Marketing 260
Buyer Behaviour
Perception,
Learning & Memory
Write down the first thought that pops into
your head when you see this image
…the FIRST THOUGHT
And now answer
the question
below this picture….
PERCEPTION IS REALITY
…hmmmm???
PERCEPTION IS REALITY
• How we perceive things is a function of our own
personal realities…our history, our culture, our
experiences, how we think and feel, our senses or lack
thereof.
• What we believe to be real is dependent upon our
perception of what we know or experience…each person
can have a different sense of reality as we are all
individuals with a different set of experiences.
• Marketing tries to stimulate and awaken perceptions…to
change realities, strengthen perceptions, or invoke
realities.
Milk and Cookies
What can we learn from the Chapter Story
about Parmalat boxed UHT milk?
Perception in Marketing
• Dependent upon Human Sensory System
• Sensation – “immediate response of our sensory
•
receptors” (ears, eyes, nose, mouth, fingers…”)
Perception – “the process by which sensations
are selected, organized and interpreted”. Thus,
we are looking at how humans choose which
sensations to notice and then add meaning to
them.
Sensory Systems - Vision
• Size
• Styling
• Brightness
• Distinctiveness
• Colours
Sensory Systems - Smell
• Odours and Fragances
– Stir emotions or calming
– **most primitive part of the brain (limbic
system) = ??????????
– Cultural significance of smells? (e.g. Gillette)
Sensory Systems-Sounds
• www.muzak.com
• Music invokes mood
– Rock & Roll (anxiety!)
– Spas (ocean, water, nature)
– Stores, elevators, on hold music, produce
aisle
Sensory Systems-Touch
• Stimulate or Relax moods
• Can impact Sales results (e.g. diners touched by
•
•
waiters…bigger tips)
Adds personalization…can also offend (how,
who, when all are important)
Kansei Engineering
– “horse and rider as one” (e.g. Mazda and the young)
• Textures, sizes heights, lengths, and quality
perceptions
Sensory Systems-Taste
• People form strong preferences for certain
tastes
• www.alpha-mos.com (electronic tongue)
• Awful = powerful
• Good = pleasing
Exposure
• “degree that people notice stimuli”
– Why do they observe or ignore
• Ignore what is not of interest (e.g. “the pen”)
• Sensory Threshold
– Absolute (minimum)
– Differential (JND – distinguishing stimuli)
• Subliminal
– Below threshold of recognition (unconscious)
• Theatres and popcorn
Attention
• Extent processing of activity is devoted to a
particular stimulus
– Focus, isolation, sensory deprivation
– Eyeballs vs. dollars??
• Attention Economy
– Selectivity = people attend to only a small portion of
stimuli
• Adaptation
– Degree to notice stimuli over time (e.g. blood and
gore/shock value)
• INTENSITY< DURATION < EXPOSURE (frequency) <RELEVANCE
Interpretation
• “meanings assigned to stimuli”
• Schema (set of beliefs)
• Priming (properties of stimulus) e.g. pup
vs. master snow blower
• Content sensitive (your own reality)
Organizational Memory =
Gestalt Psychology (p. 55)
• “a belief that meaning comes from the
totality of a set of stimuli, rather than any
individual stimulus”
• “principal of closure” (incomplete
perceived as complete)
• “principle of similarity”
• “figure-ground principle” (follow the eye
(image focus first))
Interpretation Biases
• Semiotics
– Signs, symbols and their roles in meaning
• Perceptual Positioning
– Function (price) vs. Symbolic (what it says about us
through our use of it)
• Positioning Strategy
– Your marketing Mix approach (price, attributes,
product class, occasions, users, quality)
THANK YOU!
LEARNING AND MEMORY
CHP 3
Learning:
“permanent change in behaviour that is caused
by experience, either directly or vicariously’
– It is an ongoing process based on ongoing
feedback (+ve or –ve)
Behavioral learning theory
“result of responses to external stimuli”
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)
• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
• Conditioning
• Repetition
• Stimulus Generalization (similar stimuli/similar response)
• Stimulus Discrimination (when similar CS not followed
by UCS)
Marketing Apps of Conditioning
• Repetition
• Product Associations (conditioning…pairing with
•
•
stimulus)
Generalization – family branding, product lines,
licensing/merchandising, look-alikepackaging/knock-offs
Discrimination – Instrumental/operant
conditioning (go positive avoid negative), fixed
interval, fixed ratio (p. 73-75)
COGNTIVE LEARNING THEORY
“stresses importance of internal mental processes”
• Problem solvers vs. reactors
– Conscious or not
– Mindlessness (info processed automatic and
passively)
• Observational
– Vicarious (not instinctual?)
– ATTENTION>RETENTION>PRODUCTION
PROCESSES>MOTIVATION>OBS LEARNING
(see p. 78)
MEMORY IN LEARNING
• The Memory Process
External Inputs > Encoding > Storage > Retrieval
• Encoding
– Types of Meaning (sensory/semantic)
– Personal Relevance (episodes)
• Memory Systems
– Sensory
– short term (RAM working)
– long term (elaborative rehearsal
required…think/reflect)
MEMORY IN LEARNING
• Activation Models of Memory
– Associative Networks (e.g. mind mapping)
– Spreading Activation (energy spreads across nodes of
abstraction in the mind) allows shifting back and forth
between levels of meaning (brand vs. ad vs. product
category vs. evaluation)
– Levels of Knowledge
NODES>PROPOSITIONS>SCHEMA
Meaning concept> Belief (two nodes linked)> Schema (cognitve
framework developed through experience)
Elegant>Chanel for elegant women>intuitive…service scripts
Measuring Memory for Marketing
Stimuli
• Recognition vs. Recall
– Have you seen it before?
– What have you seen?
• Problems with memory measures
– Response biases (instrument or respondent influences)
– Memory lapses (omitting, averaging/normalizing,
telescoping) Can we use to our advantage?
– Memory for facts vs. feelings (does it measure advertising
ability to arouse emotion?) What could we do?
THANK YOU for your attention