Advertisers know the shortest route to the pocketbook runs straight through the heart and that murky jungle called the subconscious. Are hidden persuaders creeping silently into minds and shaping our desires?

Which leads our decision making – the heart or the mind? Is one a leader while the other follows quietly behind? How do reason and feelings cooperate in the marketplace?

Explore:

• Hearts or heads? Do we buy using cold, clear logic or do we make messy decisions pulled by our hearts? Do mysterious subconscious impulses shape our consumer world?

• How do we decide if Coke or Pepsi is better? Is taste the driving force? Could it be we drink the brand that is “most like me?” Do we drink feelings?

• Which heuristics do consumers use to make marketplace decisions? And what’s a heuristic? Learn about subconscious “mental shortcuts” we all use to make decisions easier.

• Do cues work below your level of consciousness to guide decisions? Are you influenced by the thud of a car’s door? By the growl of its engine? A chalkboard in a deli? The color of a food? Where a food is sold?

• Are you faithful to a single brand? Does brand blindness lead you to ignore the faults of your significant brand?

• Can a name or label change your opinion or feelings?

• Explore what both marketers and consumers need to know about the role of emotions and the subconscious.

Advertisers and marketers do not need to hypnotize us into buying or send us subliminal messages so we “don’t know what hit us.” All they need is to understand some things about our decision making that we don’t even know. Watch How Consumers Decide to learn -- not so much to learn about devious advertisers as about how you make decisions. Look closely at those clever ads and you might learn something – about yourself.

Running Time: 21 minutes

Copyright © 2007 Learning Seed

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