Held, 2009). He argued that
people are governed by irrational and unconscious urges, therefore altering their behavior. In the
American business world, there were public relations campaigns inspired by Freudian ideals of
the all-controlling human-subconscious. One individual who linked Freuds theory with practice
was his nephew Edward L. Bernays, the acknowledged father of public relations (Held, 2009).
He shaped public opinion by creating media campaigns that would alter consumer behavior. For
instance, Bernays linked smoking to womens rights, fostering an empowering sense of
independence within the female consumer. In his written Propaganda, Bernays hypothesized
that by understanding the group mind it would be possible to manipulate peoples behavior
without their even realizing it (Held, 2009).
Before Freudian analysis was rampant in the American business world, businesses had
spent decades attempting to decipher market patterns. After the First World War, new polling
techniques picked up once national brands began dominating the marketplace and companies
started to invest more time, money, and energy to edge out competitors. Such surveys were
coined as nose-counting, for they were both slapdash and speculative, offering little genuine
insight into how customers behaved (Sex and Advertising Retail Therapy, 2011). When
psychoanalyst Ernest Dichter arrived to America in 1938, the American business world was just
opening up to new and unheard of concepts. Freudian psychology was just now becoming
sexy, for the idea that there was more to human behavior than meets the eye was becoming

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more and more widespread. For advertisers, Freudian psychology was a godsend. For during the
war, when goods were scarce, there was no need for consumer psychology. But, in an age of
prosperity when supply outstripped demand, companies had to rely more heavily on branding
and advertising (Sex and Advertising Retail Therapy, 2011).
Ernest Dichter believed that most people have absolutely no idea why they buy things.
He believed that to understand what truly motivated the consumer, it was necessary to get them
to talk at length about their everyday habits. Instead of subjecting people to many questionnaires,
he preferred the deeper, more psychoanalytical approach of in-depth interviews, stating that: If
you let somebody talk long enough, you can read between the lines to find out what he really
means. Ditcher understood that every product has an image, a soul, and is bought not only for
the mere purpose that it serves but for the values that it appears to embody. For, our possessions
are extensions of our own personalities, which serve as a kind of mirror which reflects our
own image (Sex and Advertising Retail Therapy, 2011). Dichters message to other advertisers
was to figure out the personality of the product in order to figure out how to market it.
Individuals seek out products that correspond with the group that they want to associate with, for
every object has a special meaning that often relates to sex, insecurity, or a desire for prestige
(Sex and Advertising Retail Therapy, 2011). Time magazine described Dichter as the first to
apply to advertising the real psychology that tapped into the hidden desires and urges of the
consumer. Dichter chalked up his own success to the importance of examining not how people
should behave but how they do behave.
Sex Sells
With social media as a fundamental component of todays society, markets have resorted
to increasingly radical tactics to capture consumer attention, in order to cut through the enormous

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amount of clutter in advertising today. One of the most popular tactics is to use explicit sexual
images in advertising, even when the sexual image has little relevance to the advertised product.
A sexually explicit image is defined as the use of a sexual image that is unnecessarily explicit to
promote a product or service (Dahl et al., 2009). Although the free use of sex in advertising
succeeds in capturing attention, research has recently displayed that the old marketing clich
sex sells may not hold. While focusing on spontaneous evaluations of sexually themed ads,
these authors found that in contrast to men, who reported positive attitudes, women on average
exhibited a marked negative reaction to explicit sexual content in advertising (Dahl et al.,
2009). Why is this the case? Perspectives in sexual psychology argues that there are stark
differences in mens and womens sexual beliefs and motivations. To explain womens negative
response toward sex in the media, the literature portrays that men have positive attitudes
towards casual and recreational sex while women value the emotional intimacy and
commitment that can surround the sexual relationship (Dahl et al., 2009). But, other extensive
research in this area suggests that consumers, regardless of gender, responds negatively to the
gratuitous use of sex if it is viewed as unethical (Dahl et al., 2009).
Conclusion
Understanding the irrational tendencies of the human subconscious is essential for
effective and successful marketing. For consumers unconsciously form deep relationships with
specific brands and products, basing their purchases on the feel or of the essence of a product, as
opposed to its functionality or practicality. In addition, marketing technique has evolved from
skewed quantitative results from mere questionnaires. Instead, the focus of marketing technique
has shifted towards attempting to understand the hidden desires and urges of the consumer. How
do individuals respond subconsciously to sex in the media? How do consumers perceive different

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products? Which influences the consumer in making purchasing decisions? The goal of
successful marketing is to understand what individuals want before they even know themselves.

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