Consumer Behavior

Class 3 - 4

Consumer Perception
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

• To understand how perception shapes sensory input and

subsequent consumer behavior.
• To understand the distinction between the sensory
absolute and differential thresholds.
• To understand why consumers notice some stimuli but not
others.
• To understand how people organize stimuli.
• To understand how consumers use integral and external
factors to evaluate products.
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

•To understand the elements of consumer imagery.

•To understand consumers’ perceived risks and how to
lower them.
•To understand the process of positioning and
repositioning.
Perception
Perception
The process by which individuals select, organize, and
interpret stimuli, involving the five senses, into a meaningful
and coherent picture of the world. It can be described as
“how we see the world around us.”
Phenomenal Absolutism
Erroneous assumption that everyone else perceives the
world as we do. For each individual, “reality” is a totally
personal phenomenon, based on that person’s needs,
wants, values, and personal experiences. Perception is all
about consumers’ subjective understandings rather than
objective realities
Perception and Learning

Consumer Perception

• Consumer perception shapes learning and thus behavior.

• Perception and reality are distinct concepts because the

perceptions that consumers develop do not always match
the real world.

• Perception represents a subjective reality, whereas what

actually exists in the environment determines objective
reality.

• Research demonstrates several ways in which physical

sensations may distort reality.
Learning Objective
• To understand how perception shapes sensory input and
subsequent consumer behavior
• Products and commercial messages often appeal to our
senses, but because of the profusion of these messages
we don’t notice most of them
Sensation

Sensation
The immediate and direct response of the sensory organs
to stimuli (units of input to the senses, as captured by the
sensory receptors) is called sensation.
– Sensation depends on energy change within the
environment where the perception occurs
– As sensory input decreases, ability to detect changes
in input or intensity increases, to the point that the
maximum sensitivity is attained under conditions of
minimal stimulation
Sensory Input

• Five Senses
– Sight
– Scent
– Touch
– Sound
– Taste
• Impact of Culture:
– we are trained by our culture how to interpret our sensory
perceptions
Sensory Marketing
• Companies think carefully about the impact of sensations
on our product experiences.

• Visual elements in advertising, store design, and packaging

• Reactions to color come from learned associations, also
gender
Key Concepts in Use of Sound
• Audio watermarking
• Sound symbolism
– Consumers are more likely to recognize brand names
that begin with a hard consonant (K or P)
• Phenomes
– Vowel and consonant sounds (or phenomes) can even
be associated with perceptions of large and small
 Audio Sensory Input
Sensory Audio Input and Product Perceptions
Product Sound and Its Consumer Meaning

Snapple Consumers perceive the sound of the “pop” as an indicator of product safety. When the
company came up with the right snap sound, it was able to eliminate the plastic seal
around the bottle’s cap.

VW Jetta The car door’s “thump” is an indication of quality. The company played and mentioned the
door thump in ads for a new model.

Mascara Consumers perceive the sound and duration of the “click” heard when taking the cover off
as indicators of quality.

Eye shadow A more pronounced “click” heard when opening the compact case symbolizes higher
quality.

Tip markers Consumers like the “screech” because it represents “boldness.”

Tampons Realizing that women dislike opening tampon packages that omit sound, P & G redesigned
the product’s packaging. The plastic’s “crinkle” was carefully balanced and the new
adhesive strip makes no sound when opened.

Spray bottle Method made the nozzle of its spray bottle almost indistinguishable because consumers
perceive a quiet nozzle as an indicator of quality.
Vision (1 of 2)
• Trade dress
• Color forecasts
Vision (2 of 2)
Marketing Applications of Colors

Color Associations Marketing Applications

Yellow Optimistic and youthful Used to grab window shoppers’
attention
Red Energy Often seen in clearance sales
Blue Trust and security Banks
Green Wealth Used to create relaxation in stores

Orange Aggressive Call to action: subscribe, buy or sell

Black Powerful and sleek Luxury products
Purple Soothing Beauty or anti-aging products

Source: Adapted from Leo Widrich, “Why Is Facebook Blue? The Science Behind Colors in
Marketing,” Fast Company (May 6, 2013), fastcompany.com accessed February 23, 2015.
Dollars and Scents
• Like color, odor can also stir emotions and memory.
• Scent Marketing is a form of sensory marketing that we
may see in lingerie, detergents, and more.
Key Concepts in the Use of Touch
• Endowment effect
• Haptic
• Kansei engineering (translating customers’ feelings into design
elements)

• Contamination Effect?
 AR, VR & the Metaverse
• We have moved from physical sensations to digital
sensations???
• Augmented reality (AR) refers to media that superimpose
one or more digital layers of data, images, or video over a
physical object
• Virtual Reality (VR) creates a fully immersive digital
environment that replaces the real world. Users are
completely immersed in a virtual environment
• The Metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, created by
the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and
physically persistent virtual reality. It is an expansive,
persistent, and shared virtual universe where users can
interact with each other and digital objects in real-time
For Reflection (1 of 8)
• Imagine you are the marketing consultant for the package
design of a new brand of premium chocolate.
• What recommendations would you make regarding sight
and scent?
For Reflection (2 of 8)
• Some studies suggest that as we age, our sensory
detection abilities decline. What are the implications of this
phenomenon for marketers who target elderly consumers?
For Reflection (3 of 8)
• How has your sense of touch influenced your reaction to
a product?
• Which of your senses do you feel is most influential in
your perceptions of products?
The Perceptual Process

• Attention: focusing on one or more environmental stimuli while potentially

ignoring others.
• Comprehension is the ability to interpret and assign meaning to the new
information by relating it to knowledge already stored in memory.
• After comprehension, preferences and choice follow
Key Concepts in Exposure
• Psychophysics
– The science of psychophysics focuses on how people
integrate the physical environment into their personal
subjective worlds

• Sensory threshold
• Absolute threshold
• Differential threshold
• JND
• Weber’s Law
Sensory Thresholds
• Absolute Threshold: The minimum level of stimuli needed for an individual
to experience a sensation.
– The lowest point at which a person can detect “something” on a given
sensory receptor.

• Just Noticeable Difference (j.n.d., differential threshold): The amount of

incremental change required for a person to detect a difference between two
similar stimuli.

• Marketers want to prevent changes (e.g., reductions in product size or

quality, or increases in product price) from becoming readily discernible to
the public (i.e., remain below the JND).

• Second, they want to ensure that product improvements (e.g., improved or

updated packaging, larger size, or lower price) are very apparent to
consumers, but without being wastefully extravagant

• Weber’s Law: The greater or stronger the initial stimulus was, the greater is
the amount of change required for it to be noticed.
Sensory Adaptation
• Sensory Adaptation: the process of becoming desensitized to
sensual stimuli.
– Over time, if a stimulus doesn’t change, we adapt or orient to it
and notice it less.
• Factors causing sensory adaptation:
– High Repetition: When an advertisement is overexposed, it
loses the ability to attract attention and interest. (Advertising
wear-out)
– Simplicity: Simple stimuli tend to encourage adaptation
because they don’t require much cognitive capacity to process.
– Low Intensity: Soft sounds, faint smells, and dull colors all
produce quick adaptation because they require little input from
human sensory systems
Discussion Questions (1 of 2)
What is the difference between the absolute threshold and
the differential threshold (JND)?
Why do marketers care about sensory adaptation?
Discussion Question (1 of 2)

How might a sauce manufacturer such as Kissan’s use the

j.n.d. for Tomato Ketchup in terms of:
• Product decisions
• Packaging decisions
• Advertising decisions
• Sales promotion decisions
Subliminal Perception

• What is subliminal perception?

• Is it effective?
Example: Change in Visual Identity

Source: The Kraft Heinz Company

Discrepance-Interruption Theory. Discrepancies or surprises and

interruptions or unexpected events that prevent us from pursuing a goal
that we are currently trying to achieve also increase arousal and
emotion.
Subliminal Perception

Subliminal perception is the unconscious awareness of a

stimulus.
• Stimuli that are too weak or too brief to be consciously
seen or heard but strong enough to be perceived by one
or more stimuli receptor cells
• However, there is no evidence that subliminal advertising
persuades people to buy goods or services
Stage 2: Attention
• Attention is the extent to which processing activity is
devoted to a particular stimulus
• Consumers experience sensory overload
• Marketers need to break through the clutter
 Influences on Attention
• Short-term memory is the part of memory where small bits of information are
stored for short periods of time.
– Recently received sensory input utilizes short-term memory.
– Also called “working memory,” “active memory,” or “conscious
awareness.”.
• Miller’s Rule: people are able to consider approximately five to nine units of
information (single number, letter, or word) at one time.
– Easy to overwhelm or overload consumers with too much information
– Factor that influences the amount of information people can attend to at
one particular moment is prior knowledge or expertise.
• Arousal: a state of physical wakefulness or alertness, that also influences
consumers’ attention
– An inverted U relationship between arousal and consumers’ ability to
attend to information (ie. attention)
– When arousal is too low, the amount of cognitive capacity and mental
resources available for information processing is also low.
– When highly aroused, consumers are over stimulated, and this arousal
competes with their ability to attend to large amounts of information
Learning Objective 4.3

4.3 To understand why consumers notice some stimuli but

not others.
Factors Leading to Adaptation
Adaptation is the degree to which consumers continue to
notice a stimulus over time
– The process of adaptation occurs when consumers no
longer pay attention to a stimulus because it is so
familiar.
• Intensity
• Discrimination
• Exposure
• Relevance
The Stimulus
• Salient stimuli which draw consumers’ attention
involuntarily
– Contrast
– Shocking or unrealistic images
• Novelty: A novel stimulus is one that is new, original,
different, or unexpected.
• Intensity: The intensity of a stimulus, such as loudness,
brightness, or length, affects salience, and in turn,
induces attention
• Vividness: vivid stimuli are attention-drawing across all
contexts
– emotionally interesting
– concrete and imagery provoking
– proximate in a sensory, temporal, or spatial way
Stimulus Selection Factors
• Contrast
• Size
• Color
• Position
• Novelty
Perceptions Are Affected by…

• Expectations
• Motives
• Selective Perception
– Selective Exposure
– Selective Attention
– Perceptual Defense
– Perceptual Blocking
Learning Objective 4.4

4.4 To understand how people organize stimuli.

Perceptual Organization

• Gestalt psychology
• Figure and ground
• Grouping
• Closure

Source: Boring, E. (1930). A New Ambiguous Figure. The American Journal of

Psychology, 42(3), 444-445. doi:10.2307/1415447. From American Journal of
Psychology. Copyright 1930 by the Board of Trustees of the University of
Illinois. Used with permission of the University of Illinois Press.
Learning Objective 3.5
The field of semiotics helps us to understand how marketers
use symbols to create meaning.
Stimulus Organization
• Gestalt: The whole is greater than
the sum of its parts
– Closure: people perceive an
incomplete picture as complete
– 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)
Stimulus Organization

• Nike ads often feature athletes (the figure) in dynamic poses against a
simple background. The stark contrast ensures that the focus remains
on the athlete and the emotion of the moment, tying back to the
brand’s motivational message.
Stimulus Organization

• Apple frequently uses the figure-ground principle in its iPhone

advertisements.
• iPhone is depicted in sharp focus against a plain, often white or dark,
background.
• This technique highlights the sleek design and features of the iPhone
without any distractions.
 Semiotic Relationships
• Object
• Sign
• Interpretant
• Icon
• Index
• Symbol

Semiotics: A discipline that studies the correspondence between

signs and symbols and their roles in how we assign meanings
Semiotic Relationships
Examples of Brand Positioning
Social Awakening Tata Tea: "Jaago Re"

National Pride and Quality Amul: "The Taste of India"

Attributes of Affordable Nutrition Parle-G: "G for Genius"

Lifestyle (Sophisticated elegance) Raymond: "The Complete Man"

Competitors Flipkart: "India ka Fashion Capital"

Use Wrigley’s gum when you can’t
Occasions
smoke
Users Levi’s Dockers targeted to young men

Quality At Ford, “Quality is Job 1”

For Reflection (6 of 8)
Think of a commercial you have recently seen and explain
the object, sign and interpretant.
Product Placement

Defined
A form of promotion where marketers “disguise”
promotional cues by integrating products (i.e., “figures”)
into TV shows films, or other entertainment content (i.e.,
“grounds”) or building entertainment content around
products
Learning Objective 4.5

4.5 To understand how consumers use integral and

external factors to evaluate products.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cues

• Intrinsic – physical
characteristics of the
product
• Extrinsic – not inherent in
the product
Perceptual Interpretation

• Stereotyping (Individuals carry biased pictures in their minds of the

meanings of various stimuli termed stereotypes)

• Triggers
– Physical appearance
– Descriptive terms
– First impressions
– Halo Effect
How Does This Ad Depict Perceptual
Interpretation?

Source: Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), USA

Learning Objective

• To understand the elements of consumer imagery.

Perceived Value

• Reference price
• Price-quality relationship
• Positioning
• Image and quality
Learning Objective

• To understand consumers perceived risks and how to

lower them.
Elements of Perceived Risk
The Elements of Perceived Risk
Type of Perceived Risk Definition Example
Functional risk Product will not perform as Can the e-book reader operate a whole day without
expected. having to be recharged?
Will the electric engine perform as promised?

Physical risk Product can harm self and Is organic unpasteurized milk safe to drink?
others; risk to self and (Many states do not permit unpasteurized milk, but
others. many greenmarkets carry it because it is organic.)
The electric car’s breaks are excellent.

Financial risk Product will not be worth its Will a new and cheaper model of an LED TV monitor
cost. become available six months from now? Will I save
money on gas if I buy an electric car?

Psychological and social Poor product choice will Will I be embarrassed when my friends see me with a
risk bruise the consumer’s ego. mobile phone that is not a smartphone? If I buy an
electric car, I will not be polluting the environment.

Time risk Time spent in product search Will I be forced to compare all the different
may be wasted if the product carriers’ calling plans again if I experience a lot of
does not perform as dropped calls with the one I selected? I will save time
expected. by not having to buy gas if I but the electric car.
How Consumers Handle Risk

• Information
• Brand loyalty
• Store image
• Price-quality relationship
Relation between Arousal and Attention