The Power of Peripheral Exposure in Advertising

In the insightful book, "Seducing the Subconscious," Robert Heath discusses the power of peripheral exposure and how advertisers can use this psychological concept to their advantage.

Heath's research concludes that consumers can be impacted by advertising that they are not directly looking at, i.e. advertising in their peripheral vision. Many advertisers work on the belief that consumers are persuaded by message learning, which will change their attitude, and therefore their behavior towards a brand. This ideology may not always ring true. Psychology suggests that we may be impacted by a brand subconsciously. This idea provides a different outlook because many marketers focus on being extremely creative/individualistic, message branding, and getting consumer's immediate attention.

Regarding the theory of peripheral exposure, Svendsen, and Elms say, "Media implications are that getting people to experience the brand is the best option. People process the cues, not the argument, and these cues must be explicit, consistent, and around for a long time," (2005). Getting to experience a brand through what we consume can actually heavily impact one's attitude towards the brand. An example that comes to mind for me is F.R.I.E.N.D.S. incorporating Ralph Lauren into their series. Rachel Green's career takes off with Ralph Lauren, and this likely had a significant impact on their brand recall that occurred at the same time F.R.I.E.N.D.S was exploding in popularity.

Image by @whatracheltrended on Instagram, Fatma Abusief

Marketers should not aim for consumers to process their argument. Heath claims consumers tend to counter-argue when this type of advertising occurs:

"For example, take the claim that skin creams alleviate wrinkles and make you look young. A few minutes' consideration leads you to realize that if this was true, then it would have been plastered all over the news as a spectacular scientific breakthrough. On the other hand, putting any old cream on your face and rubbing it in probably makes your skin more flexible and pliant, and temporarily makes wrinkles seem to vanish. So, true or not, there are two perfectly valid reasons to disbelieve what the advertiser is claiming," (pg. 88).

Organizations should focus on implementing their brand through peripheral processing to associate good feelings around their product/service. In the example I provided earlier, Ralph Lauren is not claiming that they are the best retail option. Ralph Lauren simply inserts their brand in a popular TV show and unifies it with arguably the most favorable character. Rachel Green is often affiliated with feelings of courageousness, style, vanity, caring, and authenticity. Ralph Lauren generates a positive consensus around their company by establishing this relationship between their brand and Rachel Green. Additionally, the brand is discussed countless times throughout the series, subconsciously reminding people of it (through repetition).

Svendsen and Elms provide examples for what makes consumers remember, "People (eg Halifax & Howard), Jingles (eg Intel inside), Music (eg British Airways music), Logos (eg Kellogg's K, Nike Swoosh, Adidas Stripes), Colours (eg First Direct/black, Orange/orange), Design (eg Coke bottle, Toilet Duck bottleneck), Alliteration (eg 118 118), Layout (eg Felix black and white cartoon)" (2005). Advertisers should carefully consider these cues that people can pick up on peripherally and subconsciously. Heath's research suggests that British Airways music was the main factor in changing its favorability and popularity in the airline industry. When they changed their music, they experienced an influx of business, more than they had ever experienced before:

"Subconsciously perceived elements, like the British Airways music, can be consciously linked to British Airways without any memory of that link having taken place, and can then subconsciously trigger emotions which are transferred via conditioning to the British Airways brand, with no memory of any conditioning having taken place. In summary, it explains how we can know and feel things, even though we have never consciously been aware of learning them," (Heath, pg. 118).

Consumers associate the emotions evoked from the music with feelings of safety, peace, and positivity, therefore subconsciously linking those feelings with British Airways. It is crazy to consider that music choice (often considered an afterthought for advertisers) has such a huge impact on consumer's recall! To conclude, advertisers should utilize these peripheral cues to subconsciously impact consumers.

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Heath, R. (2015). Seducing the subconscious: The psychology of emotional influence in advertising. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Svendsen, J., & Elms, S. (2005, April). The mind, the brain, and the media. WARC, Admap Magazine. https://www-warc-com.ezproxy.csupueblo.edu/content/article/the-mind-the-brain-and-the-media/80364