APPLICATION EXERCISE ON PERCEPTION – ApEx 2

GROUP COMPONENT 1
Submitted to

Professor S. Ramesh Kumar

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

On
July 19, 2006

In
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Consumer Behavior course in
Post Graduate Program in Management (PGP-II)

By

1
 PROBLEM DEFINITION
Analyze the communications in atleast three brands of shampoos from the viewpoint of
perceptual selection and perceptual organization. An existing brand, which you have
analyzed is interested in improving its perception. How would you accomplish this using
principles of perception?

LITERATURE GATHERING
Perception Theory

Perception is the process of acquiring, selecting, organizing and interpreting sensory

information or stimulus.

Information
Input

Exposure

Involvement

Attention

Memory

Comprehension

Perception Process
Figure 1 - Consumer Information Processing Model: Consumer Behaviour 5e, Mowen & Minor,
Prentice Hall

2
Perception is the first step in the Consumer Information processing model and consists of
3 stages, viz,
o Exposure: stimulus is received through the senses
o Attention: Processing capacity is allocated to the stimulus
o Comprehension: Understanding the stimulus

The consumer is bombarded with information all the time. But it is the consumer who
decides which one(s) to pay attention to. In other words, the consumer is selective in
processing the stimuli. Other than the nature of the stimulus the factors influencing the
selectivity are the consumers’ previous experience and motives with respect to the
stimulus.1
This gives rise to 4 concepts in perceptual selection, viz,
o Selective Exposure where the consumer chooses whether or not to expose him/her
to the information being communicated
o Selective Attention where the consumer chooses to pay attention to some bits of
communication and not pay attention to some.
This is a major challenge to marketers and it is imperative that an advertisement
is designed in a way to circumvent the selective attention shield a consumer has.
Only than will a brand be able to register its presence in consumers mind
o Selective Defense where after being exposed to psychologically threatening
signals, the consumer chooses not to process the stimulus further. Research shows
that affective variables have a definite effect on perception beyond the
recognition stage. Thus, emotionally charged stimuli need a larger response time
due to perceptual defense mechanism kicking in. There seems to be an
unconscious mechanism to discriminate against distressing or emotionally painful
stimuli2
o Selective Blocking where the consumer decides to block the barrage of stimuli

1
Consumer Behaviour 8th Edition, Schiffman and Kanuk, Prentice Hall India
2
Justin M.Aronfreed, Samuel A.Messick, James C.Diggory, “Re-examining Emotionality and Perceptual
Defense”, University of Pennsylvania

3
Subliminal Perception involves stimuli below the level of consciousness, but which
nevertheless influence the consumers’ behavior. A related concept is that of Just
Noticeable Difference (JND) according to which a change is stimulus is perceived only
when is exceeds a minimum threshold. This is a ratio given by Weber’s Law:
JND = K x (Δ I / I), where I is the level of stimulation and K is the constant for each kind
of stimulus.
Adaptation level is the level of stimulus with which the consumer has become
accustomed. At this level according to the discrepancy hypothesis3 illustrated by the
Butterfly curve4, the consumers’ liking for the stimulus dips with respect to the stimulus
levels just before and after the adaptation levels. This is explained by the fact that a small
change in the stimulus will add a novelty factor and thus arouse the consumers’ interest.
But once the consumer is used to the change the interest dips. But, a radical change will
not increase the interest levels as this is perceived a totally different stimulus.

Figure 2 - Butterfly Curve

3
Haber, Ralph Norman (1958), "Discrepancy from Adaptation Level as a Source of Affect," Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 56(4), 370-375.
Hansen, Flemming (1972), Consumer Choice Behavior: A Cognitive Theory, New York: The Free Press.
4
Pimentel and Heckler, “Changes is logo Design: chasing the elusive Butterfly curve”

4
Perceptual Organization
Perceptual organization deals with how consumers organize information that is gleaned
from the stimuli into groups and process them further. The principles involved are
refereed to as Gestalt psychology. They are:
1. Figure and Ground
The images are processed by the human brain by segregating in to figure and
ground. In the following figure, the coloured shapes are the figure and the
uncoloured area is the ground.

Figure 3 - Figure & Ground: Nava Rubin, 'Figure and Ground in the Brain', 2001, Nature
Publishing Group

This is a classic case showing how the shapes of the ground are not perceived by
the human brain. Though both the shapes in ‘b’ are present originally, only the
top one is easily associated.
This has implication in marketing communication as well. The marketer would
like to ensure the message being communicated in the figure so that it is
perceived the best.
2. Grouping/similarity
The human brain tends to clump together stimuli in order to process them in
chunks. This has implications where the marketer is trying to associate the
product with a certain feeling or situation.

5
 In the figure above the human mind perceives a line of ‘O’ running diagonally
across. Things that are close together are thought to be belonging to one another.
Here, the string of ‘O’ is construed to belong to the same line. Also, the ‘X’ are
thought to be in horizontal rows because we group is so.
3. Closure
This law of Gestalt psychology deals with incomplete stimulus. Even if the
stimulus in incomplete, we tend to complete it.

In this example, though the triangle is not drawn out completely, the broken
stimulus is enough to mentally draw the complete triangle.

These principles find applications in visual communication and packaging. The

fundamental tenet of Gestalt psychology is that there is a cognitive drive to obtain a good
gestalt configuration (Pragnanz), i.e., one that is simple, familiar, regular, meaningful,
consistent and complete.

6
Feature-binding5
Regardless of how an object is decomposed into properties and components, the
decomposed features themselves are unlikely to be sufficient for achieving object
recognition. Given that separate features from different dimensions are initially extracted,
and yet we do not normally perceive isolated features such as brightness, colors, and
orientations free from an object, there must be a further process that binds them together
and as a result gives an integrated percept of object. The problem of feature binding
presents a central problem in current vision research. Questions such as “How are
separable features, having been teased apart in the primary analysis of an image, put back
together to make coherent objects?”

Perceptual organization and feature binding are essentially contrary concepts, going in
opposite directions. The concept of perceptual organization, which was synonymous with
Gestalt psychology, is rooted in the general theory of early holistic registration (global to
local processing). In contrast, the problem of feature binding essentially comes from the
assumption of early feature-analysis: Features are supposed to be analyzed at early stages
of visual processing; it is, therefore, logically necessary that such features be, in one way
or another, bound together later in order to achieve holistic object recognition.

The real features of an object, whatever geometrical or physical properties they are, exist
together as a coherent whole of a physical entity in the outside world. The relations
between real objects and their corresponding perceptual objects may not be simple or
direct. Real features of a real object, at a given time, originally coexist together rather
than being separated. A real object is an integral stimulus, a single thing. This truth is a
fundamental property of a real-world object. There is not any doubt of accepting the
direct perception of various featural properties such as brightness, colour, line-
orientation, and so on.

5
Lin Chen, Perceptual organization: To reverse back the inverted (upside-down) question of feature
binding, Journal of Visual Cognition, 2001

7
Perceptual Selection under high perceptual load6
Goal-directed behavior requires focusing attention on goal-relevant stimuli while
ignoring irrelevant distractors. Lavie, Hirst, Fockert and Viding (2004) proposed a load
theory of attention that proposes two mechanisms of selective attention. The first is a
perceptual selection mechanism that allows for excluding irrelevant distractor stimuli
from perception under situations of high perceptual load. This is a passive mechanism,
whereby irrelevant distractor interference is prevented simply because the distractors are
not perceived when there is insufficient capacity for their processing. Hence increasing
perceptual load is expected to reduce distractor interference.

Schema and Script

The concept of schema and script are increasingly finding use in understanding
perception. A schema is the set or collection of expectations which help in creating a
structure that will help in comprehending new information. The definition of schema as
given by Neissar (page 429, book) is a scheme is that portion of the entire perceptual
cycle which is internal to the perceiver, modifiable by experience and somewhat specific
to what is being perceived. The schema accepts information as it becomes available at
sensory surfaces and is changed by that information; it directs movements and
exploratory activities that make more information available, by which it is further
modified.

As can be seen it is a two stage repetitive process. Schema is a way of putting stimuli as
and when observed in order and also scouting for more information continuously and
again putting that in order and so on. A Schema is general in nature and includes what we
expect to see from an event.

A script is set of consequences or actions which are associated with a particular situation.
They include specific information as expectations about people, their roles, locations and
situations etc. In general think of a situation and whatever set of sequences of possible
events, small responses, people etc that come to one’s mind are part of the scripts.
6
Lavie, Hirst, Fockert and Viding, Load Theory of Selective Attention and Cognitive Control, Journal of
Experimental Psychology, Vol. 133, 2004

8
Scripts are useful in understanding the usage behavior of consumers.

Consumer

Perceived Need

Active Advertising
Experience

Positive
Perception,
Fits Need

Purchase

Consumer Perception Theory

Consumer Perception Theory

Consumer perception theory is a process flow explaining the consumers purchasing
behavior. It starts with a perceived need felt by the consumer and finishes with actual
purchase of product.
Step 1: Perceived Need: A purchase decision is initiated when a consumer feels the need
for a product or service. Therefore the first step in consumer perception theory is a
perceived need felt by the consumer.

9
Step 2: Active Advertising Experience: Once a need is felt by the consumer the second
stage is his/her coming in contact with the advertisement from a relevant product i.e the
one which satisfies consumers need. The timing of this exposure is very important. Since
the consumer has realized the need for a particular product, he/she is that much more
attentive when he/she sees an advertisement of a relevant product. This exposure is
accompanied by the consumer actively observing the advertisement. This is called Active
advertising experience.
Step 3: Positive Perception, Fits Need: Once active exposure to the advertisement has
happened, the consumer who already has perceived a need for a particular offering, tries
to evaluate the Advertisement. The evaluation is done to check whether this product fits
the bill for consumers need. Thus a consumer assigns either positive or negative value to
the product. If the consumer assigns positive value to the product, he/she moves to next
step in CPT model.
Step 4: Purchase- Although even after getting a positive value for the product, actual
purchase may or may not happen but most of these factors are external to an advertise
and therefore cannot be controlled. The purpose of the advertise was to leave the
consumer with a strong desire to purchase the product which has been fulfilled.

10
 ISSUES IDENTIFIED

Shampoo brands in India are many in number and all are fighting for the same
advertisement space in television and print media. There is a high degree of clutter and
heave perceptual load due to which the tendency to perceive selectively happens a lot.
More so because shampoo as such is a low involvement category and hence consumers
won’t actively seek information in advertisements.

Here, the brands being analyzed are Sunsilk, Clinic Plus and Pantene.

Sunsilk
One of HLL’s most popular brands, Sunsilk has offered a large number of variants in
shampoo for different types of hair in different fragrances and colors. There is certainly a
Sunsilk variant for each type of hair problem.

One way that Sunsilk has create contrast is by the use of non-traditional media. Sunsilk
has used FM radio shows in the metro, the growing Internet community, sponsored
events like Femina Miss India, to boost brand saliency and imagery.

The brand has been continuously evolving and changing with time from being a plain
hair beauty brand to a customized haircare brand. It has used many prominent brand
ambassadors to further stand out amidst the clutter. It achieved this with the Sunsilk
panel of experts who do not merely endorse the brand but also interact with consumers
and help them seek solutions to their problems. Sunsilk as a brand recognizes and
respects the fact that every woman has unique hair needs and problems.

Sunsilk communication has been consistent with its values. It demonstrates an

understanding of women and their concerns of hair care. The communication has been to
capture the emotional drama in a girl’s life that results out of a particular hair problem.

11
Some ads and their communication

The above ad circumvents the sensory adaptation and selective attention by using the
metaphor of pearl string for strength of hair. It is a good example of use of an
unconventional idea, hence a contrast. Here, the figure is the pearls in the hair which
immediately grabs attention and makes the viewer process the same before he
understands the implication of the message.

12
The above ad is again a very good way of using a metaphor to communicate. The
bounce in the hair is aptly conveyed by the people bouncing on the rubber platform.
The contrast immediately catches the eye as to what two people are doing in the
woman’s hair.

The above ad attracts attention by its decreased sensory input. There is no

background and the punchline is highly visible and not drowned by the shampoo
bottle or models. The line could actually lead to a closure effect with people wanting
to complete the sentence with the use of Sunsilk for curly hair. The text is obviously
the figure and the shampoo is the ground.

13
This is again an ad which is slightly more suggestive and tongue-in-cheek than the
others, but here also the figure is the shirt and the ground is the shampoo brand. Here
again, very little content and hence strong contrast is depicted.

14
Clinic Plus
Clinic Plus was msotly promoted as a family, health shampoo. Most of the ads involved
the family or the mother-daughter pair in the ad, acknowledging the benefits of healthy
hair attributed to it.

The above ad uses strong imagery in terms of the blue color that Clinic Plus is associated
with. The presence of blue bottle, blue background and blue combs indicate a signal to
the viewer to tie the association between the color blue and Clinic Plus.

On the other hand, the ad below is direct and impactful. It does not use any models or
celebrites to convey the brand message, just a mother-daughter relationship talking about
beautiful hair. There is less possibility of source derogation coming from endorsers like
this. The ad says by using Clinic Plus you can give your child the confidence and make
yourself proud. This is in effect wooing the housewife by saying that a using clinic plus
gives the child confidence and bodes well for children’s performance.

The buyer is typically a middle class house-wife who is concerned about the well being
of her children. Therefore she is on constant look out for giving her children means to
perform better. This is a possible example of catering to selective exposure.

15
16
 The above ad creates value and a greater customer maket since it offers them the
sachet. It is eye-cathcing owing to the new style of packaging, i.e. the shampoo in a
sachet.

The above ad appears like it is a supplement to some magazine wherein as part of the
sales promotion something is offered behind the sheet which asks the viewer to check it
out. Again a strong conveyance of the blue color.
The questioning stimulus of the advertisement is a contrasting way of communicating the
value offered by this offering. The effect is highlighted by the bottle in the center shown
with a bright corona outside it, mystifying the content of the bottle.

17
Clinic Plus Advertisement Four: More Health for your Hair

The advertisement again presents a contrast with the upside down hung children and both
of them looking alike. Also the statement beneath “More More health health for for your
your hair hair” uses repetitive words to drive home the point that the bottle gives you
twice as much as you expect.The two ‘twins’ hanging upside down with flowing hairs
and the message that is beneath is the figure trying to convey that there is double value in
the offering. This gives a message that this offer will give them twice as much as what
they usually get.

18
Pantene

This is a very contrasting ad by its subtleness which stands out with the absolute lack
of text or other frills. The single picture is enough to communicate the message and is
low on perceptual load. The advertisement shows only a strand of hair and a bottle of
pantene hanging from it with a small headline stating, ‘The power of healthy hair’.
The absolute white background looks like it is not a picture but actually a bottle of
Pantene is hung with a thread. The advertisement is very silent on communication in
words except for the small line which can be easily missed. The advertisement
captures attention and then leaves the viewer to figure it out that Pantene makes the
hair grow so strong.

This Advertisement also tries to circumvent the tendency by a customer to pay

attention to only selective stimuli in an advertisement. Usually a customer picks up
what he wants to see from an assortment of stimuli from an advertisement. But in this
advertisement the only thing which is being presented as stimuli is the concept of
strength in hairs due to Pantene. The viewer because he is presented with fewer
stimuli to concentrate on pays attention to the concept the advertiser wants to bring.

19
The advertisement is contrasting in more ways than one. First choice of models is male
sadhu. The one third from right has clean flowing hairs while the rest of them sport
unkempt and messy hairs. The background around the four of them is white and allows
viewers to look at the models with full attention.

The figure is the four male sadhus and only one having clean and flowing hairs, which
show that Pantene can bring your hair alive. The small headline on the right bottom
corner is what is being actually conveyed. But even though the advertisement manages to
seek attention whether it will have the desired effect of putting across the message that
with only one Pantene wash you can get flowing, alive hairs is questionable and would
require more research into it. This advertisement could be a possible case of ground
replacing figure as the most visible part of advertisement

20
This is again an ad where the message is strongly conveyed by the metaphor and figure
and ground. If we look against the background, this seems like a muscular arm raise,
however on looking at the black outline, it is perceived to be hair shaped accordingly. So
the ad itself has used a direct figure and ground image. Amidst this, the Pantene bottle is
small and obscure since the idea has anyways been conveyed.

21
 STRATEGIC ORIENTATION
Having analyzed the three shampoo brands, one can try and find a pattern in the
communication they portray.
• The advertisements from Sunsilk are refreshing and youthful. They represent energy
and fun, the desire to live life happily.
• The advertisements from clinic plus are simple and consistently portray an image of a
family shampoo, to be used by everyone. It concentrates on family values like
mother-daughter, a complete family in harmony etc.
• Pantene projects in its advertisement a challenging, Tongue in cheek humor that
addresses the concerns of ‘aspiring’ India in a hearty manner.
After having viewed all three brands and keeping the target consumer in mind, we
take Clinic Plus as the brand whose brand association is to be improved upon.

Clinic Plus is targeted at the family and not any specific type of individual. Its customers
are price-conscious buyers and therefore the primary communication in their
advertisement revolved around promotions. This is understandable given the target
consumers profile and usual buying behavior. But the communication is becoming very
monotonous. After the ‘Jhalke, Damke Damke’ series of advertisements from clinic plus
there has been no other ad campaign which has come out to substantially capture the
imagination with the same success.

The future communication can employ certain suggestions:

1. Clinic Plus is the largest selling shampoo in the country across all categories.
Probably a campaign to take advantage of this can be undertaken. Use its top position
in shampoo market as a ‘halo’ effect; say ‘Largest selling shampoo’ or ‘Most number
of satisfied user’ to gain more acceptance.

2. Increase the portrayal of ‘happy families’ in campaigns and satisfy the ‘Selective
Exposure’ the consumer in the target category seeks. The assumption here being that
the typical clinic plus consumer is from the price conscious range but also is the one

22
 which is most possible to make transition to upper middle class and comparatively
happier days with respect to increasing financial security and consecutively a ‘better
life’. The consumer is on constant look out for such information of closely knit and
happier families.

3. Clinic Plus brings to the mind an image of the blue clinic plus bottle immediately.
While recently changes have been brought to the shape and color of the bottle, we
suggest the brand should make an effect to develop a binding association with blue
color. This will help cement the brand association and brand recall of clinic plus.

4. Also association with blue color bottle has another advantage. Color blue is
associated with Icy cold and cool comfort from heat. Clinic plus can benefit from this
understanding and association of color blue to cold and comfort on one hand and
Clinic plus on another by bringing the two thoughts together. This will help increase
the perception of Clinic plus as a cool and comforting shampoo. Of course the
product will have back this feeling with additional attributes to the product offering
so that the promise is delivered.

5. Increase use of humor content in ads to make them standout as against conventional
message of health and strength of hair, not using humor much and more of
informative ads. Could border on perceptual overload among all other shampoo brand
ads.

23
 REFERENCES

1. Schiffman and Kanuk, Perception, Consumer Behaviour, 8th Edition, , Prentice

Hall India
2. Justin M. Aronfreed, Samuel A.Messick, James C.Diggory, “Re-examining
Emotionality and Perceptual Defense”, University of Pennsylvania
3. Haber, Ralph Norman, "Discrepancy from Adaptation Level as a Source of
Affect," Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56(4), 370-375. (1958)
4. Hansen, Flemming, Consumer Choice Behavior: A Cognitive Theory, New York:
The Free Press. (1972)
5. Pimentel and Heckler, “Changes is logo Design: chasing the elusive Butterfly
curve”
6. Nava Rubin, 'Figure and Ground in the Brain', 2001, Nature Publishing Group,
2001
7. Company websites of respective shampoo brands
8. Euromonitor Country Report for India-July 2005, “Cosmetics and Toiletries”
Available on 19-07-2006 on http://www.gmid.euromonitor.com
9. Advertisements were collected from MAGIndia Website, Available on 19-07-
2006 on www.magindia.com
10. www.Hindubusinessline.com

24