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Perception is a process that begins with consumer exposure and attention to marketing stimuli and ends with consumer interpretation. Interpretation can be a highly subjective process. Thus reality and consumer perceptions of that reality are often quite different. Marketers wishing to communicate their brand message effectively to consumers must understand the nature of perception and the many factors influencing it.

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Colours may even influence our emotions more directly. Evidence suggests that some colours (particularly red) create feelings of arousal and stimulate appetite, and others (such as blue) create more relaxing feelings. Olympic athletes who wear red uniforms are more likely to defeat competitors in blue uniforms, and men rate women whowear red as more attractive than those who wear blue.

Some reactions to colour come from learned associations. In Western countries, black is the colour of mourning, whereas in some Eastern countries, notably Japan, white plays this role. Other reactions are a result of biological and cultural differences. Women are drawn towards brighter tones and they are more sensitive to subtle shadings and patterns. Some scientists attribute this to biology; females see colour better than males do, and men are 16 times more likely to be colour blind. Age also influences our responsiveness to colour. As we get older, our eyes mature and our vision takes on a yellow cast. Colours look duller toolder people, so they prefer white and other bright tones. This helps to explain why mature consumers are much more likely to choose a white car.

Because colours elicit such strong emotional reactions, obviously the choice of a colour palette is a key issue in package design. These decisions help to ‘colour’ our

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expectations of what’s inside the package. Some colour combinations come to be so strongly associated with a corporation that they become known as the company’s trade dress, and the company may even be granted exclusive use of these colours. For example, Eastman Kodak has successfully protected its trade dress of yellow,black and red in court. As a rule, however, judges grant trade dress protection only when consumers might be confused about what they buy because of similar coloration of a competitor’s packages.

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Ex: Britain’s Asda grocery chain removed the wrapping from several brands of toilet tissue in its stores so that shoppers could feel and compare textures.The result, the retailer says, was soaring sales for its own in-store brand, resulting in a 50 per cent increase in shelf space for the line.

There are considerable cultural differences in the world as well as within Europe concerning the appropriate amount and kind of touching in interpersonal interactions. In general, northern Europeans touch less than their southern European counterparts. Many British think the French shake hands for too long. Sensations that reach the skin, whether from a luxurious massage or the bite of a winter wind, stimulate or relax us. Researchers even have shown that touch can influence sales interactions. In one study, diners whom waiting staff touched gave bigger tips, and the same researchers reported that food demonstrators in asupermarket who lightly touched customers had better luck in getting shoppers to try a new snack product and to redeem coupons for the brand.

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Companies may use a group of ‘sensory panellists’ as tasters. These consumers are recruited because they have superior sensory abilities, and are then given six months’ training. Or they rely on lay people, i.e. ordinary consumers. In a blind taste test, panellists rate the products of a company and its competitors on anumber of dimensions. The results of such studies are important to discover bothdifferent consumer preferences and, thus, different consumer segments, and the positioning of a company or a brand in terms of the most important sensory qualities of the product.

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Attention has three key characteristics:1. Attention Is Selective: Selectivity means that we decide what we want to focus on at any one time. At any given time, we are exposed to a potentially overwhelming number of stimuli. When we go to a store, for example, we are exposed to numerous products, brands, ads, displays, signs, and prices all at the same time. Because we cannot examine all these marketing stimuli simultaneously, we must determine which to focus on. Attention can also be affected by goals: If we look at a product’s packagewith the goal of learning how to use it, we may be more likely to read the directionsthan to read about its ingredients.2. Attention Can Be Divided: A second important aspect of attention is that it is capable of being divided. Thus, we can parcel our attentional resources into units and allocate some to one task and some to another. For example, we can drive a car and talk at the same time. We can allocate attention flexibly to meet the demands of things in our environment, but we also have the potential to become distracted when one stimulus pulls our attention from another. If we are distracted from a product or ad, the amount of attention we devote to it will be greatly reduced. Knowing that viewers can divide their attention, TV networks reinforce their brands and flash on-screen reminders of upcoming shows during other programs.3. Attention Is Limited: Although we may be able to divide our attention, we can

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attend to multiple things only if processing them is relatively automatic, well practiced, and effortless. Imagine that you are watching TV and, at the same time, listening to your friends talk. If the conversation turns serious, you will need to turn down the TV so you can devote your attention to your friends. The fact that attention is limited explains why consumers browsing in an unfamiliar store are less likely to notice new products than when those same consumers browse in a familiar store. Consumers will inevitably miss some products when they try to pay attention to many unfamiliar products.

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Stimulus factors are physical characteristics of the stimulus itself. Stimulus characteristics such as ad size and color are under the marketer’s control and can attract attention independent of individual or situational characteristics. The attention garnered by stimulus factors tends to be relatively automatic. So even if you think you are not interested in a car (individual characteristic), a large and colorful car ad (stimulus characteristics) may be hard to ignore.SizeLarger stimuli are more likely to be noticed than smaller ones.Intensity The intensity (e.g., loudness, brightness, length) of a stimulus can increase attention.Attractive Visuals Individuals tend to be attracted to pleasant stimuli and repelled by unpleasant stimuli.Color and Movement Both color and movement serve to attract attention, with brightly colored and moving items being more noticeable. Brighter colors are more arousing than dull. And warm colors, such as reds and yellows, are more arousingthan cool colors, such as blues and grays.PositionIn retail stores, items that are easy to find or that stand out are more likely to attract attention. In print contexts, ads on the right-hand page receivemore attention than those on the left based on how we peruse magazines and newspapers. In online contexts, vertical banners attract more attention than

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horizontal banners. In television, the probability of a commercial being viewed and remembered drops sharply as it moves from being the first to air during a break to the last to air.Isolation Isolation is separating a stimulus object from other objects. In-store, the use of stand-alone kiosks is based on this principle. In advertising, the use of “white space” (placing a brief message in the center of an otherwise blank or white advertisement) is based on this principle, as is surrounding a key part of a radio commercial with a brief moment of silence.Format Format refers to the manner in which the message is presented. In general, simple, straightforward presentations receive more attention than complexpresentations.Contrast and Expectations Consumers pay more attention to stimuli that contrastwith their background. Packaging, in-store displays, and ads that differ from our expectations tend to get noticed.Interestingness In advertising, factors that increase curiosity, such as a plot, the possibility of a surprise ending, and uncertainty as to the point of the message until the end, can increase interest and the attention paid to the ad.Information Quantitiy Information quantity represents the number of cues in thestimulus field. In print advertising, information appears to attract attention, while in TV advertising, information appears to reduce attention.

Individual factors are characteristics that distinguish one individual from another. Generally speaking, consumer motivation and ability are the major individual factors affecting attention.MotivationMotivation is created by consumer interests and needs. Interests are a reflection of overall lifestyle as well as a result of goals (e.g., becoming an accomplished guitar player) and needs (e.g., hunger). Product involvement indicates motivation or interest in a specific product category.Ability Ability refers to the capacity of individuals to attend to and process information. Ability is related to knowledge and familiarity with the product, brand, or promotion. Experts can attend to more information, more quickly and more effectively than novices. Brand familiarity is an ability factor related to attention. Those with high brand familiarity may require less attention to the brand’s ads because of their high existing knowledge.

Situational factors include stimuli in the environment and temporary characteristics of the individual that are induced by the environment, such as time pressures or a crowded store. Clutter and program involvement are two major situational factors affecting attention.Clutter Clutter represents the density of stimuli in the environment. In-store research suggests that cluttering the environment with too many point-of-purchase displays decreases the attention consumers pay to a given display.

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Program Involvement Program involvement refers to how interested viewers are inthe program or editorial content surrounding the ads (as opposed to involvement with the ad or brand). In general, the audience is attending to the medium because of the program or editorial content, not the advertisement. So the question remains, does involvement with the program or editorial content influence attention to the ad? The answer is clearly yes, in a positive direction.

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People do not perceive a single stimulus in isolation. Our brains tend to relate incoming sensations to imagery of other events or sensations already in our memory based on some fundamental organizational principles. A number of perceptual principles describe how stimuli are perceived and organized.

The gestalt principle of closure implies that consumers tend to perceive an incomplete picture as complete. That is, we tend to fill in the blanks based on our prior experience. This principle explains why most of us have no trouble reading a neon sign, even if one or two of its letters are burned out, or filling in the blanks in an incomplete message. The principle of closure is also at work when we hear only part of a jingle or theme. Utilization of the principle of closure in marketing strategies encourages audience participation, which increases the chance that people will attend to the message.The principle of similarity tells us that consumers tend to group together objects that share similar physical characteristics. That is, they group like items into sets to form an integrated whole. This principle is used by companies who have extended product lines, but wish to keep certain features similar, such as the shape of a bottle, so that it is easy for the consumer to recognize that they are in fact buying a shampoo of brand X.

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Another important gestalt concept is the figure-ground principle, in which one part of a stimulus (the figure) will dominate while other parts recede into the background. This concept is easy to understand if one thinks of a photograph with a clear andsharply focused object (the figure) in the centre. The figure is dominant, and the eye goes straight to it. The parts of the configuration that will be perceived as figure or ground can vary depending on the individual consumer as well as other factors. Similarly, in marketing messages that use the figure-ground principle, a stimulus can be made the focal point of the message or merely the context that surrounds the focus.

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The birth of subliminal advertising as we know it dates to 1957 when a market researcher named James Vicary inserted the words "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" into a movie. The words appeared for a single frame, allegedly long enough for the subconscious to pick up, but too short for the viewer to be aware of it. The subliminal ads supposedly created an 18.1% increase in Coke sales and a 57.8% increase in popcorn sales.Vicary's results turned out to be a hoax. But more recent experiments have shown that subliminal messages actually can affect behavior in small ways.

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Consumers also find things personally relevant when they have a bearing on activatedneeds. A need is an internal state of tension caused by disequilibrium from an ideal or desired state.

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