Scientists have discovered that brand name products have a greater impact on our brains than similar, generic items, because brand names engage the “emotional,” right-hand side of the brain. Our brains don’t process all types of words in the same way. Head injury patients can often match a person’s name to a photo, while common words like “house” or “paper” are meaningless to them. Advertising consultant Robert Jones says, “It supports our instinctive belief that brands are a special class of word?they are like a poem all in one word in their ability to evoke and express ideas.”
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For years, advertisers have been telling us that subliminal messages really don’t work. Think again. Takeo Watanabe and his colleagues at Boston University believe that subconscious learning is possible and that it may affect our conscious decisions without our realizing it.

They found that people who watched a pattern of subliminal dot movements during a trial were significantly better at picking it out later.

The finding challenges the idea that attention is an essential element of the learning process. ?Attention can make learning more efficient,? says Watanabe, ?but it?s not necessary.”
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