Consumer Perception Definition Meaning with reference

1. A marketing concept that encompasses a customer's impression, awareness and/or consciousness about a company or its offerings. Customer perception is typically affected by advertising, reviews, public relations, social media, personal experiences and other channels. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/customer-perception.html. 2. The World is as you perceive it, we all would have come across this phrase. Perception is way that one selects, organizes and interprets the stimuli in to meaningful and coherent picture of the world (Schiff man kanuk). It is attaining awareness from sensory information. People act and react on the basis of their perceptions, which also underlie the preferences. 2.1. Sensation and Marketing stimuli: Consumer perception is critical and fundamental to understand as it shapes their buying decisions, based on their sensory preferences sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Of course, the culture, demographics, family, friends and peer groups and other factors do influence the consumer perception and interpretations. 2.1.1. Vision: It is dominant sense in human. Different colors affect moods and emotions of the people, but one should remember that this feature may differ drastically across cultures. Colors used in prints ads evoke excitement and relaxation. Other than color, shape, size and packaging is also important for the marketer when designing a product. 2.1.2. Smell: This sense is less important in human but it is more direct sense will have a long affect, if used. Smell can be defined as how they have felt. 2.1.3. Hearing: Like other sense it can create a mood of relaxation and stimulation. People depict surprising ability to drag some sounds right upfront while unnoticing others. 2.1.4. Touch: Skin is the largest organ and touch affects the whole organism. The usage of this sense depends upon the product category. 2.1.5. Taste: It is also an intimate sense. Combined with sense of smell it becomes more powerful. A tongue has different taste buds to taste different foods such as sweet, salt, sour and etc. Artificial sweeteners and other food items like this are created to fool the taste buds.

2.2. Perceptual Process: The way one organizes and interprets the information follows a process that can be divided in to four parts; 2.2.1. Exposure to stimuli: Once the customer is exposed to the stimuli it must be sufficient enough to draw the attention. Only then the stimuli or information is further processed. 2.2.2. Selection: Consumers selects the part of information that they are exposed to and tend to ignores others. It is critical for marketers to tailor the message according to the target audience it intends to deliver message. Messages that are created to speak to everyone usually ends up talking to no one. Although researches show that consumer tend to be more attentive towards messages for various motives. One who might be interesting buying a new car will be more attentive to all pieces of information regarding to that car or brand. 2.2.3. Organization: Consumer classifies perception in to different categories and group together to make sense out of stimuli. There can be different forms like grouping options and opinion that are closely related go together. Thats why people associate their messages with such properties and celebrities that have close traits and personality that goes with their intended message/product/services. 2.2.4. Interpretation: Consumers apply previous learning and association to understand and give meaning to novel stimuli. http://marketingmixx.com/consumer-behavior-2/76-consumerperception.html. 3. Definition of 'Perceived Value: The worth that a product or service has in the mind of the consumer. The consumers perceived value of a good or service affects the price that he or she is willing to pay for it. For the most part, consumers are unaware of the true cost of production for the products they buy. Instead, they simply have an internal feeling for how much certain products are worth to them. Thus, in order to obtain a higher price for their

products, producers may pursue marketing strategies to create a higher perceived value for their products. For Example; Perceived value is often used with perfumes, for example. Perfumes tend to be associated with a glamorous celebrity in order to create a mystique and perception of luxury. Alternatively, they may be the subject of elaborate and expensive advertising campaigns to create a strong image for the perfume. Consumers commonly do not realize that the costs of production for perfumes are relatively low. Thus, while the cost of production for perfume may be only a few dollars, the perceived value of a perfume can be far greater. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/perceived-value.asp#axzz1vJFku5IO 4. http://www.themanager.org/marketing/Customer_Perception.htm