1. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, 9e Michael R. Solomon
Chapter 2 Perception
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, 9e Michael R. Solomon
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

2. Learning Objectives
When you finish this chapter, you should understand why:
Perception is a three-stage process that translates raw stimuli into meaning.
Products and commercial messages often appeal to our senses, but we won’t be influenced by most of them.
The design of a product today is a key driver of its success or failure.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

3. Learning Objectives (continued)
Subliminal advertising is a controversial—but largely ineffective—way to talk to consumers.
We interpret the stimuli to which we do pay attention according to learned patterns and expectations.
Marketers use symbols to create meaning.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

4. Sensation and Perception
Sensation is the immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and fingers) to basic stimuli (light, color, sound, odor, and texture).
Perception is the process by which sensations are selected, organized, and interpreted.
Like computers we undergo stages of information processing in which we input and store stimuli. We receive external stimuli or sensory inputs on a number of channels. The inputs our five senses detect are the raw data that begin in the perceptional process.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

5. Figure 2.1 Perceptual Process
We receive external
stimuli through
our five senses
Figure 2.1 shows that there are three stages that make up the process of perception. These are exposure, attention, and interpretation.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

6. Hedonic Consumption
Hedonic consumption: multisensory, fantasy, and emotional aspects of consumers’ interactions with products
Marketers use impact of sensations on consumers’ product experiences
Target is an example of a retail store that has done very well using sensation to relate to consumers.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

7. Sensory Systems
Our world is a symphony of colors, sounds, odors, tastes
Advertisements, product packages, radio and TV commercials, billboards provide sensations
Sensory marketing means that companies pay extra attention to how our sensations affect our product experiences. Marketers recognize that our senses help us to decide which products appeal to us.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

8. Vision Color provokes emotion
Reactions to color are biological and cultural
Color in the United States is becoming brighter and more complex
Trade dress: colors associated with specific companies
Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, store design, and packaging. They communicate meanings on the visual channel through a product’s color, size, and styling. Color can also be part of a brand’s sensory signature.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

9. Vertical-Horizontal Illusion
Which line is longer: horizontal or vertical?
Answer: both lines are same length
This figure illustrates that our perceptions regarding vision are not always accurate.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

10. Scents Odors create mood and promote memories:
Coffee = childhood, home
Cinnamon buns = sex
Marketers use scents:
Inside products
In promotions (e.g., scratch ‘n sniff)
Odor can affect our moods and emotions. They can invoke memories or relieve or create stress. An interest in scent has spawned new products. Some brands utilize scent easily. For instance, Starbucks requires baristas to grind a batch of coffee each time they brew a post instead of just once each morning to ensure customers have that intense smell during their Starbucks’ experience.
Ad companies spend about $80 million per year on scent marketing. For example, Burger King offered Flame, a body spray that smelled like flame broiled meat.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

11. Sound Sound affects people’s feelings and behaviors
Phonemes: individual sounds that might be more or less preferred by consumers
Example: “i” brands are “lighter” than “a” brands
Muzak uses sound and music to create mood
High tempo = more stimulation
Slower tempo = more relaxing
Stores and restaurants often play certain kinds of music to create a certain mood.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

12. Touch
Haptic senses—or “touch”—is the most basic of senses; we learn this before vision and smell
Haptic senses affect product experience and judgment
Kinsei engineering is a Japanese philosophy that translates customers’ feelings into design elements
Recent research found that participants who simply touch an item for 30 seconds or less had a greater level of attachment with the product. This connection in turn boosted what they were willing to pay for it. Some anthropologists view touch like a primal language. Researchers are starting to identify the role haptic sense plays in consumer behavior. Haptic senses appear to moderate the relationship between product experience and judgment confidence. Kinsei engineering helps marketers to understand how to design products to follow a consumer sense of touch. For instance, the Mazda Miata was designed to emulate the feeling of a horse and rider as one.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

13. Table 2.1 Tactile-Quality Associations
Perception
Male
Female
Fine
High class
Wool
Silk
Low class
Denim
Cotton
We link the perceived richness or quality of material to its feel. Table 2.1 summarizes some of these tactile-quality associations. Men and women do tend to differ on our preferences.
Coarse
Heavy
Light
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

14. Taste Flavor houses develop new concoctions for consumer palates
Cultural changes determine desirable tastes
The more respect we have for ethnic dishes, the more spicy food we desire
Our taste receptors contribute to our experience of many products. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo use the tongue to test the quality of corn syrups. A food item’s image and the values we attach to it influence how we experience the actual taste. For instance, as consumer appreciation for ethnic foods increases, our desire for spicy food increases.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

15. Exposure
Exposure occurs when a stimulus comes within range of someone’s sensory receptors
We can concentrate, ignore, or completely miss stimuli
Cadillac’s 5 second ad
We notice stimuli that come within range for even a very short time if we choose. That’s why Cadillac developed a 5-second commercial to illustrate that Cadillac’s can go from zero to 60 in less than 5 seconds.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

16. Sensory Thresholds
Psychophysics: 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
There are some stimuli that people cannot perceive. The absolute threshold is the minimum stimulation to be noticed. For example, the sound of a dog whistle is too high for human ears to detect – it is beyond our auditory absolute threshold. The absolute threshold is an important consideration in designing marketing stimuli.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

17. Differential Threshold
The ability of a sensory system to detect changes or differences between two stimuli
Minimum difference between two stimuli is the j.n.d. (just noticeable difference)
Example: packaging updates must be subtle enough over time to keep current customers
The differential threshold is the ability of a sensory system to detect changes of differences between two stimuli. The minimum difference we can detect between two is the just noticeable difference of j.n.d. For instance, if we made a package smaller to cut our costs, we would want to make the change under the j.n.d. so that customers did not notice that they were getting less product for the price.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

18. Subliminal Perception
Subliminal perception occurs when stimulus is below the level of the consumer’s awareness.
Rumors of subliminal advertising are rampant—though there’s little proof that it occurs.
Most researchers believe that subliminal techniques are not of much use in marketing.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

19. Subliminal Techniques
Embeds: figures that are inserted into magazine advertising by using high-speed photography or airbrushing.
Subliminal auditory perception: sounds, music, or voice text inserted into advertising.
Marketers can use both visual and aural channels to send subliminal messages, supposedly. Embeds are tiny figures that are inserted into magazine advertising via high-speed photography or airbrushing. These hidden figures supposedly exert a strong but unconscious influence on the reader. We can do something similar for auditory messages. However, there is no evidence to support that subliminal stimuli can bring about desired changes in behavior.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

20. Attention
Attention is the extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus
Consumers are often in a state of sensory overload
Marketers need to break through the clutter
Attention refers to the extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus. The allocation of processing activity can vary depending on the characteristics of the stimulus and the recipient. Although we live in an information society, consumers are often in a state of sensory overload. Sensory overload means consumers are exposed to far more information than they can process. Much of this comes from commercial sources. We are exposed to thousands of advertising messages each day in addition to the other types of stimuli we sense. This camera ad from Singapore reminds us that consumers do tune out stimuli.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

21. Personal Selection Factors
Perceptual vigilance
Perceptual defense
Experience is the result of acquiring and processing stimulation over time. It helps to determine how much exposure to a particular stimulus a person accepts. Perceptual filters based on our past experiences influence what we decide to process.
Three perceptual filters are shown in the slide. These are perceptual vigilance, perceptual defense, and adaptation. Perceptual vigilance means that consumers are more likely to be aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs. Perceptual defense means that people see what they want to see and don’t see what they don’t want to see. Adaptation is the degree to which consumers continue to notice a stimulus over time. The process of adaptation occurs when consumers no longer pay attention to a stimulus because it is so familiar.
Adaptation
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

22. Factors Leading to Adaptation
Intensity
Duration
Discrimination
Exposure
Several factors can lead to adaptation. Less intense stimuli have less sensory impact. Stimuli that require relatively lengthy exposure in order to be processed habituate because they require a long attention span. Simple stimuli habituate because they do not require attention to detail. Frequently encountered stimuli habituate as the rate of exposure increases. Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant habituate because they fail to attract attention.
Relevance
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

23. Stimulus Selection Factors
We are more likely to notice stimuli that differ from others around them
So, marketers can create “contrast” through:
Size
Color
Position
Novelty
Marketers need to understand the role stimuli characteristics play on attention and perception so they can create messages that have a chance to cut through clutter. We are more likely to notice stimuli that differ from others around them. A message can create contrast in several ways including size, color, position, and novelty. Novelty means that the stimuli appear in an unexpected way or place to grab our attention.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

24. Creating Contrast with Size
This ad is larger than others and cuts through the clutter.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

25. Interpretation
Interpretation refers to the meaning we assign to sensory stimuli, which is based on a schema
The meaning we assign to a stimulus depends on the schema, or set of beliefs, to which we assign it. In a process called priming, certain properties of a stimulus evoke a schema. This leads us to compare the stimulus to other similar ones. In this ad for Toyota, the living room evokes an image of a car because of the seat arrangement.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

26. Stimulus Organization
Gestalt: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Closure: people perceive an incomplete picture as complete
Similarity: consumers group together objects that share similar physical characteristics
Figure-ground: one part of the stimulus will dominate (the figure) while the other parts recede into the background (ground)
One factor that determines how we will interpret a stimulus is the relationship we assume it has with other events, sensations, or images in memory. Our brains tend to relate incoming sensations to others already in memory based on some fundamental organizational principles. These principles derive from Gestalt psychology, a school of thought that maintains that people interpret meaning from the totality of a set of stimuli rather than from an individual stimulus. The German word Gestalt roughly means whole, pattern, or configuration, and we summarize this term as the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Gestalt perspective provides several principles that relate to the way our brains organize stimuli including the closure principle, the principle of similarity, and the figure-ground principle.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

27. Application of the Figure-Ground Principle
This ad for the Australian postal service uses an application of the figure-ground principle.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

28. Semiotics
Semiotics: correspondence between signs and symbols and their role in the assignment of meaning
Marketing messages have three basic components:
Object: product that is the focus of the message
Sign: sensory image that represents the intended meanings of the object
Interpretant: meaning derived
To help them understand how consumers interpret the meanings of symbols, some marketers turn to semiotics. Semiotics is the study of correspondence between signs and symbols and their roles in how we assign meanings.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

29. Figure 2.3 Semiotic Relationships
This figure illustrates the meaning of the three semiotic parts of a marketing message. For Marlboro cigarettes, the cigarettes are the product. The symbol is the cowboy which can be interpreted to mean rugged American.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

30. Perceptual Positioning
Brand perceptions = functional attributes + symbolic attributes
Perceptual map: map of where brands are perceived in consumers’ minds
Used to determine how brands are currently perceived to determine future positioning
How does a marketer determine where a product actually stands in the minds of consumers? One technique is to ask them what attributes are important to them and how they feel competitors rate on these attributes. This information is then used to construct a perceptual map.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

31. Positioning Strategy Examples of brand positioning Lifestyle
Grey Poupon is “high class”
Price leadership
Southwest Airlines is “no frills”
Attributes
Bounty is “quicker picker upper”
Product class
Mazda Miata is sporty convertible
Competitors
Northwestern Insurance is the “quiet company
Occasions
Wrigley’s gum used when smoking not permitted
Users
Levi’s Dockers targeted to men in 20s and 30s
Quality
At Ford, “Quality is Job 1”
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

32. Chapter Summary
Perception is a three-stage process that translates raw stimuli into meaning.
Products and messages may appeal to our senses.
The design of a product affects our perception of it.
Subliminal advertising is controversial.
We interpret stimuli using learned patterns.
Marketers use symbols to create meaning.
We’ve covered several key concepts in this chapter including perception, our perception is affected by our senses, subliminal advertising, and the factors which affect how we process symbols.
4/17/2017
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall