Sensation/Perception

Retailing/marketing/CRT 10/11/12

• What is perception?
o The process by which sensations are selected, organized, and interpreted
• What is sensation?
o The immediate response of our sensory receptors to basic stimuli
• What are sensory receptors?
o Eyes, ears, nose, mouth skin
• What are sensory stimuli?
o Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures
• Sensory Inputs:
o Sensory inputs create associations in terms of decisions, memories, and choices
o Would you buy a new sweater without touching it? Why/why not?
▪ Vision:
• We see colour, size, and shape
o Colour:
o Reaction types:
▪ Biological/physiological
• Red is stimulating, blue is relaxing
• Yellow is the brightest colour and grabs
attention
• Women see colour better than men
o Prefer brighter colours and sensitive
to subtle patterns and shades
• Older people see colours in a dull cast and
prefer white/bright tones
o Lexus makes 60% of their vehicles
in white
▪ Cultural/socially-constructed
• Pink for girls, blue for boys, white for
purity, green for environment/correct/right,
red for danger, love and passion
• Trade dress: colours associated with specific
companies
• Does vision affect how much we consume?
o Container size can influence
o Consumers eat 45% more popcorn from a large bucket
o People pour 30% extra into a glass if it is short and wide
o Small packs of candy are eaten more if multiple are
available
 Sensation/Perception
Retailing/marketing/CRT 10/11/12

o Students ate more M&Ms when given bowls with 10 (vs 7)

colours of M&Ms
▪ Smell:
• Processed by the limbic system
• We do not actively process, it is effortless
• Can lead to immediate emotions
• Smells are remembered easily because it requires no effort
o Biological Reactions
▪ Lavender = relaxing
▪ Cinnamon/coffee = arousing
▪ Foul smells = disgust
▪ Socially constructed Associations
▪ Vanilla = feminine
▪ Spice/honey = masculine
▪ Pine = floor cleaner
▪ Baking = home sweet home
▪ Hearing:
• Sound affects body tempo
• Moving faster or slower to fast or slow music
• Sound affects mood:
• Major key = happy = positive mood
• Minor key = sad = negative mood
▪ Touch:
• Touching creates attachment and increases judgment confidence
• Waiters who touch patrons receive bigger tips
• Touching an item forms a relationship with the product (30% more
likely to buy)
▪ Taste:
• People can taste 5 basic things: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and
umami
• The rest of the flavour comes from smell
• People enjoy flavours they are used to
o Attention:
▪ How much processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus (thing)
▪ We can only process 3-5 pieces of info at a time, so marketers have to
weed out the clutter
▪ Perceptual Selectivity:
• People only pay attention to a small portion of stimuli that they are
exposed to
 Sensation/Perception
Retailing/marketing/CRT 10/11/12

o Interpretation
▪ meaning that people assign to sensory stimuli
▪ Schema-consistency
• consumers interpret information in a way that is consistent with an
existing schema
▪ Interpretation varies