EspañolHave you ever wondered about your options after shopping at the supermarket? Obviously, you have so many choices, why did you decide to buy those items? Many people answer with good reasons, such as they love the brand, friends recommended, or there is a discount for those items. However, through surveys, researchers found out that buying decisions are not about logical explanations or conscious thinking. Most of our choices come from the subconscious influence, which holds our own concepts and emotions.
Such subconscious buying behavior has a huge influence on brands and product advertising. They also indirectly determine small things like packaging design, advertising methods, or how to display the shelves. Understanding the path of the subconscious to action and making decisions is also the path to success.
How does the subconscious show influence?
The subconscious is under the layer of consciousness, that’s what we already know. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the area of the brain in which the subconscious works. However, it truly has enormous power over human thinking and behaviors. In fact, most brain activity takes place on the subconscious level. According to research, the conscious level processes only about 10% of the information.
Explaining subconscious behavior is quite complicated. It is because when we think and talk about the subconscious, that behavior no longer comes from the subconscious. The best way to see the subconscious’s impact on actions is to observe our natural reactions.
Our subconscious gathers information through vision
This is one of the methods of studying the effects of the subconscious mind. The researchers asked participants to wear a device with a camera on their heads when shopping. This device did not annoy or interfere with their shopping behavior, so the shopping went on completely naturally.
At the end of the shopping process, the researchers sat down with the survey participants, watched the recorded video together, and asked them what they thought before each buying decision. Through analysis, researchers found that most information received through the visual path goes to the subconscious rather than consciousness. At the same time, the subconscious influence the customers’ buying decisions also with the information stored in it.
Our subconscious create a filter for information
Think how much data can you expose when it comes to shopping choices? It contains many factors such as color, style, size, design, materials, lighting, etc. All factors influence your decision. Through your eyes, you will automatically select the necessary information and absorb them into your consciousness. Then, you consciously process that information and make the final decision. However, before consciousness can obtain the above information, the subconscious mind has already received and screened countless data.
It makes consideration before any decision
Shoppers can get information from a multitude of products in a short period of time. In a survey of consumer habits at a convenience store, respondents stopped their vision scan up to 245 times in 5 minutes, equivalent to 49 different items within 1 minute. On average, every half hour, shoppers will have about 1,800 times stopping their vision scan. The subconscious receives all that information, but cannot extract that much data for consciousness.
Instead, the subconscious always has a consideration before sending any information into consciousness. Sellers understand this feature and apply it to the arrangement of the shelves in a certain order, making it easy for buyers to find what they want.
Another factor that takes place at the subconscious level is the emotional and physiological reflexes. First, we monitor the information perceived through eye contact and comparing it with factors such as pulse rate, skin stimulation, brain waves, and facial expression. Then, we can see the corresponding reactions when exposed to information factors are emotions like excitement, satisfaction, confusion, positive emotion, or negative emotion. You may not realize that you have these emotional reflexes, but they are powerful enough to stimulate you to make a decision.
Through the analysis of buying behavior and related factors, we have partly understood the subconscious influence and process it goes through for our decisions. There are many more subconsciously interesting things that we have yet to fully explore. Learn more through our Reprogram Subconscious Mind mobile app.
