Chapter 3

Perception
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
An Overview of the
Perception Process

Figure 2.1
 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
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.
 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)
Ad examples using color to evoke emotions
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)
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.
Sensory Perception - 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)
 Perceptions of Color

• As this Dutch
detergent ad
demonstrates
(Flowery orange
fades without Dreft),
vivid colors are
often an attractive
product feature.
VIDEO: Snapple

Snapple drinks were

revived by the Whipper
Snapple product, thanks
to consumers forming
their own perceptions
about the product.
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
Smell in Advertising

• This ad pokes fun at

the proliferation of
scented ads. Ah, the
scent of sweat.
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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).
 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
 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.
• Does subliminal perception work?
‒ There is little evidence that subliminal stimuli can bring
about desired behavioral changes.
 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.
Attention and Advertising

What will you pay attention to when

looking at these ads?
 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
 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.
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?
 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.
Schema-Based Perception

• Advertisers know that consumers will often

relate an ad to preexisting schema in order to
make sense of it.
The Priming Process
 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).
 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.
 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.
 Figure-ground Principle

• This billboard for Wrangler jeans makes creative

use of the figure-ground principle.
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
Semiotic Components

Figure 2.2
 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”
Office Space and “The Red Stapler”
 4Perceptual 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
 Perceptual Map

Figure 2.3: HMV

Perceptual Map