This lecture is related to consumer perception

1. 2 - 1
Chapter 2
Perception
Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being

2. 2 - 2
• What was Gary’s perception of Parmalat?
• Why is shelf-stable milk popular in Europe?
• In the focus group research, what were the
U.S. consumers’ perceptions of Parmalat?
• What is Parmalat doing to overcome the
obstacles associated with marketing shelf-
stable milk in the United States?
Opening Vignette: Parmalat

3. 2 - 3
Sensation and Perception
• Sensation:
– The immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes,
ears, nose, mouth, fingers) to basic stimuli such as light,
color, sound, odors, and textures
• Perception:
– The process by which sensations are selected, organized,
and interpreted
• The Study of Perception:
– Focuses on what we add to raw sensations to give them
meaning

4. 2 - 4
An Overview of the
Perception Process
Figure 2.1

5. 2 - 5
Sensory Systems
• External stimuli, or sensory inputs, can
be received on a number of different
channels.
• Inputs picked up by our five senses are
the raw data that begin the perceptual
process.

6. 2 - 6
Advertisements Appeal to Our Sensory Systems
• This ad for a luxury car emphasizes the contribution
made by all of our senses to the evaluation of a driving
experience.

7. 2 - 7
Sensory Systems - Vision
• Marketers rely heavily on visual
elements in advertising, store design,
and packaging.
• Meanings are communicated on the
visual channel through a product’s
color, size, and styling.
• Colors may influence our emotions
more directly.
– Arousal and stimulated appetite (e.g. red)
– Relaxation (e.g. blue)

8. 2 - 8
Sensory Perceptions - Vision
• Some reactions to color come from
learned associations.
– (e.g. Black is associated with mourning in the
United States, whereas white is associated with
mourning in Japan.)
• Some reactions to color are due to
biological and cultural differences.
– (e.g. Women tend to be drawn to brighter tones and
are more sensitive to subtle shadings and patterns)

9. 2 - 9
Sensory Perceptions - Vision
• Color plays a dominant role in Web page
design.
• Saturated colors (green, yellow, orange, and
cyan) are considered the best to capture
attention.
– Don’t overdo it. Extensive use of saturated colors can
overwhelm people and cause visual fatigue.
• Trade Dress:
– Colors that are strongly associated with a corporation, for
which the company may have exclusive rights for their use.
• (e.g. Kodak’s use of yellow, black, and red)

10. 2 - 10
• First Heinz gave us
“Blastin’ Green” ketchup
in a squeeze bottle. Now
they have introduced
“Funky Purple” ketchup.
• What sensory perception
is Heinz trying to appeal
to? Do you think this
product will be successful?
Why or why not?
Discussion Question

11. 2 - 11
Your Assignment
• Select three to five advertisements (in any
format) that target different sensory perceptions.
• Explain those advertisements in your own words
and describe how does it target different sensory
perceptions.

12. 2 - 12
Sensory Perceptions - Smell
• Odors can stir emotions or create a calming
feeling.
• Some responses to scents result from early
associations that call up good or bad
feelings.
• Marketers are finding ways to use smell:
– Scented clothes
– Scented stores
– Scented cars and planes
– Scented household products
– Scented advertisements

13. 2 - 13
Sensory Perceptions - Sound
• Advertising jingles create brand awareness.
• Background music creates desired moods.
• Sound affects people’s feelings and
behaviors.
• Muzak uses a system it calls “stimulus
progression” to increase the normally slower
tempo of workers during midmorning and
midafternoon time slots.
• Sound engineering:
– Top-end automakers are using focus groups of consumers
to help designers choose appropriate sounds to elicit the
proper response.

14. 2 - 14
Sensory Perceptions - Touch
• Relatively little research has been done on
the effects of tactile stimulation on the
consumer, but common observation tells
us that this sensory channel is important.
• People associate textures of fabrics and
other surfaces with product quality.
• Perceived richness or quality of the
material in clothing is linked to its “feel,”
whether rough or smooth.

15. 2 - 15
Applications of Touch Perceptions
• Kansai engineering: A
philosophy that
translates customers’
feelings into design
elements.
• Mazda Miata designers
discovered that making
the stick shift (shown
on the right) exactly 9.5
cm long conveys the
optimal feeling of
sportiness and control.

16. 2 - 16
Tactile Quality Associations
Table 2.1
Tactile Oppositions in Fabrics
Perception Male Female
High class Wool Silk Fine
Low class Denim Cotton
Heavy Light Coarse

17. 2 - 17
Sensory Perceptions - Taste
• Taste receptors contribute to our
experience of many products.
• Specialized companies called “flavor
houses” are constantly developing new
concoctions to please the changing
palates of consumers.
• Changes in culture also determine the
tastes we find desirable.

18. 2 - 18
Exposure
• Exposure:
– Occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of
someone’s sensory receptors
• Consumers concentrate on some
stimuli, are unaware of others, and
even go out of their way to ignore some
messages.

19. 2 - 19
Sensory Thresholds
• Psychophysics:
– The science that focuses on how the physical environment
is integrated into our personal subjective world.
• Absolute Threshold:
– The minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected
on a given sensory channel.
• Differential Threshold:
– The ability of a sensory system to detect changes or
differences between two stimuli. The minimum difference
that can be detected between two stimuli is known as the
j.n.d. (just noticeable difference).

20. 2 - 20
Weber’s Law
• The amount of change that is necessary to be
noticed is systematically related to the intensity of
the original stimulus
• The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a
change must be for it to be noticed.
• Mathematically:
– K = A constant (varies across senses)
– Δi = The minimal change in the intensity required to produce j.n.d.
– I = the intensity of the stimulus where the change occurs
I
i
K



21. 2 - 21
Subliminal Perception
• Subliminal perception:
– Occurs when the stimulus is below the level of the
consumer’s awareness.
• Subliminal techniques:
– Embeds: Tiny figures that are inserted into magazine:
advertising by using high-speed photography or airbrushing.
• Does subliminal perception work?
– There is little evidence that subliminal stimuli can bring
about desired behavioral changes.

22. 2 - 22
Attention
• Attention:
– The extent to which processing activity is devoted
to a particular stimulus.
• Attention economy:
– The Internet has transformed the focus of
marketers from attracting dollars to attracting
eyeballs.
• Perceptual selection:
– People attend to only a small portion of the stimuli
to which they are exposed.

23. 2 - 23
Attention and Advertising
• Nike tries to cut through the clutter by spotlighting
maimed athletes instead of handsome models.

24. 2 - 24
Personal Selection Factors
• Experience:
– The result of acquiring and processing stimulation over
time
• Perceptual vigilance:
– Consumers are aware of stimuli that relate to their current
needs
• Perceptual defense:
– People see what they want to see - and don’t see what they
don’t want to see
• Adaptation:
– The degree to which consumers continue to notice a
stimulus over time

25. 2 - 25
Factors that Lead to Adaptation
• Intensity: Less-intense stimuli habituate because they have
less sensory impact.
• Duration: Stimuli that require relatively lengthy exposure in
order to be processed tend to habituate because they require a
long attention span.
• Discrimination: Simple stimuli tend to habituate because
they do not require attention to detail.
• Exposure: Frequently encountered stimuli tend to habituate
as the rate of exposure increases.
• Relevance: Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant will
habituate because they fail to attract attention.

26. 2 - 26
Stimulus Selection Factors
• Size:
– The size of the stimulus itself in contrast to the competition
helps to determine if it will command attention.
• Color:
– Color is a powerful way to draw attention to a product.
• Position:
– Stimuli that are present in places we’re more likely to look
stand a better chance of being noticed.
• Novelty:
– Stimuli that appear in unexpected ways or places tend to
grab our attention.

27. 2 - 27
Attention to Stimuli
• Interpretation:
– The meaning that we assign sensory stimuli.
• Schema:
– The meaning we assign to a stimulus depends on
the schema, or set of beliefs to which the stimulus
is assigned.
• Priming:
– Process by which certain properties of a stimulus
typically will evoke a schema, which leads
consumers to evaluate the stimulus in terms of
other stimulus they have encountered and believe
to be similar.

28. 2 - 28
Schema-Based Perception
• Advertisers know that consumers will often relate
an ad to preexisting schema in order to make sense
of it.

29. 2 - 29
The Priming Process

30. 2 - 30
Stimulus Organization
• A stimulus will be interpreted based on its
assumed relationship with other events,
sensations, or images.
• Closure Principle:
– People tend to perceive an incomplete picture as complete.
• Principle of Similarity:
– Consumers tend to group together objects that share the
same physical characteristics.
• Figure-ground Principle:
– One part of a stimulus will dominate (the figure) and other
parts will recede into the background (the ground).

31. 2 - 31
Gestalt Principle
• This Swedish ad relies upon gestalt perceptual
principles to insure that the perceiver organizes a
lot of separate images into a familiar image.

32. 2 - 32
Principle of Closure
• This Land Rover ad illustrates the use of the principle of
closure, in which people participate in the ad by
mentally filling in the gaps in the sentence.

33. 2 - 33
Figure-ground Principle
• This billboard for Wrangler jeans makes creative use of
the figure-ground principle.

34. 2 - 34
Semiotics: The Symbols Around Us
• Semiotics: Field of study that examines the
correspondence between signs and symbols
and their role in the assignment of meaning.
• A message has 3 components:
– 1) Object: the product that focuses the message
– 2) Sign: the sensory imagery that represents the
intended meanings of the object
– 3) Interpretant: the meaning derived

35. 2 - 35
Semiotic Components
Figure 2.2

36. 2 - 36
Summary
3-1 The design of a product often is a key driver of its success or failure.
3-2 Products and commercial messages often appeal to our senses, but because of the
profusion of these messages we don’t notice most of them.
3-3 Perception is a three-stage process that translates raw stimuli into meaning.
• Stage-1: Exposure
- Sensory Threshold
- Weber’s Law
- Subliminal Perception
• Stage-2: Attention
- Personal Selection Factors
- Factors that lead to adaptation
- Stimulus Selection Factors
• Stage-3: Interpretation
- Schema
- Priming
- Stimulus Organization