Have a look at the above logos.
In creating a business, perhaps one of the more difficult decisions one must make is the creation and selection of the brand logo as it will represent the company. According to researchers at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, your exposure to the above logos actually influences your behaviour. To be precise, a 30 milliseconds exposure to Apple’s logo makes you more creative than a similar exposure to IBM’s logo.
These findings are anathema with traditional marketing beliefs that subliminal advertising may in fact be effective. Some market researchers had tried to put the motion forward, such as James Vicary in 1957, who claimed that his Coca-Cola’s sales are boosted by flashing ‘Drink Coca-Cola’ ads. The marketing community dismissed this finding at the time but recent researches are starting to suggest otherwise.
A test done on 341 university students, where they are exposed to logos of well-known brands and their behaviour then gauged using a series of tests reveals surprising results. 30-millisecond exposure to Apple’s logo makes you more creative than an exposure to IBM’s logo and an exposure to Disney’s logo prompts you to be more honest than exposure to E! Channel logo.
As a note, researchers on the matter discovered that these exposures are not supposed to be like TV adverts, where the length of the TV ads enables sufficient time to set up their mental defences. This behaviour priming only works with brief exposures to brands.
This recent finding, surprising as it is, also raises more questions. Such as, if Apple’s logo really does make one creative, will exposure to the logo be helpful, say, before an art exam? Perhaps the Disney logo could be used to instill honesty to aid the police during interrogation?
