Chapter 2

Perception
By Michael R. Solomon

Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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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 2.1

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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. 2-5

Sensory Systems - Vision

Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, store design, and packaging. Meanings are communicated on the visual channel through a products 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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This ad targets which senses?

This Finnish ad emphasizes the sensual reasons to visit the city of Helsinki.

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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 and are more sensitive to subtle shadings and patterns)
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Perceptions of Color
This ad campaign by the San Francisco Ballet uses color perceptions to get urban sophisticates to add classical dance to their packed entertainment itineraries.

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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.
Dont 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. Kodaks 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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VIDEO: Snapple
Snapple drinks were revived by the Whipper Snapple product, thanks to consumers forming their own perceptions about the product.

Click image to play video

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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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Smell in Advertising
This ad pokes fun at the proliferation of scented ads. Ah, the scent of sweat.

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Sensory Perceptions - Sound

Advertising jingles create brand awareness. Background music creates desired moods. Sound affects peoples 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 - 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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Applications of Touch Perceptions

Kansai engineering: A philosophy that translates customers feelings into design elements. Mazda Miata designers discovered that making the stick shift (shown on the right) exactly 9.5 cm long conveys the optimal feeling of sportiness and control.

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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 someones 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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Webers Law
The amount of change that is necessary to be noticed is systematically related to the intensity of the original stimulus The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a change must be for it to be noticed. Mathematically:

i K I

K = A constant (varies across senses) i = The minimal change in the intensity required to produce j.n.d. I = the intensity of the stimulus where the change occurs

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Subliminal Perception
Subliminal perception:
Occurs when the stimulus is below the level of the consumers awareness.

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

Critics of subliminal persuasion often focus on ambiguous shapes in drinks that supposedly spell out words like S E X as evidence for the use of this technique. This Pepsi ad, while hardly subliminal, gently borrows this message format.
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Attention
Attention:
The extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus.

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 dont see what they dont 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 were 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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Discussion Question
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?

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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. 2 - 30

The Priming Process

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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. 2 - 34

Figure-ground Principle

This billboard for Wrangler jeans makes creative use of the 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

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Semiotics (cont.)
Signs are related to objects in one of three ways:
1) Icon: a sign that resembles the product in some way 2) Index: a sign that is connected to some object because they share some property 3) Symbol: a sign that is related to a product through conventional or agreed-upon associations

Hyperreality: The becoming real of what is initially simulation or hype

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Office Space and The Red Stapler

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Perceptual Positioning
Positioning Strategy A fundamental part of a companys marketing efforts as it uses elements of the marketing mix to influence the consumers interpretation of its meaning. Many dimensions can establish a brands position in the marketplace:
Lifestyle Price Leadership Attributes Product Class Competitors Occasions Users Quality
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Perceptual Map
Figure 2.3: HMV Perceptual Map

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