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Chapter 2

Perception

Consumer BehaviorBuying, Having, and Being

Assist. Prof. Özge Özgen

Department of International Business and Trade

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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 2.12 - 4

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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Hedonic

Consumption

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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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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)

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Red color stimulates appetite

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Per

cep

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of

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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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Visual Communication Differences through Culture

Cosmetic Ads in Europe

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Visual Communication Differences through Culture

Cosmetic Ads in Asia

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Visual Communication Differences

through Culture

• Western visual communication is

deeply affected by the convention of

writing from left to right

• Central Composition

– Centering is fundemental principle in visual art in

many Asian countries

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Perceptional Differences about Visuality of Packages

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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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• Scented paper ads

typically include a

text blurb inviting

readers to “rub here”

or “scratch and sniff

here” to experience

the scent of the

product.

– On average, one in six

(17%) of readers who read

a scented paper ad went

the extra step and

activated the scent

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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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Sensory Perceptions - Sound

• Advertising jingles create brand awareness.

• Background music creates desired moods.

• Sound affects people’s feelings and

behaviors.

– Jingle bells During new year shopping...

– Coca Cola Ramadan Ads

– 11880

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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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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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Subliminal Perception

• Subliminal perception:

– Occurs when the stimulus is below the level of the

consumer’s awareness.

– “Subliminal” means “below the threshold,"

• 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

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Subliminal messages

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Subliminal Advertising

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Attention

• Attention:

– The extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus.

– Eye-tracking

• 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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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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Un

exp

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Un

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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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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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Principle of Similarity

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Figure-ground Principle

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

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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