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MKT201 - Week 3

Perception (Ch. 2)

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Chapter Overview

1. Introduction – Sensation & Perception & Perceptual Process

2. Sensory Systems – Vision, Smell, Hearing, Touch, Taste

3. Perceptual Process• Exposure – Sensory Thresholds, Weber’s Law, Subliminal

Perception

• Attention – Perceptual Selection, Schema-based Perception, Stimulus Organization

• Interpretation - Semiotics

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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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Figure 2-1: An Overview of the Perceptual Process

Consumer’s act/behaviour is influenced by his/her perception about the situation.

3 stages of the process of perception:

(1) Exposure + (2) Attention + (3) Interpretation

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Sensory SystemsSensory Systems

• Visual Elements in Advertising, Store Design and Packaging. (red – arousing, blue - relaxing)• Odors Can Stir Emotions or Create Feelings Such as Happiness/ Hunger. (pheromone, cologne, fragranced clothes)

• Research Has Analyzed Effects of : Background Music & Speaking Rates(relax or stimulate consumers)

VisionVision

SmellSmell

SoundSound

TouchTouch

TasteTaste

• Shown to Be a Factor in Sales Interactions. (cultural concern)

•Product Texture

• Ethnicity Affects Taste Preferences. (flavor, hot & spicy, …)

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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.

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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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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/fine 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.– 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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What do you think about the visual elements (color, size, styling, etc.) of the following logos:

Discussion

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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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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 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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Stimulus Progression

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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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This Caress Ad Uses Tactile Stimulation as a Selling Point

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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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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. (billboard size – ? big enough)

• 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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Weber’s 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:

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

I

iK

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Subliminal Perception

• Subliminal perception:– Occurs when the stimulus is below the level of the

consumer’s awareness.

• Subliminal techniques:– Embeds: Tiny figures that are inserted into

magazine: advertising by using high-speed photography or airbrushing.

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Subliminal Perception Subliminal Perception Subliminal Perception

Occurs When The Stimulus Is Below The Level Of The

Consumer’s Awareness.

EmbedsTiny Figures in Print

Advertising

EmbedsTiny Figures in Print

Advertising

Subliminal TechniquesSubliminal TechniquesAuditory Messages

Messages on SoundRecordings

Low-Level Auditory Stimulation

Threshold Messaging

(usu. sexual nature)

(self-help tapes - stop smoking, lose weight, … )

(barely listened – e.g. I won’t steal, … )

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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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Subliminal Perception

• Does subliminal perception work?– There is little evidence that subliminal stimuli can

bring about desired behavioral changes. – poleshift.org http://

www.poleshift.org/sublim/pov/Direction_of_Gaze.html

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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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Perceptual SelectionPerceptual Selection

ExperienceResult of Acquiring Information Over Time

ExperienceResult of Acquiring Information Over Time

AdaptationAdaptationPerceptualDefense

PerceptualDefense

Perceptual Vigilance

Perceptual Vigilance

Perceptual FiltersPast Experiences Influences What We Decide to Process

Perceptual FiltersPast Experiences Influences What We Decide to Process

(related things) (don’t want to see) (don’t pay attention)

Perceptual Selection Means that People Pay Attention to Only a Small Portion of Stimuli to Which They Are Exposed.

How do Consumers Choose What to Pay Attention To?

(a) Personal Selection Factors

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How do Consumers Choose What to Pay Attention To?

(b) Stimulus Selection Factors

SizeSize

PositionPosition

NoveltyNovelty

ColorColor

Create Contrast Contrast so That Stimuli is More Likely to Be Noticed. Remember Weber’s Law.

e.g. front page, right-hand side

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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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Factors that Lead to Adaptation

• Intensity: Less-intense stimuli habituate because they have less sensory impact.

• Duration: Stimuli that require relatively lengthy exposure in order to be processed tend to habituate because they require a long attention span.

• Discrimination: Simple stimuli tend to habituate because they do not require attention to detail.

• Exposure: Frequently encountered stimuli tend to habituate as the rate of exposure increases.

• Relevance: Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant will habituate because they fail to attract attention.

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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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Interpretation

• 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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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:

• Principle of Similarity:

• Figure-ground Principle:

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Stimulus OrganizationStimulus OrganizationThe Gestalt Perspective (Summarized as “The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of It’s Parts”) Provides Several Principles Relating to the Way Stimuli Are Organized:

2. Principle of SimilarityConsumers Tend to Group Objects That Share Similar

Physical Characteristics

2. Principle of SimilarityConsumers Tend to Group Objects That Share Similar

Physical Characteristics

3. Figure-Ground PrincipleOne Part of the Stimulus Will Dominate (the Figure) While

Other Parts Recede Intothe Background

(the Ground)

3. Figure-Ground PrincipleOne Part of the Stimulus Will Dominate (the Figure) While

Other Parts Recede Intothe Background

(the Ground)

1. Closure Principle People Tend to Perceive an Incomplete Picture as

Whole

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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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Use of the Principle ofUse of the Principle of Similarity Similarity

Green Giant:

http://www.greengiant.com/

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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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Interpretation

• The Eye of the Beholder (viewer): Interpretational Biases

– Consumers tend to project their own desires or assumptions (or biases) onto products and advertisements.

• E.g. Benetton – a black man and a white man hand-cuffed together (racial tolerance VS racism)

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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 company’s marketing

efforts as it uses elements of the marketing mix to influence the consumer’s interpretation of its meaning.

– Many dimensions can establish a brand’s position in the marketplace:

• Lifestyle • Competitors

• Price Leadership • Occasions

• Attributes • Users

• Product Class • Quality

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Perceptual Map

• Figure 2.3: HMV Perceptual Map