A paper describing the effective usage of Priming in various Advertising and Marketing gimmicks by present day Marketeers

1. Priming in Marketing - A New Strategy
Kakoli Laha
I. Abstract - Priming is a technique to create a hidden memory effect in an individual. In this practice, first
an individual is exposed to a certain stimulus which then shapes his responses to a later event. It is an
effective means to psychologically alter consumer behaviour and manipulate buyers into being more
receptive to a product. It can be used by marketers to advertise their products so as to ensure maximum
subconscious attention by the consumer. This is done by stimulating the human senses such as sight,
hearing, taste, smell and touch, thereby ensuring that the consumer acts in a certain way in a specific
situation. In this paper the various techniques which can be used to prime the consumer and ways to
effectively use priming in today’s world to influence the marketing strategies will be studied.
II. Keywords - Priming, Elaboration Likelihood Model, Central Route, Peripheral Route, Visual Priming
III. Introduction – Consumers are affected by a variety of external factors such as brand, price or packaging
which are not intrinsic to the product and make choices often without reflecting on the consequence of
their choices. Most of these choices are made subconsciously, hence it is very essential for marketers to
appeal to the consumer’s subconscious mind. The first step in this direction is to garner consumer
attention. As per research, the human mind is incredibly susceptible to the power of suggestion which
generally evokes an immediate reaction. This subconscious alteration to human will is called priming. In
this type of sequential priming wherein the prime precedes a response, the prime and the situation for
the reaction may be semantically unrelated, but they help to produce the desired response. Priming is so
subtle that the recipient is unaware of the fact that his behaviour is being modified, that is, the recipient
is fed the desired information subconsciously.
IV. Need for study – Priming techniques are implemented by marketers in several ways in order to make
consumers desire things they want to sell. Marketers and advertisers prime human minds with the help
of branding and interactions with an aim to make the consumer spend more. The practice of having
rounded stores which was started by Ikea is continued till date, the idea being that the consumer would
eye all the different products before reaching the product originally intended to buy, and in the process
make a mental note of all the goods which are on display. Another technique is to keep daily essentials
like groceries and milk always at the back of supermarket stores and have strategic placement of in store
elevators. Sometimes there may be themes set-up, especially in furniture and cosmetic stores, wherein
products are arranged in groups so that the mind perceives one to be incomplete without the other,
further causing consumers to buy the entire set.
Certain experiments have also proved that consumers are more willing to try products when the
advertisements or posters feature individuals of the same ethnicity or race as themselves. We can thus
observe that priming the human mind appropriately could help marketers unleash the full potential of
their advertisements and promotional budgets. Hence the need to study priming becomes imperative to
utilise these budgets suitably.

2. V. Literature Review – Priming can be best understood with the help of the Elaboration Likelihood Model
proposed by Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo in the year 1981. The Elaboration Likelihood Model is a
structure to comprehend the consumer outlook towards all products and services based on the likelihood
that they will elaborate on the information being fed. It proposes that all individuals can be fed with
information via two routes –
1) Central Route (In case the Elaboration Likelihood is high)
2) Peripheral Route (In case the Elaboration Likelihood is low)
The Central Route of providing information is used when the individual possesses both determination and
ability to think and act on the message. The information provided is carefully assessed with the
information present in the memory of the individual, is supported by facts and an informed decision is
then made. In this case, the decision reflecting the change in the individual’s attitude will be more
predictable and will comparatively last longer than in the case if Peripheral Route is used.
Figure 1. Elaboration Likelihood Model by Bitner and Obermiller

3. The Peripheral Route is used when the individual does not possess the determination and/or capability to
process the information. In this case, facts are overlooked with a higher relevance given to intuition. If the
peripheral cues are overlooked by the individual, the information provided may go unnoticed and the
individual may remain in the same state as before with no change in his decisions. If noticed, the
information may provide temporary changes in the attitude of the individual which may or may not tend
to last for a long duration of time.
Further correlation of the model with respect to marketing strategies was done by Mary J. Bitner and Carl
Obermiller. As per this theory, Situational, Person and Product Category Variables may cause the
Elaboration Likelihood (EL) for any information to be high or low. That in turn will result in adoption of
persuasion either via central cues or peripheral cues.
Following examples have been illustrated to explain the above. Under situational variables, factors such
as time and impact of decision will be considered. In case the consumer has less time to process certain
information, EL will be low and he will be persuaded by peripheral cues. On the other hand, if the
consumer has no time constraints, he will be involved in a more factual interpretation of the data since
EL is high and he will most likely be persuaded by central cues only. Similarly, if the impact of the decision
made is high, then EL will be high else it will be low.
In case of product variables, factors such as tangibility of the asset, price, and risk come into play. For
intangible assets whose evaluation is beyond the scope of the consumer either due to the nature of the
offering or lack of available information, EL will be low. This includes services such as entertainment,
beauty or legal services. Similarly for low price or low risk products, EL will be low. On the other hand for
high price or high risk products and services such as security and medicine, EL will be high and reason will
be applied during purchase.
Several experiments have been conducted by Professor John A. Bargh to demonstrate the power of
priming. The first such test consisted of a subject group who were primed with a set of words on the
theme of old age such as Florida, old, lonely, grey, forgetful, retired, wrinkled. After the test was
completed, the time taken by each member of the subject group to walk out of the room was measured
to be comparatively longer than the time taken by the same member to enter into the room. When asked,
the participants seemed to be unaware that the words had any noticeable impact on their behaviour. The
primed words caused the members of the participating group to become preoccupied with old age
subconsciously and thus caused them to act old. The reverse experiment was carried out by Dr. Danielle
Richardson wherein words related to youthfulness such as ambition, freedom, attractive, fashion, passion
were given to a set of students and they were observed to walk 10% to 15% faster after the experiment.
Thus marketers generally make it a point to use youthful words in their taglines and slogans to energise
their target group.
In another experiment conducted by Professor John A. Bargh, a test was given to two sets of groups. In
the first test the participating group was primed with a set of polite words whereas in the second test the
participating group was primed with set of rude words. Each group was then asked to submit the test to
a professor who was involved in a conversation with someone. The subject group was observed to
determine how long they would wait before they interrupted the professor. It was observed that the
members of the group primed with kind words waited longer to interrupt the professor than those
members primed with rude words. Hence, retailers make it a point to be deliberately polite to their
consumers in order to ensure that they remain relaxed at all times and thereby increase their sales.

4. Another test was conducted by Dr. Peter Naish in which two groups of participants were involved in a one
handed counting activity. The only difference was that one group was asked to count paper while the
other group was asked to count money. Both the groups were then asked to eat a bowl of sweets to give
them their views on the taste. It was found that the group which counted money ate more sweets than
the group that counted paper. Hence it was observed that having money makes one hungry. Hence,
saving some money on a combo-pack in a restaurant may actually cause you to buy more.
Priming can also be used by retailers to determine the maximum amount which can be charged for a
product without any negative impact on customer satisfaction. An experiment conducted in 1999 by
Sarah Maxwell, Pete Nye and Nicholas Maxwell consisted of two sets of control groups. The first set was
primed on fairness of car prices whereas the other group was not. Both groups were then asked to role-
play a car buying activity. The results of the car-buying activity indicated that the fairness primed buyers
were willing to pay higher for the cars then their non-primed counterparts and also experienced higher
levels of satisfaction and were more co-operative in the settlement process since they were looking at
impartiality in both the buying as well as the selling processes.
Based on a study by Maureen Morrin and S. Ratneshwar on the use of scents to improve brand memory,
it was observed that consumers were likely to pay more attention and dedicated a higher viewing time
to those brands which had a certain smell associated with them. Also, the brand recall was higher for
these brands irrespective of whether the preceding smell was relevant or irrelevant to the brand, so long
as it was pleasant. This type of olfactory priming can be observed at branded shoe stores which diffuse a
smell of leather in their stores artificially in order to appeal to consumers as bearers of high quality
leather, as also in certain high end fresh fruit chains which diffuse a smell of citrus fruits in order to give
a fresh feel to their consumers.
Another research conducted by Kirk U et al. demonstrates that consumer preference is significantly
biased based on the presumed value of the product. In this study, members of a control group were
asked to state their preference for certain abstract art paintings. The cover story adopted for the research
was that some of the abstract art paintings were obtained from a prestigious art gallery whereas the
remaining were reproduced by local artists or obtained from the internet. However, none of the paintings
were obtained from the art gallery. It was then observed that paintings believed to be from the art gallery
got a higher preference than those not believed to be from the art gallery. This study proves that
consumer preference can be altered based on the contextual information provided, that is through
semantic priming.
A research on ‘Neural Correlates of Behavioral Preference for Culturally Familiar Drinks’ by Samuel M.
McClure et al. demonstrates how decisions are made subconsciously by consumers based on their past
experiences and memory associations with brands. In this study, a control group was tested on their
preferences towards soft drinks Pepsi and Coca Cola. In the first stage of testing which consisted of blind
tasting the two soft drinks, the control group could not tell the difference between the two drinks.
However, when the control group was exposed to the brand of the drink they were having, they mostly

5. preferred Coca Cola over Pepsi. The second stage of testing consisted of conducting fMRI scans on the
control group while they stated their preference. In the case of blind tasting, the region of the brain
responsible for pleasure experiences was seen to be activated. However, in the second case when the
control group was made aware of the brand of the soft drink being consumed, particularly in the case of
Coca Cola, a strong activation in the region of the brain associated with memory was observed. However,
such an activation was not observed when the control group was having Pepsi. Hence, it was inferred that
memory and brand associations play an important role in consumer buying behaviour.
Using brands as verbs is another way marketers try to prime consumers making them feel totally
dependent on the product despite of the availability of competing products or services which satisfy
similar wants. This technique of priming is called brand-verbing since verbs denote actions and needs. It
is a way in which marketers make their consumers feel that the required action can only be performed by
their own brand. Earlier such type of brand verbification could end up in legal infringements but now
marketers have realized its true potential in wiping out competitors and gaining market leadership
through top of the mind recall. Common expressions used to verbify the brand are ‘Google it’, ‘Photoshop
the picture’, ‘I’m Facebooking’ and ‘Skype me’.
VI. Objectives – In a research paper by Milica Milosavljevic et al. on products which have significant visual
differences, it has been observed that when consumers do not have strong preferences for products,
visual saliency tends to attract consumer attention and affects their choices. Taking cue from this study,
efforts have been made in this paper to observe if priming consumers with images, i.e. visually priming
the consumers increases their likelihood to make certain decisions over others. Hence, the following
objectives have been set -
1) To understand the influence of visual priming on consumer behaviour
2) To realize the significance of visual priming on product preference and sale of products
VII. Research Methodology - A primary research was conducted using survey forms with data to visually
prime a sample size of 30 respondents between the ages of 22 years to 26 years and study their responses.
The respondents were first shown photographs of an irritable man and a smiling lady doctor and asked
whose advice they were most likely to follow. They were then provided with an option for an all-expense
paid trip to any one of the four holiday destinations - Grand Canyon, Hollywood, Las Vegas and Paris,
following which their responses were recorded. Thereafter they were subtly primed with visual images of
Las Vegas and then again asked to state their preference again. Finally they were asked how hungry they
were on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being very hungry and 5 being not hungry and their responses were
recorded. The respondents were then subtly primed using images of food following which they were asked
to state their hunger levels again.
VIII. Results – While analysing the responses of the first question it was observed that 28 respondents
stated that they would follow advice offered by the smiling lady doctor whereas 2 respondents stated that
they would follow advice offered by the irritable man. This shows that consumers tend to believe well-
dressed professionals as compared to others.

6. While analysing the responses of the second question it was observed that initially 8 people had selected
Las Vegas as their preferred destination and after visual priming, 11 people selected Las Vegas as their
preferred destination. This indicates that visual priming tends to affect consumer preference.
93%
7%
Advice Followed
The Lady The Man

7. 10%
3%
27%
60%
Destination Before Priming
Grand Canyon Hollywood Las Vegas Paris
7%
36%
57%
Destination After Priming
Grand Canyon Hollywood Las Vegas Paris

8. While analysing the responses of the third question it was observed that originally 11 people had
identified themselves to be either hungry or very hungry, 11 people had stated themselves to be neutral
and 8 people considered themselves to be full or not hungry. After priming the individuals with visuals of
delicious food, 16 people agreed to be feeling either hungry or very hungry, 6 people were neutral and 8
people stated that they were not hungry. Also, it was noted that 5 consumers who had originally
considered themselves to be neutral, after visual priming stated that they were feeling hungry and 3
consumers who had originally considered themselves to be hungry, after being visually primed,
considered themselves to be very hungry. This leads us to the insight that consumers feeling neutral with
respect to hunger can be made to feel hungry as well as hunger levels of people can be increased after
visually priming them with food.
7%
30%
36%
17%
10%
Hunger Level Before Priming
Very Hungry Hungry Neutral Full Very Full

9. IX. Conclusion - Many a times, the human brain takes short-cuts and believes what someone is saying only
based on what the person is wearing. Retailers and advertisers make use of this human mind conditioning
and try to use it to their advantage. Hence, a variety of advertisements show actors dressed as doctors to
make them look believable. Also, visual priming tends to change consumer preference in the direction of
the prime, more so in cases where consumers are undecided. In cases when the consumer is partially
decided towards a product, priming in the direction of the product only helps to strengthen his decision.
However, priming does not tend to be very effective in cases when the consumers are pre-decided and
resolute.
X. Future Scope of Study – Use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in order to gauge
consumer responses to priming by measuring brain activity at the precise moment the consumer is
primed.
XI. References –
1) Automaticity of Social Behaviour: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action
- John A. Bargh, Mark Chen and Lara Burrows
2) The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion – John T. Cacioppo and Richard E. Petty
3) The Elaboration Likelihood Model: Limitations and Extensions in Marketing - Mary J. Bitner and Carl
Obermiller
20%
33%20%
17%
10%
Hunger Level After Priming
Very Hungry Hungry Neutral Full Very Full

10. 4) Less pain, same gain: The effects of priming fairness in price negotiations - Sarah Maxwell, Pete Nye
and Nicholas Maxwell
5) Branding the brain: A critical review and outlook - Hilke Plassmann, Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy, Milica
Milosavljevic
6) Relative visual saliency differences induce sizable bias in consumer choice - Milica Milosavljevic, Vidhya
Navalpakkam, Christof Koch, Antonio Rangel
7) Neural Correlates of Behavioral Preference for Culturally Familiar Drinks - Samuel M. McClure, Jian Li,
Damon Tomlin, Kim S. Cypert, Latane M. Montague, and P. Read Montague
8) Does It Make Sense To Use Scents To Enhance Brand Memory? – Maureen Morrin, S. Ratneshwar
9) Modulation of Aesthetic Value by Semantic Context: An fMRI Study - Kirk U, Skov M, Hulme
O, Christensen MS, Zeki S