1st Answer:

Introduction: Perception in advertising refers to a consumer's impression of a

particular product or service. It is the process through which a potential consumer or
an individual recognizes and interprets sensory stimuli. In the advertising context, the
stimuli could involve brand names, advertisements, sounds and packaging colour,
size, design, etc.

Intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli:

Different physical aspects of a product such as size, packaging design and colour,
brand name, contents and physical properties of the product, product design and
colour are all intrinsic stimuli and affect a consumers’ perception. Unique images,
celebrity endorsers, shapes, sounds and colours grab consumer’s attention.

However, marketing communications, such as advertisement, claims, endorser,

advertisement humour, position of ad, or time of commercials created to influence
consumer behaviour are secondary or extrinsic stimuli.

Absolute threshold and Sensory adaptation

Sensation is the immediate and direct response of sense organs to simple stimuli
such as an advertisement, a brand name or a package, etc. For instance, a person
would be exposed to a commercial (stimulus) shown in the theatre if she/he were
inside a theatre, even if he/she paid no attention to it. Threshold establishes or sets
forth the minimum level for any event to take place.

The following are the different types of sensory thresholds

Recognition Threshold: It refers to the minimum level or limit of threshold within

which a stimulus may be detected as well as recognized.

Differential Threshold: It refers to that level of threshold in which the difference

detected in a stimulus is easily recognized or perceived.

The Terminal Threshold: The threshold limit beyond which a stimulus may no
longer be recognized or perceivable.

Absolute Threshold: It is described as the lowest intensity at which a stimulus can

be recognized or detected. Absolute threshold is a lowest level at which a potential
customer experiences a sensation through a stimuli. Sensory receptors are human
sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin) involved in receiving sensory
inputs. At absolute threshold, an individual can notice a difference between
“something” and “nothing” and this would be that individual’s absolute threshold point
for that stimulus.

One such instance that explains the absolute threshold can be an odour test.
In this test, a fragrance is released into the atmosphere. The absolute threshold in
this case will be the least possible fragrance which will be enough for the person to
recognize the odour.
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Sensory adaptation: Sensory adaptation takes place when the sensory receptors
are no longer being able to perceive the stimulus because of the continuous contact
of our senses with the stimulus. It refers to getting used to certain sensations after a
while.

For instance, if you dip your finger in a bowl full of warm water, after sometime you
will not feel the warmth of the water as your senses adapt with the stimulus (warm
water). Adaptation refers to how a person gradually adjusts to stimuli or environment
when exposed to it for some time. Consumers adapt to advertising messages when
exposed to those messages/commercials over a period of time. This may be due to
boredom or familiarity with a similar advertisement. Sensory adaptation is concerned
with many corporations, and therefore, they try to change their advertising
campaigns regularly.

Following are the marketing ways to overcome the challenge of sensory

adaptation

(1) Experiential Marketing
Experiential marketing refers to a marketing strategy that directly engages the
consumers and creatively interacts with them in a memorable way. It is also known
as engagement marketing, live marketing or participation marketing. It can also use
the genuine scenarios generated by common people, regular users of the brand,
celebrities, athletes, etc. Experiential marketing sets your brand apart. It’s a break
from the ordinary, and people pay attention to that which is different. All brands
engages in digital marketing, but most of them don’t do any experiential marketing at
all. Position your brand as creative, edgy and different from others brands by
including experiential marketing in your marketing strategy.

Example: Smirnoff Theme-based party

Smirnoff came up with the concept of a comic book-themed industry party, and
invited guests to an entire different world as the venue was decorated with full-sized
graphic comic illustrations consistent with the overarching story. All brand
ambassadors were dressed as characters from the illustrations, thus maintaining the
fantasy throughout the night. The party theme stayed consistent and all attendees
were immersed in a comic-book universe. Through a red color scheme and even the
bartenders dress like fictional characters, Smirnoff created a memorable experience
that really showed off their creativity as well as their brand.
(2) Ambush Advertising:

This is an advertising/marketing strategy where an advertiser “ambushes” (tricks or

shelters its own brand) an event to compete for exposure.

Ambush marketing capitalizes on the prominence of a major event through

marketing campaigns that associate an advertiser with it, without actually having
paying sponsorship fees to the brand or organizer actually conducting the event.

For instance, In Canada, Montreal, Apple put up a billboard promoting the iPod
nano, and the color of the iPod would drip down at the bottom. Home improvement
chain Rona saw this as an opportunity and pulled off one of the greatest ambush
advertising stunts. They put up a banner right below Apple’s billboard which made it
looked like the paint was falling into buckets. The text on their banner read “We
recycle leftover paint.”

Conclusion: Hence, we can conclude that corporations realize that conventional

marketing techniques are no longer effective. Through constant feedback and
engaging customers into generating content, companies are executing unusual and
innovative strategies which also help to gain constant feedback and regular insights
from customers on social media. Also, the use of social media to execute the
campaign or to showcase the live events conducted as a part of advertising
campaign is very beneficial for the brand to enhance positive consumer perception
all over the world. Also, the innovative feature of a brand going live on social media
sites such as Facebook and Instagram makes customers remember the brand more.
2nd Answer
Introduction:

Introduction: Studying consumer behaviour enables to identify the unfulfilled needs

and wants of consumers. This requires the companies to study the consumption
trends and conditions operating in the marketplace, consumers’ lifestyles, income
level and emerging influences. Reviewing market opportunities helps the
corporations to identify and group customers into segments with common
variables/characteristics.

This enables the marketers to customize and provide products or services as per
his/her wants/needs/variables (age, gender, frequency of purchase)

Therefore, consumer behaviour refers to studying, formulating and adapting the

marketing strategies from time-to-time based on how consumers purchase a
product.
One of the main reasons a business for a particular product/service comes into
existence is because of unfulfilled or partially fulfilled needs of consumers.
For instance, the difficulties in communicating with a person in a different location
gave existence to mobile phones. The problems faced in hailing and waiting for cabs
introduced companies like Ola and Uber where you can book the cabs online and
leave your house only when the cab is arrived. This solves a lot of problems a
waiting in the hot sun makes you sweat and the clothes wet and this is not
considered a good sign after reaching for a client presentation. .

Our consumption related behaviour influences growth in technology development

and introduction of new and improved products and services and processes.

Compulsive Consumption Behavior- In compulsive consumption behavior the

individual buys something out of compulsion even though he or she might not need
it. A perfect example of compulsive consumption behavior is a person who loves to
gamble and shop for things he/she don’t need. An instance of compulsive
consumption is of a person who walks into the mall just to look at shoes for and ends
up spending money on some expensive clothes. They compulsively believe that they
made the right purchases and that the money was well spent.

There are some common characteristics of Compulsive consumption behavior

Impulse purchase:  Compulsive buyers often make purchase decisions impulsively,
and they are often seen concealing their shopping habits. Spending without thinking
whether they actually need the product often results in many unopened items (boxes
of shoes or clothes) in their closets as they continue the habit of compulsive buying.
Compulsive buyers may turn into hoarders later in life after their products
accumulate with time.

Buyers high: Compulsive shoppers experience a sense of excitement while buying.

The excitement is not out of owning something but simply from the act of buying it
when they see a desirable item. And this excitement becomes addictive with time.
Dampen unpleasant emotions:  Compulsive buying is an effort to fill an emotional
void such as loneliness, lack of control, or lack of self-esteem. On many occasions, a
negative mood, an argument or frustration triggers an urge to shop.

Compulsive buyers are an important target market for brands, as their buying
behavior is such that if they enter a store or a mall, they would not step out without
buying anything. Hence, marketers have a higher possibility of establishing brand
trial among these compulsive buyers. Brand Loyalty can be built among compulsive
buyers by designing loyalty programs to cater to this group of buyers

2. Fixated Consumption Behavior- This refers to a consumption behavior of a

person who can to great length or to a great extent in order to buy a particular
product or enjoy a particular service. A good instance of a person with fixated
consumption behavior of this is an adamant coin/stamp collector. A coin collector
spends hours and in some cases even days looking at old foreign coins, doing
research and buying them on different locations, sometimes even spending more
money just to collect the coins or stamps. A person with a fixated consumption
behavior is an enthusiast who will make it a point to collect these things at any cost.

People may collect anything for instance, matchbooks from hotels and restaurants
they visited around different countries, to glass paperweights that cost thousands of
rupees, vintage motorcycles and cars, art, and century-old wines. If we analyse this,
we can say that he is a fixated consumer.

Access to internet and various online shopping sites has made the compulsive
shopping behavior even more widespread. These shoppers require psychological
intervention in order to eliminate severe compulsive shopping habits. Also, easy
availability of credit cards and cash in hand of college students or teenagers may
contribute to developing compulsive consumption behavior. Marketers must ensure
that their promotional messages do not encourage irresponsible buying.

Conclusion: In the above scenario, Pooja is a stationary-lover enthusiast. She

loves to collect antique fountain pens, post-it notes in rare shapes, state-of-the-art
mechanical pencils, limited edition books, etc. She may have an extensive collection
of stationary which makes it clear that this is definitely a situation of fixated
consumption as she is someone with a passion for collecting stationery and various
antic-stuff.
3rd Answer
(3a) Introduction: The entire process through which consumers go in order to learn
about products and services is of great significance to marketers. Since, companies,
through advertisements, provide knowledge to consumers about the different product
attributes and benefits of using their products, safety instructions to follow while
using their products, where to shop their products, how to maintain the life of the
product (for instance, while folding a laptop charger, customers should fold the cord
in the shape of ‘’eight number’’ which helps to increase the life of the adapter. This is
illustrated in the instruction manual that comes along with the laptop.

The purpose of advertisers is to ensure that consumers notice, earn faith, remember
and recall their communications, products, and most importantly the benefits of using
their products displayed through celebrities in commercials.

Marketing strategies are formulated on the basis of interactions with potential

customers directly though advertisements or indirectly through product appearance,
packaging, price, social media and other distribution channels.

The following are the main components which are fundamental to the
consumer learning process:

Motivation: When a consumer faces a need/want situation, he acts in order to

fulfil/satisfy his need/want through the decision making process. Here, he is
motivated to search for information either internally using his past knowledge and
memory or through external sources like commercial, non-commercial and public or
through his/her own past experience or of others who used that product or service.
The desire or need to search for knowledge and information about the
product/service intensifies as the consumers get more involved in the buying
process. Here, the marketer/advertiser plays a crucial role by (i) helping the
consumer to identify the sub-conscious and hidden motives; For example, displaying
advertisements for summer products just before summer season or for winter clothes
before winters act as a motivation to buy various summer products.

(b) Cues: A cue is a weak stimulus or a clue that gives direction to the motives; All
the 4Ps act as cues and give direction to motives; e.g.; the packaging of the product
(reusable containers, colorful design; easy to carry), place (store display, store
layout, window dressing, ambience, place of related products), price (discounts,
sales, redemption of loyalty program points) and promotion (advertisement,
magazines, social media campaigns). For instance, you are home after 9 hours job,
you are tired, at that very moment you watch an ad of a energy drink on the T.V
which makes you realize you need that drink to boost your energy and feel fresh. So
that advertisement acted as cue, which motivated you to fulfill your salient need.
However, this will happen only if the consumer has the motive to satisfy his/her
thirst. Thus, marketers have to be very careful while providing cues, especially to
consumers who have expectations driven by motives.
(c) Response: It implies how a consumer reacts to the motives or even cues. The
response can be shown or hidden and in both cases learning will take place. It may
be overt and lead to a buying action; the consumer may purchase the product/brand.
However, in some cases, the response may just be learning for the future, i.e. the
consumer may postpone the purchase for future; he decides to buy at a later date. A
favourable brand image may get created in the mind of the consumer and he/she
develops an intention to buy; as and when the consumer decides to make the
purchase, he would consider that brand.
(d) Reinforcement – If the action (behavior) is followed or rewarded by a positive or
a pleasant reaction, the action (behavior) gets positively reinforced; the likelihood of
repetition of that action willingly (behavior) increases. The same holds true vice
versa.
Positive Reinforcement: Positive outcomes that strengthen the likelihood of a
specific response. For instance, an advertisement that displays beautiful hair
attracts consumers to buy shampoo. When the consumer buys the shampoo and is
satisfied as he/she gets beautiful hair, the consumer will buy the same brand. This is
a case of positive reinforcement.
Negative Reinforcement: Unpleasant or negative outcomes that serve to
encourage a specific, in most cases, a resistant behavior. For instance an
advertisement showing wrinkled skin as reinforcement to buy skin cream. When a
consumer buys the product and it results in less satisfaction or skin problems, the
individual will try to avoid buying the same brand again. This is called negative
reinforcement or resistant/reluctant behavior.

(3b)
Introduction: Consumers are likely to be more involved while purchasing a gift than
purchasing the same item for personal consumption.

The following are the different types of gifting behaviour

1. Intergroup gifting behaviour: This is the first kind of gifting behaviour very
common in India. Intergroup gifting refers to gifts given by one group to another
group. For instance, when a person attends any a baby shower, he/she represents
the entire family. Here, the gifts would include the products that can be used by both
mother and the child for a new beginning rather than a gift that would be used only
by the bride or groom.

2. Inter-category gifting behaviour: This happens when an individual gifts

something to a group. The gift selection strategies “buy for joint recipients” or “buy
with someone” are useful when it comes to a difficult recipient situation (when
“nothing seems to satisfy her”). Such strategies are applied to reduce time pressures
associated with shopping for the number of gifts exchanged during the American
Christmas-season gift-giving ritual. For example, when we as students gifted our
teachers and principals on the occasion of Teachers day, it is referred as inter-
category gifting behavior.

3. Intragroup gifting behaviour: A different kind of gifting behaviour is intragroup-

gifting where we usually gift ourselves and indulge in self-love as termed in millennial
language. For example, a group of cousins realize that they are always working or
studying and hence they all decided to go for a vacation in Australia. This is known
as Intragroup gifting behavior.

Conclusion: Hence, we can conclude that the consumer buying process is

influenced by many factors which are grouped as motivation, cues, response and
reinforcement. Also, the advertisers must ensure that the marketing strategies are
formulated to drive motivation through various cues such, as place, packaging
design, color, size that act as a cue in order to gain response from customers and
the brand should communicate and provide all the benefits of the product in order to
encourage reinforcement.