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211MKT Buyer Behaviour
Perception and Interpretation
Dr Gaye Bebek
Lecture Objectives
After this lecture, you should understand why:
• Perception is a three-stage process that translates stimuli
into meaning.
• Products and persuasion messages often appeal to our
senses, but we won’t be influenced by most of them.
• The design of a product today is a key driver of its success
or failure.
Concentrate and…
Sensation
Sensation is the immediate response of our sensory
receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and fingers) to basic
stimuli (light, color, sound, odor, and texture).
What is your Perception of...?
Perception
• Perception is the process by which sensations
are selected, organized, and interpreted.
What is Perception?
“The process through which individuals are exposed to
stimuli, attend to those stimuli and comprehend them”
(Mowen and Minor, 1997)
“Perception is the process by which physical sensations
such as sights, sounds, and smells are selected,
organised, and interpreted. The eventual interpretation
of the stimulus allows it to be assigned meaning”
(Solomon et al 2006)
The Process of Perception
We receive external
stimuli through
our five senses
Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S & Hogg, K. (2013) Consumer behaviour: a European
perspective, Pearson: London.
Vision
•
•
•
•
•
Meanings
are
communicated
through a product’s colour, size and
styling.
Some reactions are from learned
associations
Colour may impact emotions
directly.
Colour is important in packaging
and web page design.
Some colours become so strongly
associated with a brand or
company that they become known
as the trade dress and are legally
protected like a trademark.
What colours can you think of
that are uniquely associated with
a company or product?
Aslam, M (2006) Are you selling the right colour? A cross‐cultural review of colour as a marketing
cue, Journal of Marketing Communications, 12, 15-30.
Smell
• Odors create mood. promote
memories or relieve stress.
• Marketers use scents:
– Inside products
– In promotions (e.g., scratch ‘n sniff)
• Fragrance is processed by the limbic system of the brain where immediate
emotions are experienced.
• Reactions vary according to culture.
• Smell links directly to feelings of happiness, hunger and memories of happy
times.
Bosmans, A (2006) Scents and Sensibility: When do (in) congruent ambient scents
influence product evaluations, Journal of Marketing, Vol 70, Issue 3, p32-43
Hearing
• Many aspects of sound
affect people’s feelings and
behaviour.
• Most of the research relates to music in stores or in
advertisements.
• Tempo affects consumers rate of movement and
excitement: faster more exciting, slower more serious.
• Pitch can affect mood: high pitch happy, low pitch sad.
• The effect on consumers is enhanced if they like the
music or it is familiar.
Bruner II, G. C. (1990). Music, Mood, and Marketing, Journal of Marketing, 54(4), pp. 94-104
Touch
•
Haptic senses—or “touch”—is the most basic of
senses; we learn this before vision and smell.
•
Haptic senses
judgment.
•
Marketers that use touch: perfume companies, car
makers, etc…
•
Least research in this area!
•
Moods are stimulated/relaxed on the basis of
sensations of the skin.
•
Textures can be important in fabrics, food and drink
e.g. silk, fruit, chocolate, Baileys.
•
Men often prefer rougher textures and women
smooth/soft textures.
affect
product
experience
and
• Peck, J. & Wiggins, J. (2006) It just feels good: Customers’affective response
to touch and its influence on persuasion, Journal of Marketing, Vol 70, Issue 4,
p56-69
Taste
• Flavor
houses
develop
new
concoctions for consumer palates
• Cultural changes determine desirable
tastes
• Our taste receptors contribute to our
experience of many products.
• Food and drink manufacturers go to
great lengths to ensure that their
products taste as they should
Enneking, U., Neumann, C. and Henneberg, S. (2007), How important intrinsic and extrinsic
product attributes affect purchase decision, Food Quality and Preference, 18(1), pp.133–138.
Exposure
• Exposure occurs when a stimulus comes within range of
someone’s sensory receptors.
• We can concentrate, ignore, or completely miss stimuli.
• Sensory Threshold: The degree to which people notice a
stimulus that is within range of their sensory receptors.
– Absolute threshold - the minimum amount of
stimulation that can be detected on a sensory channel.
Differential Threshold
The ability of a sensory system
to detect changes or differences
between two stimuli. The issue
of when or if a change will be
noticed is relevant to many
marketing
situations.
The
minimum change in a stimulus
that can be detected is known
as the JND – Just Noticeable
Difference.
Application of JND
• Marketers need to
determine the relevant
j.n.d. for their products
– so that negative
changes are not readily
discernible to the public
– so that product
improvements are very
apparent to consumers
Personal Selection
• Perceptual selection: people attend to only a small
portion of the stimuli to which they are exposed
• Personal selection factors:
Perceptual vigilance
Perceptual defense
Adaptation
Personal Selection
• Perceptual vigilance: consumers are more likely to be
aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs
– Example: you’re in the market for a car—so you tend to
notice car ads more than before
• Perceptual defense: people see what they want to see—
and don’t see what they don’t want to see
– Example: heavy smoker may block out images of cancerscarred lungs
Personal Selection
• Adaptation: the degree to which consumers continue to
notice a stimulus over time.
– Overtime, initially interesting stimuli fade in the background.
Attention
• Attention: the extent to which processing activity is
devoted to a particular stimulus
• Competition for our attention
– 3,500 ad info pieces per day
– Sensory overload: consumers exposed to far more
information than they can process
• Younger consumers can multitask—process information
from more than one medium at a time
• Marketers need to break through the clutter
Attention: Selecting Stimulus
• We are more likely to notice stimuli that differ from others
around them
• So, marketers can create “contrast” through:
Size
Color
Position
Novelty
Guerrilla Marketing
Comprehension
Comprehension: The organisation of knowledge
in memory
Categorisation
– A category is a collection of objects (people,
events) with one or more common characteristic
or functions
– Within a category are subcategories, defined by
the category characteristics plus additional
features that determine the subcategory
Categorisation
Stimulus Organization
• Interpretation: the meaning that we assign to sensory stimuli.
• Gestalt: the whole is greater than the sum of it parts. Explains how stimuli
are organized:
• Closure: people perceive an incomplete picture as complete
(meaningful whole; fill in the blanks).
• Similarity: consumers group together objects that share similar
physical characteristics
• Figure-ground: one part of the stimulus will dominate (the figure)
while the other parts recede into the background (ground)
Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
W.E. Hill, 1915
German postcard, 1880
We impose visual organization on stimuli
Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Grouping:
Law of Similarity
Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Grouping: Law of Similarity: Shape, Scale, Color
Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Law of Closure
Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Reversible Figure/Ground
relationship
Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Reversible Figure/Ground
relationship
can
be
affected by the principle of
smallness: Smaller areas
tend to be seen as figures
against
a
larger
background.
Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception
Reversible Figure/Ground
Relationship:
Tessellation – interlocking
figure/ground
M.C. Escher