Consumer perception

Muhammad Danish
Perception
• Perception is the process by which individuals select, organize and interpret stimuli
into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world.
• It described as how we see the world around us
• Consumers’ act or not act based on their perception, not on the basis of objective
reality.
• Individual make decisions and take actions based on what they perceive to be reality
• JND (just noticeable difference) which maintain that any changes in logos and
packages must be within certain limits in order to ensure that consumers still
recognize the items instantly after the changes. E.g. coca cola packaged regular coke
in in snow-white cans. Many consumers complained that the holiday can was
confusingly similar to Diet’s coke silver cans, and company brought back the familiar
red color.
• Perception is all about the subjective understanding and not objective realities.
• Altering subjective wisdom is difficult or even impossible.
Application of perception
• Attention getting is a prerequisite to consumers’ perception: Attention occurs
when notice stimulus and the attention may be voluntary and involuntary.
• Technology and Branding at the point of sale: when a consumers enters the
retail outlet, he or she cuts a beam, sensors are set off and an audio track starts
playing, it subsequently stops when consumers leave the room.
• Perception is the anchor of branding: a study by sheena lyenger provides
interesting study that consumers in new York during bling test reported that a
majority of consumers preferred tap water to the expensive mineral water
Evian.
Elements of perception
• awareness of the elements of environment through physical sensation
• the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses
1. Sensory inputs: sensation is the immediate and direct response of the sensory organs to stimuli.
• A stimulus is any unit of input to any of the senses. For example the sensory inputs in marketing
include products, packages, brand names, advertisements etc
• Sensory receptors are the human organs (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin). Their sensory
functions are to see, hear, smell, taste and touch, all these functions are called into play, either
single or combination
• Sensitivity to stimuli varies with the quality of an individuals sensory receptors (Eye sight or
hearing) and the amount (intensity) of the stimuli to which he or she is exposed.
• Sensation itself depends on energy change within the environment where the perception occurs.
A person living in a busy street would probably receive little or no sensation from the inputs of
such noisy stimuli
• The ability of human organism to accommodate itself to varying levels of sensitivity as external
conditions vary not only provides more sensitivity when it is needed, but also protects us from
damaging, disruptive, or irrelevant when the input level is high
Elements of perception
• Most marketing communications appeal to sight, sound, smell and touch. E.g
impact of fragrance on store choice, selection of restaurant where smells good,
touching a product influences persuasion like Dalda changed packaged style easy
to grip, movie industry focus on sight and sound experience together,
• The lowest level at which an individual can experience a sensation is called the
absolute threshold. The point at which a person can detect a difference between
something and nothing is that person’s absolute threshold for that stimuli. For
example the distance at which a driver can nota specific billboard on a highway is
that individuals’ absolute threshold.
• Sensory adaptation is getting use to certain sensation, that is, becoming
accommodated to a certain level of stimulation and becoming less able to notice
a particular stimuls.
Elements of perception
• Ambush marketing: consists of placing ads in places where consumers do not
expect to see them and cannot readily avoid them. For example a brand name
stamped on eggs in supermarket, featured on video screens in taxis, placed in
subway tunnels between sensation, or featured on doctors’ examination tables.
Elements of perception
• Experiential marketing: allows customer to engage and interact with brands,
products or services in sensory ways in order to create emotional bonds
between consumers and marketing offerings. In other words consumers are
provided opportunities to interact with brand, like during parties the presence of
expensive cars so people can see and drive the car, K&Ns organize cooking show
where customers can interact with prominent shefs.
• The differential threshold: the minimal difference that can be detected between
two similar stimuli is called the differential threshold or the just noticeable
difference. Weber (German scientist) discovered that JND between two stimuli
was not an absolute amount, but an amount relative to the intensity of the first
stimuli. Hence weber’s law states that the stronger the initial stimulus, the
greater the additional intensity needed for the second stimulus to be perceived
as different. E.g during economic down turn consumers are price sensitive, little
changes in price will be noticed.
JNDs implications for product pricing and improvement

• Manufacturers and marketers endeavor to determine the relevant JNDs for their
products for two reasons. First want to prevent changes from becoming readily
discernible to public (below the JND). Second want to ensure that product
improvements are very apparent to customers but without being wastefully
extravagant (above JNDs)
• Marketers use the JND to determine amount of improvement they should make
in their products. Improvements below the JNDs will not be perceived as new
and improved, ultimately hurt the credibility. E.g apple came up with laptops
with claim sharper displays, consumers were disappointed because
improvements were below the JNDs.
• When apple introduced retina displays, they were hailed as breakthrough
technology because the improvements were far above the JNDs and easily
noticeable.
JNDs implications for logos and packaging

• In logos, marketers bring small changes, each carefully designed to fall below
the JNDs so that consumers will perceive only minimal difference between
succeeding versions. For example Pepsi brought small changes over the period
of time in logos , but basic element was symbolically changed
JNDs implications for logos and packaging

On its 40th anniversary, the Starbucks name was removed from its log,
leaving only a more stylish illustration of the green mermaid, the
changes was above the JNDs, consumers complaint a lot, but
management was convinced that as time passes, consumer will accept it
Subliminal perception
• Stimuli that are too weak or too brief to be consciously seen or heard may
nevertheless be strong enough to be perceived by one or more receptor cells.
This process is called subliminal perception because the stimuli is beneath the
threshold. Researchers argue that subliminal stimulus may trigger certain
associations and motivations but not necessarily lead to different behavior. E.g
a if you wear a swimsuit worn and endorsed by a champion swimmer, you will
swim faster.
Perceptual Selection
• Subconsciously, consumers are very selective when exposed to stimuli. An
individual may look at some things, ignore
• Consider, for example, a woman at a Whole Foods Market. She may be exposed
to more than 30,000 products of different colors, sizes, and shapes; to perhaps
300 people (looking, walking, searching, talking); to smells and tastes (from fruit,
meat, and sample displays); to sounds within the store (audio announcements,
music, cooking demonstrations); and many other stimuli. others, and turn away
from still others.
• Which stimuli get selected depends on two major factors, in addition to the
nature of the stimu- lus itself: (1) consumers’ previous experience as it affects
their expectations (what they are prepared, or “set,” to see), and (2) their motives
at the time (their needs, desires, interests, and so on). Each of these factors can
increase or decrease the probability that a stimulus will be perceived.
Stimulus
• Physical stimuli that affect consumers’ perceptions of products and evoke attention
include the product itself, its attributes, package design, brand name,
advertisements, and commercials (including copy claims, choice and sex of model,
positioning of model, size of ad, and typography), and placement of promotional
messages within the advertising space.
• Ads that contrast with their environments are very likely to be noticed
• Contrast is one of the most attention-compelling attributes of a stimulus
• Expectations
• People usually see what they expect to see, and what they expect to see is usually based on
familiarity, previous experience, or a set of expectations. In a marketing context, a person
tends to perceive products and product attributes according to his or her own expectations
• motives
• People tend to perceive the things they need or want: The stronger the need, the greater the
tendency to ignore unrelated stimuli in the environment
Selective Perception
• the consumer’s selection of stimuli from the environment is based on the interaction
of expectations and motives with the stimulus itself
• Selective exposure occurs when consumers tune into messages that they find
pleasant or with which they are sympathetic, and they actively avoid painful or
threatening ones
• They also selectively expose themselves to advertisements that reassure them of the
wisdom of their purchase decisions
• Selective attention is consumers’ heightened awareness of stimuli that meet their
needs or interests and minimal awareness of stimuli irrelevant to their needs. Thus,
consumers are likely to note ads for products that would satisfy their needs and
disregard those in which they have no interest
• Perceptual defense takes place when consumers subconsciously screen out stimuli
that they find psychologically threatening, even though exposure has already taken
place. Thus, threatening or otherwise damaging stimuli are less likely to be
consciously perceived than are neutral stimuli at the same level of exposure
Perceptual Organization

• People do not experience the numerous stimuli they select from the
environment as separate and discrete sensations; rather, they tend to
organize them into groups and perceive them as unified wholes.
• The principles underlying perceptual organization are often called Gestalt
psychology (in German, “Gestalt” means “pattern or configuration”). Three of
the basic principles of perceptual organization are figure and ground,
grouping, and closure.
• Figure and ground
• The term figure and ground refers to the interrelationship between the stimulus itself
(i.e., figure) and the environment or context within which it appears (i.e., ground).
• The figure is perceived more clearly because, in contrast to its ground, it appears to be
well defined, solid, and in the forefront. The ground is usually perceived as indefinite,
hazy, and continuous.
• Prior experiences affect how figure and ground pattern are perceived
obscuring the Distinction Between Figure and Ground

• A marketing technique based on the principle of figure-and-ground consists of

inserting advertisements into entertainment content
• Product placement takes place when the advertised product (i.e., the figure) is
deliberately integrated into the TV show or film (i.e., the ground) in one or
more of the following ways:
• 1. The product is used by the cast (e.g., in such shows as Survivor and American Idol).
• 2. The product is integrated into the plot (e.g., a Sex and the City episode centered
around Absolut vodka was entitled “Absolut Hunk”).
• 3. The product is associated with a character (e.g., the character is also the product’s
advertising spokesperson).
Grouping
• Grouping refers to people’s instinctive tendency to group stimuli together so
that they become a unified picture or impression. The perception of stimuli as
groups or chunks of information, rather than as discrete bits of information,
facilitates memory and recall
closure

• Closure is people’s instinct to organize pieces of sensory input into a complete

image or feeling. Individuals need closure, which means that if they perceive a
stimulus as incomplete, they are compelled to figure out its complete
meaning. If a message they receive is incomplete, they consciously or
subconsciously fill in the missing pieces
Perceptual Interpretation: Stereotyping