Most often, we consume something of our own choice. In all our buying and consuming activities, it is our choice that matters most. We choose what we eat, what we drink, what exercise we do, what music we listen to, where we travel to, how we travel, etc. etc. 

When we are conscious and most aware of what we bring into our lives, then how are we still consuming some things unconsciously or ignorantly?

We are well aware of secondary smoke – the smoke that we inhale when we are near a person who is smoking a cigarette. We don’t choose to smoke but we can’t avoid the smoke and fumes we inhale when we pass by a smoker or when we’re standing near one.

Yet, in this example we are aware of the situation, and if we were passing by a smoker, then of course our noses knew it first!

There is another type of consuming that we all do. We fall prey to what is called ‘Subtle Marketing’.  

What is subtle marketing?

Subtle marketing means constantly making your customers aware of your brand without them realizing it.

This is heavily practiced in malls, in hypermarkets, on highways, etc. These are basically places where there are multiple brands available and each one puts up an advertisement in the form of a flyer, hoarding, placards, etc. 

Now, to tell you what ticked me off and what made me write about all this.

I have to pass through a major signal en route to my house. Now this signal has a huge hoarding all across the road and it is that of a famous medical centre, belonging to one of the biggest business conglomerates here and it shows some big fat white machine, then there is a pair of lungs there (which are bright red for some reason) and then there is the “C” word. The hoarding talks about how capable this medical centre is in helping you diagnose cancer. The word ‘cancer’ is the biggest word on this massive hoarding!! 

I thought, thousands of cars drive by this hoarding everyday and by default every one of them is being hit with this word. One might not remember the name of the medical centre, but can anyone say that they never noticed the C word there? I bet you, the answer would be NO.

I am worried what this inadvertently consumed word might be doing to someone’s subconscious mind. After all that is the basic premise of subtle marketing that the brand name/words on the advert stays in the subconscious mind of the passer by and they become potential customers. 

So, is this medical centre creating potential customers for itself? If yes, is it right?

I am fretting over and fearing the effect of this kind of negative impact of subtle marketing and unconscious consumption. But, then I am also very excited and hopeful about the positive impact the right subtle marketing can do.

Imagine this. Hoardings along main roads and highways with beautiful pictures and or a few meaningful words! I’d love to see that someday. Charity to put up such hoardings in this way could be another option for anyone looking to do a good deed. The purpose of this kind of charity would be to positively impact people’s minds. 

Driving is stressful. Too many variants that are somehow colluding to work together at the same time, doing the right things. It is a collective effort on everybody’s part to make it to their destinations safely. 

One way to make this moving puzzle work more harmoniously could be to have positive, reassuring, feel-good things around on the route. I am sure with this change in scenery there would be happier and less stressed out people on the road.

And this is just the tip of a very huge iceberg. Look around you and observe the subtle marketing around you. Is it something you would want to change? What would you replace it with?