Consumer Perception

Chapter Details
 Nature of perception
 Elements of Perception
 Dynamics
 Perceptual Mapping
 Perception and marketing strategy
 Brand positioning
 Perceived price
 Perceived quality
 Perceived risks
 Meaning
 It is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of

sensory information

 Process by which sensations are selected, organized and

interpreted

 It explains how a person recognizes, selects, organizes and

interprets each stimulus based on his/ her needs, values

and expectations
 Perception Process
Sensory Sensory
Stimuli Receptors

Sights Eyes

Sounds Ears
Exposure Attention Interpretation
Smells Nose

Taste Mouth

Textures Skins
The Nature of Perception
Information Processing for Consumer Decision Making

Exposure
Random Deliberate
Perception

Attention
Low Involvement High Involvement

Interpretation
Low Involvement High Involvement

Memory
Short-term Long-term
Active Problem solving Stored experience, values, feeling

Purchase and consumption decision

 Exposure
 Exposure occurs when a stimulus comes within range of our
sensory receptor nerves
 E.g hoarding while you are walking
 People are exposed to large number of stimuli
 Stimuli could be in form
 Products
 Packages
 Brand names
 Ads
 Smell
 People seek information that they think will help them achieve
their goals
Attention
 Attention occurs when the stimulus activates one or more sensory
receptors and the resulting sensation go to the brain for processing
 An average individual is exposed to 30000 items in a supermarket

 Stimuli are available but those are not processed until a deliberate
effort is made to do so
 Attention is determined by three factors
 Stimulus
 The individual
 The situation
 A. Stimulus Factors
 Physical characteristics of the stimulus itself
1. Size and Intensity

 Larger stimuli are more likely to be noticed than smaller ones

 Insertion frequency – multiple insertions increase recall
 Intensity – loudness, brightness, length
2. Colour and Movement

 Serve to attract attention

 Bright colours and moving items are noticeable
 Effect of animation
 3. Position
 Refers to the placement of an object in a person’s visual
field
 Objects near to visual field are more likely to be noticed
 Eye-level grocery
 RHS ads
 4. Isolation and Contrast

 Isolation is separating a stimulus object from the other objects

 Consumers pay more attention to stimuli that are contrast with

their background than to stimuli that blend with it

 5. Format
 Refers to the manner in which the message is presented
 Simple, straightforward presentations receive more attention
than complex
 Ads that lack a clear visual point of reference or too fast / slow
decrease attention
 Message difficult to understand reduce attention
6. Interestingness & Information quantity

 Interestingness would depend on individual characteristics

 Information overload can decrease attention levels
 B. Individual Factors

 Interest

 Needs

 Lifestyle

 Long-term, Short-term goals and plans

 Involvement
 C. Situational Factors
 Include stimuli in the environment other than the focal stimulus
and temporary characteristics of the individual that are induced by
the environment
 E.g crowded mall, shopping during sale
 Program involvement
 Non-focused Attention
 Subliminal stimuli
 a signal or message embedded in another medium designed
to pass below the normal limits of the human mind’s
perception
 Messages are unrecognizable by the conscious mind
 Can affect the sub-conscious mind and thereby influence
attitude, beliefs, thoughts
 Perception Process
Sensory Sensory
Stimuli Receptors

Sights Eyes

Sounds Ears
Exposure Attention Interpretation
Smells Nose

Taste Mouth

Textures Skins
 Interpretation

 Process of the assignment of meaning to sensation

 Cognitive interpretation is a process whereby stimuli are placed into

existing categories of meaning

 Affective interpretation is the emotional or feeling response triggered by a

stimulus

 Based on
 Stimulus
 Individual
 Situation
 1. Individual Characteristics
 Individuals actively interprets marketing messages based on
 needs,
 desires,
 Motives,
 expectation,
 learnings and
 Past experiences
 Stereotypes
 Halo effect
 First impressions
 2. Situational Characteristics

 Temporary characteristics of the individual like hunger, mood

 The amount of time available
 Physical characteristics of the situation like temperature
 External distraction
 Contextual priming effect – immediate context in which
stimulus (ad) appears
3. Stimulus Characteristics
 The product, packaging, advertisement, sales presentation
 Sensory discrimination
 the ability of an individual to distinguish between similar
stimuli
 Just Noticeable difference (JND)
 Minimal apparent difference between two stimuli as
observed by the consumer
 Weber’s law – the stronger the stimulus, the greater the
change required for the stimulus to be seen as different
 Individuals do not notice relatively small amount of
different between brands or attributes
Perceptual Organisation – Interpretation

 Principle of Gestalt
 “Whole is greater than sum of its parts”
The closure principle - Law of Good continuation

 The tendency to perceive unseen

parts of a pattern as continuing in a

predictable and simple manner

 Principle of Similarity

 People group objects that share

similar characteristics
 Law of Proximity

 Things that are relatively

close to each other are

grouped together
 The Figure & Ground Principle

 Either one part of stimulus will dominate

 In advertising, product or brand should always be figure
 Creativity, humor, jingle, graphic should take a role of
ground
Selective Perception

 Selective Exposure
 Selective attention
 Perceptual defense
 Perceptual blocking
 Perception

and

Marketing Strategy
 Perceptual Mapping
 Brand Perception = Brand attributes + symbolic attributes
 Helps to understand how the consumers perceive their offerings
in relation to competitive brands on certain chosen parameters
 Helps to assess how consumers view different brands in a
product category
 Marketers can identify unexplored areas in terms of consumer
needs
 Brand Positioning

 Creating distinct image in minds of the consumers

 Umbrella positioning – e.g. Maggi
 Positioning on a specific benefit
 Finding an ‘unowned’ position
 Celebrity endorsement
 Consumer imagery
 Perceived Price / Quality
 Reference price
 Quality versus price
 Perceived risk
 The degree of uncertainty perceived by the consumer about the
consequence (outcome) of a specific purchase decision
 Perception risk varies with product categories, shopping situation
 Functional risk
 Physical risk
 Financial risk
 Time risk
 Social risk
 Psychological risk
Applications to

 Retail Strategy
 Brand name and logo
 Media strategy
 Advertisement
 Package design
Individual interpretation influences behaviour
 Class Discussion
1. Evaluate the ad
 Analyze its attention –attracting characteristics
 How does the ad creative affect interpretation
 Identify interpretation factors
 How does the ad influencing perception
2. Develop a retail strategy for
 Shampoo brand – Clinic Plus
 Perfume Brand – Elizabeth Arden
 I-pod – Apple
3. Compare two ads
 Analyze both with reference to Attention & Interpretation factors
 Identify TG
 Explain how do they influence perception
 Project 2
 Presentation on 16th August 2010
 Select any three brands of your choice
 Analyze its packaging, explain how packaging influences
perception, thereby buying behaviour
 Do a consumer survey (25 respondents) to analyze the
perception of brand basis the packaging
 Use various factors influencing attention and interpretation that
affect perception in relation to each of the packaging
 Colour
 Visual
 Size
 Contrast etc.
 Suggest packaging strategies based on your analysis to the
marketer of these brands.