To help them understand how consumers

interpret the meanings of symbols, some marketers turn to semiotics

An object: The object is the product that is the

focus of the message (e.g., Marlboro cigarettes)

From a semiotic perspective, every marketing

Semiotics: The Meaning of Meaning message has three basic components
A sign (or symbol): The sign is the sensory image that represents
the intended meanings of the object (e.g., the Marlboro cowboy)

An interpretant: The interpretant is the meaning we derive

from the sign (e.g., rugged, individualistic, American)

Analysis requires the interpreter to look at the signs, symbols, and

codes in an advertisement to determine the meaning of the ad
The study of correspondence between signs and
symbols and their roles in how we assign meanings

Marketer-created associations often take on lives of their own as

consumers begin to believe that hype is, in fact, real

3-6. Marketers use symbols to Hyperreality

create meaning
A fundamental component of acompany's marketing efforts as it
uses elements of the marketing mix (i.e., product design, price,
distribution, and marketing communications)
Positioning strategy

To influence the consumer's interpretation of its

meaning in the marketplace relative to its competitors

Arranging for a product or brand to occupy a clear, desirable and

distinctive place relative to the competition in the minds of the
target customers
Positioning

Perceptual Positioning A process which influences customers overall

perception of the brand

Attribute
Association of a product with a product feature, an attribute, or
customer benefit

Price & Quality

Association of a product with price, value, quality

Use or Application
Association of a product with some type of use or application

Positioning Bases Positioning base focuses on a personality or type of user.

Product user

Product is positioned as associated with a particular category of

products
Product class

Positioning against competitors

Competitor
Positioning using emotion focuses on how the product makes
customers feel
Emotion

Interpretation refers to the meaning we assign to sensory

stimuli, which is based on a schema (set of beliefs)
The final step in the process of
perception is interpretation The sensory experiences and services are key role
Symbols help us make sense of the world by providing us
with an interpretation of a stimulus that others often share when choosing products

The degree to which the symbolism is consistent with our previous Consumers want to buy things that will provide hedonic value
experience affects the meaning we assign to related objects Form is function

Our brains are wired to appreciate good design: faster reaction

times when people saw aesthetically pleasing packages

Eg: Chocolate tastes sweet Meanings we assign to

sensory stimuli Mass-market consumers reward their enthusiastic patronage
Eg: Spoiled milk smells bad
and loyalty with companies that give great design
3-1. The design of a product
Eg: Beer is bitter as a kid

Size and styling

We classify and organize it according Elicit strong emotional reactions

to principles of perceptual Stimulus organization 3-5. Interpret the stimuli according Vision
organization patterns & expectation
Key issue in package design
Closure principle A Gestalt, or overall pattern, guides these principles Chapter 3:
People perceive an incomplete picture as Some color combinations strongly associated with a
complete - encourage audience participation Perception Colors corporation (known as the company’s trade dress)

Handful of firms produce color forecasts so that manufacturers

and retailers can buy to stock up on the next hot hue
Fashion trends strongly
Interpretational biases:
Specific grouping principles include influence color preferences
Consumers group together objects that share The eye of the beholder Sensory Marketing
similar physical characteristics -unified package
design for a product line Similarity principle
Odors stir emotions or create a calming feeling, invoke
memories or relieve stress

Higher recall of a brand’s attributes

One part of the stimulus will donate ( the figure) while
if it was embedded with a scent
the other parts recede into the background (ground) -
make a stimulus the focal point of the masage Figure-ground principle Dollars and
Manufacturers find new ways to put scents into products: in
Scents
men’s suits, lingerie, detergents, and aircraft cabins

Businesses explore connections among smell, memory, and mood

Audio watermark: what the brand sounds like

Consumers recognize brand names that
begin with a hard consonant
Refers to a stimulus below the level of the Sound symbolism: a word sounds influences our
consumer’s awareness Sound assumptions about what it describes and attributes
Associating certain vowel and consonant sounds (or
Embeds are tiny figures they insert into magazine advertising via phonemes) with perceptions of large and small size
high-speed photography or airbrushing.

In a stock’s ticker symbol => predict the company’s performance

during its first year of trading
These hidden images, usually of a sexual nature, supposedly Small phonemes: overestimation
exert strong but unconscious influences on innocent readers of price discounts

Mental rehearsal of prices

containing numbers Large phonemes: underestimation
the only real impact of this interest in hidden messages is to
sell more copies of “exposés”

Endowment effect: Encouraging shoppers to touch a product

encourages them to imagine they own it => People value more
highly
Embeds
Sensory Marketing Touch Influencing sales interactions

3-2. Products and commercial messages Haptic senses : the relationship between product experience and judgment
confidence => we’re more sure about what we perceive when we can touch it
Subliminal Perception

Kansei engineering: translates customers’ feelings into design

elements

Influence people under specific conditions, though it is doubtful

that these techniques would be of much use in most marketing
contexts

Our taste receptors contribute to our experience of many

products

An advertiser has to tailor it specifically to an individual rather “flavor houses” develop new concoctions to please the changing
than the mass messages suitable for the general public palates of consumers
Subliminal Messages
There are wide individual differences in threshold levels. Taste Scientists build new devices to test flavors
Advertisers lack control over consumers’ distance and position Cultural factors determine the tastes we find desirable => A food
from a screen item’s image and the values we attach to it influence how we
Other discouraging factors
experience the actual taste
The viewer must pay absolute attention to the stimulus

Even if the advertiser induces the desired effect, it works only at

a general level.

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.
The extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular
stimulus.
The second step in the process of perception is Step 1 : Exposure
interpretation - Attention
Consumers often live in a state of sensory overload ; we are We notice stimuli that come within range for even a short time—if
exposed to far more information than we can process. we so choose

Are you a media snacker ? However, getting a message noticed in such a short time (or
even in a longer one) is no mean feat.

The fight for your attention—or what some marketers refer to as

an eyeball economy

These bursts of stimulation provoke the body to secrete the 3 - 4 Subliminal advertising Sensory threshold
dopamine hormone, which is addicting 3-3 Perception is a three-stage process which is the point at which it is strong enough to make a
In multitasking, where they process information from more than one medium at a time as they conscious impact in his or her awareness
alternate among their cell phones, TVs, and laptops

Psychophysics
The science of psychophysics focuses on how people integrate
96 percent of them were multitasking about a third of the time the physical environment into their personal, subjective worlds
Heavy multitaskers have more trouble focusing, and they they used media.
experience more stress.
People who are interrupted by email report significantly more
stress than those who were allowed to focus on a task.
The minimum amount of stimulation a person can detect on a
What impact does all this multitasking have on consumers’
Absolute threshold given sensory channel
ability to absorb, retain, and understand information?
Players of fast-paced video games could track the movement of
a third more objects on a screen than non-player An important consideration when we design marketing stimuli.

Sensory Thresholds
The ability of a sensory system to detect changes in or
differences between two stimuli
The games can improve reaction and the ability to pick out Differential threshold
details amid clutter

Multitasking

The minimum difference we can detect between two stimuli

Researchers find that Just noticeable

Sights Eyes

Sounds Ears

Technology seems to be rewiring our brains to try to pay

attention to more stimuli SENSORY STIMULI Smells Nose Exposure Attention
Interpretation

AN OVERVIEW OF THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS Mouth

SENSORY RECEPTORS

Taste
Skin
Today we consume three times as much information each day as
people did in 1960
Textures

The amount of change required for the perceiver to notice a

Weber’s Law change systematically relates to the intensity of the original
stimulus
Manufacturers try to get their brands shelved at eye level in a store and
toward the center of a display because they know that is where
shoppers are most likely to look. People attend to only a small portion of the stimuli to which they . The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a change must be
The use of animated.gif files or video clips to grab viewers’ are exposed for us to notice it.
attention
A challenge to green marketers who try to reduce the sizes of
packages when they produce concentrated (and more earth-
One of most popular today is rich media friendly) versions of their products.
Other rich media are online versions of familiar TV commercials
that sit frozen on the Web site until you click them.

Perceptual vigilance
we are more likely to be aware of stimuli that relate to our current needs
Perceptual defense
we tend to see what we want to see—and we don’t see what we
don’t want to see

which is the degree to which consumers continue Personal Selection Factors The process of perceptual selection
to notice a stimulus over time

Adaptation
occurs when we no longer pay
attention to a stimulus because it is so familiar
Intensity—Less-intense stimuli (e.g., soft sounds or dim colors)
habituate because they have less sensory impact

Discrimination—Simple stimuli habituate because they do not

require attention to
detail

Several factors can lead to adaptation

Exposure—Frequently encountered stimuli habituate as the rate
of exposure increases.

Relevance—Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant habituate

because they fail to attract attention

Size —The size of the stimulus itself in contrast to the

competition helps to determine if it will command attention. Personal Selection Factors

In magazines, ads that are placed toward the front of the issue, Color— color is a powerful way to draw attention to a product or
preferably on the right-hand side, also win out in the race for readers’ to give it a distinct identity
attention

When the typical shopper looks at a search page, his or her eye A message creates contrast in several ways
travels across the top of the search result, returns to the left of the
screen, and then travels down to the last item shown on the screen Position— why the competition is so heated among suppliers to have their
without scrolling. products displayed in stores at eye level
Position also is important in online advertising.

Search engine marketers call this space on

the screen where we are virtually guaranteed to view listings the
golden triangle

put ads in unconventional places, where there will be less

competition for attention.
Novelty—Stimuli that appear in unexpected ways or places tend
to grab our attention