The impact of stealth marketing on enhancing the psychological factors influencing consumer purchasing behavior: An analytical study of the opinions of a sample of employees and customers of major retail stores in the city of Baghdad

The research aims to understand the impact of stealth marketing in enhancing the psychological factors influencing consumer purchasing behavior in major retail stores studied in the city of Baghdad. The research poses the question: What is the effect of stealth marketing on enhancing the psychological factors influencing consumer purchasing behavior? To achieve the research objectives, the researcher adopted the descriptive analytical method and used a questionnaire as the main tool for data collection. The research examined the opinions of a sample of customers of those surveyed stores, with (450) customers being surveyed and (310) questionnaires being retrieved valid for statistical analysis. The research concluded with several findings, the most important being that the responses of the customers of the surveyed stores indicate that stealth marketing is used as one of the contemporary non-traditional promotional methods, focusing on promotion in unexpected and surprising ways. Stealth marketing techniques have successfully attracted customers by using emotional stimuli to introduce the store's brand and encourage customers to engage with it continuously. Additionally, the research provided many recommendations.