Another part of marketing and persuasion is that buying often takes place at a level of our mind, just below conscious thought and intellectual review. Often getting us to buy an idea or product without realizing it. The case of marketing Alka Seltzer is a prime example.

If you’ve ever bought Alka Seltzer to help relieve upset stomach and acid indigestion, you know each packet comes with two tablets. Do you know how many tablets you need?

One.

So why the marketing commercials for Alka Seltzer with the song “Plop Plop, Fizz Fizz?” My friend, welcome to the power of suggestion. Alka Seltzer never said you needed two tablets. They simply developed a song and message that implied you needed two tablets (Plop plop, the sound of dropping two tablets in water). Yet most of us took the marketing jingle and used it as instructions. That, instead of looking at the instructions themselves. And because we made the decision to consume twice the level of their product, the makers of Alka Selter increased product usage by 200%.

What can your business learn from this? How you frame and message your product or service, from its image to how they think they are supposed to use it, can massively influence your sales. Your marketing must manage perception as well as the “factual” use of your products.