I’m currently renovating a space and in observing the things I was drawn to I slowly realized that a lot of things I liked were pretty mainstream. I’m not a particularly trendy person, actually I’m not a trendy person at all so my taste in these things really caused me to stop and evaluate where the interest came from.
Through my work in fashion I understand in depth how marketers condition us to buy whatever it is that they are selling. Companies spend their marketing budgets desensitizing people to spend money on things that we don’t need and don’t even necessarily like.
Millennial Pink
In my case it was what is referred to as Millennial pink, and even with this my interest is late as the colour met its peak popularity in March 2017, more than a year ago. I spend hours on Pinterest, visualizing my thoughts by way of pinning random images to a virtual board, and I can only assume that from seeing shot after shot of the light but bright hue it grew on me.
The same happened with round mirrors. All of a sudden I adore them, and want them everywhere—I have already used them twice in my re-decorating. But was it really all that sudden? In all of my scrolling for inspiration I must have come across them so much over the past 8 – 12 months, that I started to like them without even recognizing it. Yes, I’ve also thought that maybe they just fit my aesthetic, honestly I can’t even confirm whether that’s true or not, because I am so unsure.
According to Collins Dictionary, subliminal messaging can be defined as a message passed to the human mind without the mind being consciously aware of it. These messages can be out of focus of images you look at, in movies and shows, in the background music at a store or restaurant you’re in. The messages work because while the brain can only consciously process a limited number of things at a given time, it is automatically and subconsciously processing hundreds of things in every second we are awake.
So how does this affect us in Guyana where we are only now beginning to place emphasis on marketing media, and the importance of active marketing plans and teams? We are no longer just a Guyana population of 760,000, in this 21st century our economy is becoming as global as our more developed neighbours’ markets already are.
Being both aware of and adept with marketing trends, and more importantly marketing trends that your market responds to, allows for a tailored plan for increased growth. Being able to recognize and utilize the copious ways that marketers are getting our attention, without us actively giving it to them positions us to do the same four our target market.
As I write this I’m asking myself if operating in this way is deceptive, and frankly speaking it can be, but at the end of the day the reason brands with massive cult like followings exist is because as humans we have a desire to belong somewhere. Often times we seek and find the comfort of that belonging in the things we buy and the brands we affiliate with.
So to round this off, how do we distinguish our own opinions from those given to us? And more so if subliminal messaging works how do we utilize it for our own marketing purposes here in Guyana? I desperately want to know your opinions, leave me a comment on this article on buildingbrooke.com.
