1. Chapter 4
Consumer Perception
Consumer Perception

2. What Is Perception?
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
Kind of like two people looking at the same cloud formations and seeing two different things…

3. 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
Examples?
Quality of Japanese vs. American cars
Perception of Volvos as a very safe car
Perception may not coincide with reality, but if the perception is strong enough the reality doesn’t matter
In Japan, the perception that American cars are inferior is so strong, it doesn’t matter what the reality is!

4. Three Concepts Related to Perception
Exposure
The act of deliberately or accidentally coming into contact with stimuli
Attention
The allocation of mental capacity to a stimulus
Sensation
Responses of the sensory receptors to a stimulus and transmission of this information to the brain
With respect to ads, how are we exposed to them?
Turn on radio or television, go to a store, or simply look out the car window when driving
Do we necessarily pay attention to them?
Let’s focus on this third concept, Sensation

5. Sensation
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
What is “sensation”?
What is the stimulus?
In this case, an ad, a package, even a brand name
Could also be a smell or a sound
What are some of the sensory receptors?

6. Interpretation of Inputs
Sensory Systems
Eye
Sight
Ear
Sound
Nose
Smell
Mouth
Taste
Skin
Touch
Exposure to Raw Data
According to your book, the process looks something like this
Processing of Inputs
Interpretation of Inputs

7. Vision
Vision is the dominant human sense, so we know more about it than the other senses
Vision is known to stimulate physiological changes
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
OK, let’s look at each of the senses and see how they relate to marketing
Let’s start with vision, because…
What are the implications of these differences in terms of marketing goods or services?

8. Smell 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
Example?
Three of the best-selling perfumes are scented with baby powder—evoking the warm feelings associated with the fragrance of baby powder
What about “new car” smell?
Others?

9. Research has shown that a pleasant odor increases lingering and the amount of time spent in a store
Another aspect of smell is that…

10. Taste 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
Are tastes the same in all countries?
No, Culture plays…
Examples?
Masai drink cow’s blood
Some societies eat stir-fried canine and cat
Germans eat rancid cabbage (sauerkraut)
French eat snails
People eat rodents, grasshoppers, snakes, kangaroos, and bats

11. Sound
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
What about sound? Is it an important sense in terms of marketing?
Too bad, though, that some of the best songs are now associated primarily with commercials (e.g., Gershwin and UAL)
What about store music? Is there a connection between music and sales?

12. Touch
Physical contact with a product often provides consumers with vital information
What about touch?
Examples?
People often squeeze a melon or feel the texture of a fabric or piece of wood
Cashmere sweater or coat—you often see people rubbing it against their skin
Others?

13. Input Variation and Sensation
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
What does “input variation” mean?
Is there a relationship between input variation and sensation?
Examples?
What about all those choices in the salad dressing aisle in the supermarket (recall post-Kenya experience)

14. Consumers easily ignore ads when bombarded by them constantly
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
This may lead to…perceptual
Implication for advertisers?
Are consumers bombarded by ads?

15. Perceptual Selection 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
Consumers’ previous experience (what they are prepared to see)
Their motives (needs, desires, interests, etc.)
Which leads to this concept:
Example?
When you’re driving down the highway, do you begin to ignore the radio ads? The billboards?
Supermarket as an example (you can ignore all the salad dressings because you know which one you want!)

16. Some Important Concepts Regarding Selective Perception
Selective Exposure
Consumers actively seek out messages they find pleasant or are sympathetic to and avoid painful or threatening ones
Selective Attention
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
Examples?
How about political ads during elections?
Example?
Men might gloss over a Ron Popeil infomercial for a dehydrator but stop channel surfing at a golf infomercial; same might go for walking down a street looking in store windows
Environmental Stimuli
Selective Exposure
Selective Attention
Perception

17. Selective Interpretation
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
As we’ve seen, perception is a personal phenomenon.

18. Attention Stimulation
Adaptation Levels
Indifference to a stimulus to which one has become accustomed
Attention Stimulation
Placement, timing, and presentation of stimuli so that target consumers are most likely exposed to them
Example?
Television commercials!!
Again with television, advertising goods most appropriate for the people likely to be watching the show

19. Threshold Levels of Perception
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)
OK, we already know that…
Further…
Thus…

20. Differential threshold (“just noticeable difference”)
For marketers’ purposes, there are two levels of sensory input (thresholds) of importance:
Absolute threshold
Differential threshold (“just noticeable difference”)
What are they?

21. 1. The absolute threshold
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
What is it?
The “pin drop” concept

22. 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
E.g. to television ads; it’s going to have to get quieter and quieter in order to hear that pin drop!
What is the implication for marketers?
How can they do that?
Increase the volume (they already do that, unfortunately)
Magazine ads include smells

23. 2. Differential Threshold (JND)
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
What is it?
Examples?
Let’s say a household cleaning product is being marketed as having “more lemon scent.” The stronger the initial scent, the greater the increase is going to have to be to be noticed.
Or a potato chip with no salt. Just a little bit of salt added is going to be very noticeable. But as the salt content increases, the greater the increase needs to be in order to be noticed

24. Implications for marketers
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
What are they?

25. Ethical issue
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
So you see any ethical issues here?
Is this deceptive?
Bausch & Lomb example (see press release in file)

26. Perception and Image
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
When we talk about “image” in this context, what are we talking about?
Examples?
What’s the image associated with Dodge and Buick? Lexus and Infiniti? Honda and Toyot?
Wal-Mart/Sears/Penney’s vs. Saks, Lord & Taylor, etc.
Old Navy vs. Banana Republic? And it’s the same company!
What image does LL Bean project? Why?
Nordstrom’s?
Is image a factor in a consumer’s choice of stores?

27. Images may be created around a number of categories: Economy Safety
Reliability
Pleasure
Status
Distinctiveness
Examples?
VW, Volvo, BMW, Honda, Cadillac, VW again with Beetle

28. Subliminal Perception
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
One last issue on perception is the issue of….
I’m sure you’ve all heard about it.
Is there such a thing?
But does it work the way it has been suggested?
What was the event that first stirred interest in this topic?
1957 movie theatre experiment (see text p. 126)
Has this experiment ever been successfully replicated? No!
In fact, it has even been suggested that the theatre owner lied about the experiment.
The link is to an interesting article on the web about this experiment
At present it is the general consensus that subliminal advertising does not influence consumers in their purchasing decisions
But what about all the sexual connotations in ice cubes in liquor ads?

29. 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

30. Link to Subliminal Advertising Websites
However, anyone interested in the topic can begin with this interesting website: