Review: Subliminal Persuasion

Subliminal Persuasion

Book reviews > Subliminal Persuasion

Dave Lakhani (2008). Subliminal Persuasion: : Influence and Marketing Secrets They Don't Want You To Know, Wiley, NY

When I first heard the title of this book, I thought 'Uh, oh'. I knew of James Vicary's original faked subliminal messages and wondered if this would be something similar. Fortunately it is not and, as with Lakhani's previous book is full of useful and perceptive detail. By 'subliminal', Lakhani is actually talking mostly about subconscious factors and basic human system such as emotion and belief, and this is covered well in the book.

Key content in the book includes:

Creating messages that spread.

Creating myths about yourself and your products.

Managing emotions and beliefs.

Publicizing and using media.

Creating experiences.

Copywriting and creating persuasive messages.

There is an underlying theme of branding and creation a cult-like cadre of loyal follower that marketers would call 'advocates'. It's a bit scary at times but then it's powerful stuff too.

The end of each chapter contains recommended further reading and web extras. I already have a number of the books, which is a good reason to read more of them!

I like mixed visual and text content but this book is text only, which is in the end not too much of a disappointment as the text is all good.

Overall, the book delivers well on it's promise, getting 'down and dirty' into practical and useful detail and is a welcome addition to Lakhani's previous book.

Buy Me

Dave Lakhani, Subliminal Persuasion, Wiley, NY, 2008

More detail on methods of subconscious persuasion from the persuasion guru. Lots of extremely useful stuff on creating advocates, using the media and more.