Chapter 4
Consumer Perception
Consumer Perception
What Is Perception?
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The process of selecting, organizing, and
interpreting sensation into a meaningful and
coherent picture of the world
“How we see the world around us”
Two individuals may be exposed to the same
stimuli but recognize, select, organize and
interpret them differently based on their own
needs, values and expectations
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Consumer perceptions are vital to marketers
and often underlie the success or failure of
products in the marketplace
In order to understand how perception affects
the marketing process, we need to
understand some of the basic concepts that
underlie the perceptual process
Three Concepts Related to Perception
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Exposure
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Attention
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The act of deliberately or accidentally coming into contact
with stimuli
The allocation of mental capacity to a stimulus
Sensation
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Responses of the sensory receptors to a stimulus and
transmission of this information to the brain
Sensation
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Sensation is the immediate and direct
response of the sensory organs to simple
stimuli
The human organs that receive sensory
inputs are called sensory receptors
Sensory Systems
Eye
Ear
Nose
Mouth
Skin
Sight
Sound
Smell
Taste
Touch
Exposure to
Raw Data
Processing
of Inputs
Interpretation
of Inputs
Vision
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Vision is the dominant human sense, so we
know more about it than the other senses
Vision is known to stimulate physiological
changes
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Warm hues (red, orange) increase blood pressure
and heart rate
Cool hues (blue, green) have the opposite effect
Orange is used in fast food restaurants to
increase hunger
Blues and greens are used in hospitals to
reduce patient anxiety
Smell
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Smell is the most direct of the senses
No sense evokes memory more than smell
Exposure to odors remembered from
childhood can induce mood effects like those
experienced in childhood
Marketers understand this and build mood
effects into products through odors
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Research has shown that a pleasant odor
increases lingering and the amount of time
spent in a store
Taste
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Taste has an obvious impact on the success
of food and beverages
North Americans appear to have a preference
for fatty foods
Thus the success of fast food and pizza
restaurants
Culture plays a powerful role in determining
taste
Sound
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Sound, in the form of speech and music, is
important to marketers
Research shows a positive connection
between the use of popular songs in ads and
consumers’ recall of those ads
Research also shows a positive connection
between music and store sales and a
negative connection between noise and sales
Touch
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Physical contact with a product often
provides consumers with vital information
Input Variation and Sensation
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Changes in what we feel, hear, see, etc. at
any given time
As input increases, the ability to distinguish
differences decreases
As input decreases, the ability to distinguish
differences increases
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Perceptual overloading: the inability to
perceive all competing stimuli for one’s
attention
Perceptual vigilance: the ability to disregard
much of the stimulation one receives
Consumers easily ignore ads when
bombarded by them constantly
Perceptual Selection
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Each day consumers are surrounded by
stimuli
They are able to subconsciously exercise
selectivity over which stimuli they perceive
Which stimuli are selected depend on two
major factors
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Consumers’ previous experience (what they are
prepared to see)
Their motives (needs, desires, interests, etc.)
Some Important Concepts Regarding Selective
Perception
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Selective Exposure
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Consumers actively seek out messages they find pleasant
or are sympathetic to and avoid painful or threatening ones
Selective Attention
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Consumers exercise selectivity over attention given to
commercial stimuli; they have a heightened awareness of
stimuli that meet needs/interests and minimal awareness of
irrelevant stimuli
Environmental
Stimuli
Selective
Exposure
Selective
Attention
Perception
Selective Interpretation
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The interpretation of stimuli is also uniquely
individual, because it is based on what people
expect to see in light of previous experience,
their motives and interests
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Adaptation Levels
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Indifference to a stimulus to which one has
become accustomed
Attention Stimulation
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Placement, timing, and presentation of stimuli so
that target consumers are most likely exposed to
them
Threshold Levels of Perception
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Sensation is the immediate and direct response of
the sensory organs (e.g., eyes, ears, etc.) to a
stimulus (e.g., an ad, a package, a brand name)
Sensation is provoked by changes in sensory input
The more stimuli that are present, the greater the
change must be, and vice versa (e.g., pin dropping)
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For marketers’ purposes, there are two
levels of sensory input (thresholds) of
importance:
Absolute threshold
Differential threshold (“just noticeable
difference”)
1. The absolute threshold
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The lowest level at which an individual can
experience a sensation
I.e., the lowest level of stimuli at which a
person can detect a difference between
something and nothing
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Over time and exposure, the absolute
threshold drops as consumers “get used to” a
stimulus (sensory adaptation)
Marketers need to increase/change sensory
input in order to keep the attention of their
target market
2. Differential Threshold (JND)
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The minimum change in sensation
necessary for a person to detect it
19th century German scientist Ernst Weber
discovered that the JND between two
stimuli was not absolute, but varied
according to the intensity of the first
stimulus
Weber’s Law thus states that the greater
the initial stimulus, the greater the additional
stimulus needs to be in order to be
noticeable
Implications for marketers
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1.
2.
Manufacturers and marketers try to
determine the JND for their products
There are two primary reasons
So that negative changes (e.g., reduction in
product size or quality or increases in price)
are not noticeable
So that product improvements (improved
packaging, larger quantities, lower price)
are very apparent
Ethical issue
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Reductions in quantity and size may not be
reflected in different packaging
Marketers may attempt to differentiate
product lines that are minimally different by
increasing price differences between the lines
Thus consumers perceive the lines as
different when they are not
Perception and Image
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The view or portrait of a product, brand,
store or company created in consumers’
minds
Image is a major factor in consumers’
choice of one brand or store over another
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Images may be created around a number of
categories:
Economy
Safety
Reliability
Pleasure
Status
Distinctiveness
Subliminal Perception
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Research shows that people are stimulated below
their level of conscious awareness—they can
perceive stimuli without being consciously aware
they are doing so
Federal Communications Commission was
concerned enough to ban it from television and
radio
http://www.snopes2.com/business/hidden/popcorn.h
tm
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In the 70’s interest was renewed due to
claims advertisers were using subliminal
embeds in print ads
The most common claims involved the use of
suggestive symbols in ice cubes floating in a
pictured drink
Research indicates sexually oriented embeds
do not influence consumer preferences
Because there is no evidence it works, there
are no laws or regulations prohibiting it
Link to Subliminal Advertising Websites
http://www.subliminalworld.com/