WHAT IS PERCEPTION ?

Perception is defined as the process by which an individual selects,

organizes, and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent
picture of the world. A stimulus is any unit of input to any of the
sense. Examples of stimuli (i.e, sensory input) include products,
packages, brand names, advertisements, and commercials. Sensory
receptors are the human organs (the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and
skin) that receive sensory inputs. Their sensory functions are to see,
hear, smell, taste, and feel. All of these functions are called into
play -- either singly or in combination -- in the evaluation and use of
most consumer products. The study of perception is largely the
study of what we subconsciously add to or subtract from raw
sensory inputs to produce our own private picture of the world..
 The Perceptual Process

STIMULI
Sensation Meaning
•Sights
•Sounds Sensory
Attention Interpretation Response
Receptors
•Smells
•Tastes
•Textures
PERCEPTION
 STAGES IN THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS

No consumers form perception in a single step. Rather, perception

is an outcome of a process consisting of the following parts :

A. Primitive Categorization

Here, the basic characteristics of a stimulus by the person to form

his perception plays and important role. Thus, anything
shining, may be seen with an amount of suspicion by the
consumers. This is what is known as primitive categorization.
A slight error of judgement on the part of the marketer in not
appreciating this, may lead to a marketing pitfall. For instance,
sample bottles of Sunlight, a dishwashing liquid in the US
market, were mailed to consumer. The liquid contained 10
present lemon juice. Almost 80 people were treated at poison-
centres after drinking some of the detergent. These individuals
apparently assumed that the product was actually lemon juice,
since many of the packing cues resembled
Minute Maid—a popular brand of frozen lemon juice.
 B. Cue Check

Here, the cue characteristics are analysed by the person in

preparation for the selection of a schema. In the context of
the sunlight liquid example quoted above, the cue check
stage in the perceptual process was the pairing the yellow
bottle with a prominent picture of lemon.

C. Confirmation Check

Here, once the schema is selected, a confirmation check is run

by the person to see the validity of the schema chosen. In
the context of the counting example of the Sunlight liquid
detergent, a juice schema was selected instead of a
dishwasher liquid schema. The confirmatory check was the
picture of the lemon juice as found on the leading brand of
a reveal lemon juice.
 D. Confirmation Completion

The last and the final stage is confirmation completion where a

perception is formed by the consumer or any person for that
matter and decision is made. The act of drinking the detergent
illustrates it. Unfortunately, the consumers found out their
mistake the hardway.

CUECHECK
ELEMENTS OF PERCEPTION
A.Sensation
• Vision
• Smell
• Sound
• Touch
• Taste

B. Sensory Thresholds

Absolute Threshold
Differential Threshold

C. Marketing Applications of JND

 The Absolute Threshold

When we define the lowest intensity of a stimulus that can be

registered on a sensory channel we speak of a threshold for the
receptor. The absolute threshold refers to the minimum amount of
stimulation that can be detected on a sensory channel. The sound
emitted by a dog whistle is too high to be detected by human ears,
so this stimulus is beyond our auditory absolute threshold. The
absolute threshold is an important consideration in designing
marketing stimuli. A billboard might have the most entertaining
copy ever written, but this genius is wasted if the print is too small
for passing motorists to see it from the highway.
 The Differential Threshold

The differential threshold refers to the ability of a sensory system

to detect changes or difference between two stimuli. A television
commercial that is intentionally produced in black-and-white,
might be noticed on a colour television because this decrease in
the intensity of colour differs from the program that preceded it.
The same commercial being watched on a black-and-white
television would not be seen as different and might be ignored
altogether. A consumer’s ability to detect a difference between
two stimuli is relative. A whispered conservation that might be
unintelligible on a noisy street can suddenly become public and
embarrassing knowledge in a quite library. It is the relative
difference between the decibel level of the conversation and its
surroundings, rather than the loudness of the conservation itself,
that determines whether the stimulus will register.
 The JND and Weber’s Law

The minimum changes in a stimulus that can be detected is also

known as the JND, which stands for just noticeable difference. In the
nineteenth century, a psychophysicist named Earnest Weber found
that the amount of change that is necessary to be noticed is
systematically related to the original intensity of the stimulus. The
stronger the initial stimulus, the greater the change must be for it to
be noticed. This relationship is known as Weber’s Law. Many
companies choose to update their packages periodically, making small
changes that will not necessarily be noticed at the time. When a
product icon is updated, the manufacturer does not want people to
lose their identification with a familiar symbol. On the other hand
whenever product improvements are noticed and responded to.
 IMPORTANT SELECTIVE PERCEPTION
CONCEPTS
• SELECTIVE EXPOSURE : Seek out messages that they find pleasant
or with which they are sympathetic.
• SELECTIVE ATTENTION : They have heightened awareness of
stimuli that meet their needs or interests and minimal for stimuli
irrelevant to their needs.
• PERCEPTUAL DEFENSE : They psychologically screen out stimuli
that they find psychologically threatening, even though exposure has
taken place.
• PERCEPTUAL BLOCKING : Consumers protect themselves from
being bombarded with stimuli by simply tuning out- blocking such
stimuli from conscious awareness. Zapping of TV commercials with
remote is such an example.
PERCEPTUAL ORGANISATION

•figure/ground distinction
•proximity
•similarity
•continuity
•closure
•smallness
•surroundedness
•symmetry
figure/ground
proximity

Here we are likely

to group the dots
together in rows.
Continuity
Closure
Perceptual Interpretation

Distorting Influences

•Physical Appearances
•Stereotypes
•Irrelevant Cues
•First Impressions
•Jumping to Conclusions
•Halo Effect
 CONSUMER IMAGERY
Products and brands have symbolic value for
individuals, who evaluate them on the basis of
their consistency (i.e.., congruence) with their
personal pictures of themselves. Some products
seem to agree with an individual’s self-image;
others do not. Consumers attempt to preserve or
enhance their self-images by buying products they
believe are congruent with that self-image and
avoiding products that are not.
 POSITIONING /REPOSITIONING

.
(PERCEPTUAL MAPPING)
Gentle Impact on Fabrics A’

. .
..
.
Poor Good

. ... . .
Cleansing Cleansing
Power Power

. . . B
A

Harsh Impact on Fabrics

 CONSUMER DATA

MADE IN THE U.S.A.

93 %
“GOOD HOUSEKEEPING” SEAL 84%
MADE IN GERMANY 75%
MADE IN JAPAN 69%
MADE IN KOREA 40%
 The Memory Process

RETRIEVAL
ENCODING STORAGE
Information
EXTERNAL Information is Information is
stored in memory
INPUTS placed in retained in
is found as
memory. memory
needed.
 Relationship among Memory System

SENSORY MEMORY SHORT-TERM MEMORY

LONG-TERM MEMORY
Temporary storage of Brief storage of
Relatively permanent
sensory information information currently
storage of information
Capacity : high being used
Capacity : Unlimited
Duration : less than one Capacity : limited
Duration : Long or
second (vision) or a few Duration : less than twenty
permanent
second (hearing) seconds

ELABORATION REHEARSAL
ATTENTION Information subject to
Information that passes elaborative rehearsal or
through an attentional deep processing (e.g. its
gate is transferred to meaning is considered) is
short-term memory. transferred to long term
memory.