Subliminal Messages in Marketing and Consumers’ Purchasing Intention—A Case Study of Online Shopping from Lebanese Perspective

Abstract

Understanding the major elements affecting consumers purchasing intention is important because it is directly related with the actual purchase. To attract more customers and boost their sales, online marketers use subliminal messages in advertising. The subliminal message is not perceived directly by the consumers’ consciousness, but still remains in their mind in a subtle way. Hidden messages within advertising is a manipulating force to buy the product, or to increase the purchasing intention. The objective of this article is to explore and describe the influence of the perception, awareness, and knowledge of subliminal messages and subliminal persuasion on consumers’ purchasing intention. The data collection used a cross-sectional descriptive approach. This study is descriptive following a causal model. The sample belongs to the population of Lebanese consumers. An online questionnaire was used during this study. A total of 510 Lebanese consumers had completed the questionnaire online. The influence of perception of subliminal messages, awareness of subliminal messages, knowledge of subliminal message and subliminal persuasion are positive which validate a positive relation among these variables. As for the future avenues of research, it would be interesting to assess the effectiveness of some consumer anticipation and the protection against manipulation with regard to subliminal messages.