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Chapter 2

Perception

By Michael R. Solomon

Consumer BehaviorBuying, Having, and Being

Sixth Edition

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• What was Gary’s perception of Parmalat?

• Why is shelf-stable milk popular in Europe?

• In the focus group research, what were the U.S. consumers’ perceptions of Parmalat?

• What is Parmalat doing to overcome the obstacles associated with marketing shelf-stable milk in the United States?

Opening Vignette: Parmalat

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Sensation and Perception

• Sensation:– The immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes,

ears, nose, mouth, fingers) to basic stimuli such as light, color, sound, odors, and textures

• Perception:– The process by which sensations are selected, organized,

and interpreted

• The Study of Perception:– Focuses on what we add to raw sensations to give them

meaning

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An Overview of the Perception Process

Figure 2.1

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Sensory Systems

• External stimuli, or sensory inputs, can be received on a number of different channels.

• Inputs picked up by our five senses are the raw data that begin the perceptual process.

• Hedonic Consumption:– The multisensory, fantasy, and emotional aspects

of consumers’ interactions with products

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Advertisements Appeal to Our Sensory Systems

• This ad for a luxury car emphasizes the contribution made by all of our senses to the evaluation of a driving experience.

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Sensory Systems - Vision

• Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, store design, and packaging.

• Meanings are communicated on the visual channel through a product’s color, size, and styling.

• Colors may influence our emotions more directly.– Arousal and stimulated appetite (e.g. red)– Relaxation (e.g. blue)

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This ad targets which senses?

• This Finnish ad emphasizes the sensual reasons to visit the city of Helsinki.

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Sensory Perceptions - Vision

• Some reactions to color come from learned associations.– (e.g. Black is associated with mourning in the

United States, whereas white is associated with mourning in Japan.)

• Some reactions to color are due to biological and cultural differences.– (e.g. Women tend to be drawn to brighter tones

and are more sensitive to subtle shadings and patterns)

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Perceptions of Color

This ad campaign by

the San Francisco

Ballet uses color

perceptions to get urban

sophisticates to add

classical dance to their

packed entertainment

itineraries.

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Sensory Perceptions - Vision

• Color plays a dominant role in Web page design.

• Saturated colors (green, yellow, orange, and cyan) are considered the best to capture attention.– Don’t overdo it. Extensive use of saturated colors can

overwhelm people and cause visual fatigue.

• Trade Dress:– Colors that are strongly associated with a corporation, for

which the company may have exclusive rights for their use. • (e.g. Kodak’s use of yellow, black, and red)

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Perceptions of Color

• As this Dutch detergent ad demonstrates (Flowery orange fades without Dreft), vivid colors are often an attractive product feature.

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• First Heinz gave us “Blastin’ Green” ketchup in a squeeze bottle. Now they have introduced “Funky Purple” ketchup.

• What sensory perception is Heinz trying to appeal to? Do you think this product will be successful? Why or why not?

Discussion Question

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Your Assignment

• Select three to five advertisements (in any format) that target different sensory perceptions.

• Present those advertisements in 5 to 10-minutes.

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Sensory Perceptions - Smell

• Odors can stir emotions or create a calming feeling.

• Some responses to scents result from early associations that call up good or bad feelings.

• Marketers are finding ways to use smell:– Scented clothes

– Scented stores

– Scented cars and planes

– Scented household products

– Scented advertisements

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Smell in Advertising

• This ad pokes fun at the proliferation of scented ads. Ah, the scent of sweat.

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Sensory Perceptions - Sound

• Advertising jingles create brand awareness.• Background music creates desired moods.• Sound affects people’s feelings and

behaviors.• Muzak uses a system it calls “stimulus

progression” to increase the normally slower tempo of workers during midmorning and midafternoon time slots.

• Sound engineering:– Top-end automakers are using focus groups of consumers

to help designers choose appropriate sounds to elicit the proper response.

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Stimulus Progression

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Sensory Perceptions - Touch

• Relatively little research has been done on the effects of tactile stimulation on the consumer, but common observation tells us that this sensory channel is important.

• People associate textures of fabrics and other surfaces with product quality.

• Perceived richness or quality of the material in clothing is linked to its “feel,” whether rough or smooth.

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Applications of Touch Perceptions

• Kansai engineering: A philosophy that translates customers’ feelings into design elements.

• Mazda Miata designers discovered that making the stick shift (shown on the right) exactly 9.5 cm long conveys the optimal feeling of sportiness and control.

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Tactile Quality Associations

Table 2.1

Tactile Oppositions in Fabrics

Perception Male Female

High class Wool Silk Fine

Low class Denim Cotton

Heavy Light Coarse

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Sensory Perceptions - Taste

• Taste receptors contribute to our experience of many products.

• Specialized companies called “flavor houses” are constantly developing new concoctions to please the changing palates of consumers.

• Changes in culture also determine the tastes we find desirable.

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Exposure

• Exposure:

– Occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone’s sensory receptors

• Consumers concentrate on some stimuli, are unaware of others, and even go out of their way to ignore some messages.

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Sensory Thresholds

• Psychophysics:– The 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.

• Differential Threshold:– The ability of a sensory system to detect changes or

differences between two stimuli. The minimum difference that can be detected between two stimuli is known as the j.n.d. (just noticeable difference).

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Weber’s Law

• The amount of change that is necessary to be noticed is systematically related to the intensity of the original stimulus

• The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a change must be for it to be noticed.

• Mathematically:

– K = A constant (varies across senses)– Δi = The minimal change in the intensity required to produce j.n.d.– I = the intensity of the stimulus where the change occurs

I

iK

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Subliminal Perception

• Subliminal perception:– Occurs when the stimulus is below the level of the

consumer’s awareness.

• Subliminal techniques:– Embeds: Tiny figures that are inserted into magazine:

advertising by using high-speed photography or airbrushing.

• Does subliminal perception work?– There is little evidence that subliminal stimuli can bring

about desired behavioral changes.

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Subliminal Messages in Ads

• Critics of subliminal persuasion often focus on ambiguous shapes in drinks that supposedly spell out words like S E X as evidence for the use of this technique. This Pepsi ad, while hardly subliminal, gently borrows this message format.

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Attention

• Attention:– The extent to which processing activity is devoted

to a particular stimulus.

• Attention economy:– The Internet has transformed the focus of

marketers from attracting dollars to attracting eyeballs.

• Perceptual selection:– People attend to only a small portion of the stimuli

to which they are exposed.

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Attention and Advertising

• Nike tries to cut through the clutter by spotlighting maimed athletes instead of handsome models.

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Personal Selection Factors

• Experience:– The result of acquiring and processing stimulation over

time

• Perceptual vigilance:– Consumers are aware of stimuli that relate to their current

needs

• Perceptual defense:– People see what they want to see - and don’t see what they

don’t want to see

• Adaptation:– The degree to which consumers continue to notice a

stimulus over time

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Factors that Lead to Adaptation

• Intensity: Less-intense stimuli habituate because they have less sensory impact.

• Duration: Stimuli that require relatively lengthy exposure in order to be processed tend to habituate because they require a long attention span.

• Discrimination: Simple stimuli tend to habituate because they do not require attention to detail.

• Exposure: Frequently encountered stimuli tend to habituate as the rate of exposure increases.

• Relevance: Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant will habituate because they fail to attract attention.

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Stimulus Selection Factors

• Size:– The size of the stimulus itself in contrast to the competition

helps to determine if it will command attention.

• Color:– Color is a powerful way to draw attention to a product.

• Position:– Stimuli that are present in places we’re more likely to look

stand a better chance of being noticed.

• Novelty:– Stimuli that appear in unexpected ways or places tend to

grab our attention.

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• What technique does this Australian ad rely on to get your attention?

• Does the technique enhance or detract from the advertisement of the actual product?

Discussion Question

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Attention to Stimuli

• Interpretation:– The meaning that we assign sensory stimuli.

• Schema:– Set of beliefs to which the stimulus is assigned.

• Priming:– Process by which certain properties of a stimulus

typically will evoke a schema, which leads consumers to evaluate the stimulus in terms of other stimulus they have encountered and believe to be similar.

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Schema-Based Perception

• Advertisers know that consumers will often relate an ad to preexisting schema in order to make sense of it.

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The Priming Process

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Stimulus Organization

• A stimulus will be interpreted based on its assumed relationship with other events, sensations, or images.

• Closure Principle:– People tend to perceive an incomplete picture as complete.

• Principle of Similarity:– Consumers tend to group together objects that share the

same physical characteristics.

• Figure-ground Principle:– One part of a stimulus will dominate (the figure) and other

parts will recede into the background (the ground).

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Gestalt Principle

• This Swedish ad relies upon gestalt perceptual principles to insure that the perceiver organizes a lot of separate images into a familiar image.

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Principle of Closure

• This Land Rover ad illustrates the use of the principle of closure, in which people participate in the ad by mentally filling in the gaps in the sentence.

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Figure-ground Principle

• This billboard for Wrangler jeans makes creative use of the figure-ground principle.

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Semiotics: The Symbols Around Us

• Semiotics: Field of study that examines the correspondence between signs and symbols and their role in the assignment of meaning.

• A message has 3 components:– 1) Object: the product that focuses the message– 2) Sign: the sensory imagery that represents the

intended meanings of the object– 3) Interpretant: the meaning derived

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Semiotic Components

Figure 2.2

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Semiotics (cont.)

• Signs are related to objects in one of three ways:– 1) Icon: a sign that resembles the product in some

way– 2) Index: a sign that is connected to some object

because they share some property– 3) Symbol: a sign that is related to a product

through conventional or agreed-upon associations

• Hyperreality: The becoming real of what is initially simulation or “hype”

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Office Space and “The Red Stapler”

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Perceptual Positioning

• Positioning Strategy– A fundamental part of a company’s marketing

efforts as it uses elements of the marketing mix to influence the consumer’s interpretation of its meaning.

– Many dimensions can establish a brand’s position in the marketplace:

• Lifestyle • Competitors

• Price Leadership • Occasions

• Attributes • Users

• Product Class • Quality

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Perceptual Map

• Figure 2.3: HMV Perceptual Map