Impact of Subliminal Advertising on Consumer Buying Behaviour: An Empirical Study on Young Indian Consumers

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to examine the impact of subliminal messages in TV advertisements on consumer behaviour. Though there are number of ways through which impact of subliminal advertisements can be unearthed, in the current study, behavioural approach was adopted, which included discussion on case study (group discussion on subliminal ads) followed by response on a questionnaire. A sample of 390 respondents was chosen from Kashmir division through multi-stage random sampling framework, which, by and large, consisted of young students being a part of higher education in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Data was collected through structured questionnaire which was reliability tested and validated as well. Apart from exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor, discriminant analysis was also utilized for reliability, validity and data analysis, respectively. On the whole, the observations have been found considerable and it has been observed that mostly subliminal exposure inveigles young consumers and seduces them into illicit relationships through the subconscious mechanism. Besides it, subliminal advertising has paramount significance in determining purchase intentions and compulsive buying tendencies of a young consumer. Consumers under study have shown significant differences in their compulsive buying propensity after having being exposed to subliminal advertising. The present study has greater importance for welfare advocates who can utilize present work and suggestions, in particular, to safeguard youth from the tactics of subliminal exposure.