MKTG WEEK 5:
CONSUMER PERCEPTION
Process of Perception:
 Exposure
 occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of
someone’s sensory receptors sight, smell or touch.
 Attention
 refers to the extent to which processing activity is
devoted to a particular stimulus.
 Interpretation
 refers to the meaning that we assign to sensory stimuli.
PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
 Our brains tend to relate incoming sensations to others
already in memory.
 Refers to the way information is received by our senses and
interpreted to make meaningful.
 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY: A school of thought that
maintains that people interpret meaning from the totality
of a set of stimuli rather than from any individual
stimulus.
 GESTALT PERSPECTIVE: Provides several
principles relating to the way our brains organize stimuli.
 CLOSURE PRINCIPLE: People tend to perceive an
incomplete picture as complete.
 PRINCIPLE OF SIMILARITY: Consumers tend to
group together objects that share similar and physical
characteristics.
 FIGURE-GROUND PRINCIPLE: One part of a
stimulus will dominate (the figure), and other parts
recede into the background (the ground).
SENSORY SYSTEM
 Is responsible for detecting and processing sensory
information from the environment and converting it into
electrical signals that can be interpreted by the brain.
 SENSATION: A physical feeling or perception resulting
from something that happens to or comes into a contact with
the body.
5 SENSORY SYSTEM
 SIGHT: Communicate meanings on the visual channel
through a product’s color, size, and styling.
 HEARING: Linked to emotions and feelings and the sense
impacts brand experiences and interpretations
 TOUCH: Sensation that reach the skin.
 TASTE: Our taste receptors obviously contribute to our
experience of many products.
 SMELL: Smell, good or bad (i.e. aroma or odor), can stir up
emotions or create a calming effect.
PERCEPTUAL DISTORTION
 People can form different perceptions of the same stimulus
due to three perceptual processes notably selective attention,
selective distortion, and selective retention.
3 STAGES OF PERCEPTION PROCESS
 Selective Attention: the tendency of people to screen out
most of the information to which they are exposed.
 Selective Distortion: the lack of correspondence between the
way a stimulus is commonly perceived and the way an
individual perceives under the given conditions or
circumstances.
 Selective Retention: consumers are likely to remember good
points made about competing brands.
HALO EFFECT
 It was first identified in 91920 by American psychologist,
Edward Thorndike. The concept describes how an overall
impression shapes specific judgements
 A type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a
person influences how we feel and think about their character.
CONCEPTUAL UNDERLYING PERCEPTION
 Sensory Threshold
 Weber’s Law
 Subliminal Perception
Sensory Threshold
 The lowest intensity of a stimulus that can be registered on a
sensory channel (whether sight or sound)
 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.
WEBER’S LAW
 Ernst Weber, a nineteenth century psychophysicist, found that
the amount of change required for the perceiver to notice a
change is systematically related to the intensity of the original
stimulus.
 Consumers practice a form of “psychic economy”, picking
and choosing among stimuli to avoid being overwhelmed.
SUBLIMINAL PERCEPTION
 Refers to the ability to perceive a stimulus that is below the
level of conscious awareness. The concept holds that a brief
exposure of a massage would cause people to experience a
sudden mysterious desire to act.
FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION
 DURATION: Stimuli that require relatively lengthly
exposure in order to be processed habituate.
 RELEVANCE: Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant
tend to habituate because they fail to attract attention.
 INTENSITY: Less-intense stimuli (e.g., soft sounds or dim
colors) habituate because they have less sensory impact.
 EXPOSURE: Frequently encountered stimuli habituate as the
rate of exposure increases.
 DISCRIMINATION: Simple stimuli habituate because they
do not require attention to detail.
 NOVELTY: Stimuli that appear in unexpected ways or
places tend to grab our attention.
 POSITION: We stand a better chance of noticing stimuli that
are in places we are more likely to look.
 COLOR: It is a powerful way to draw attention to a product
or to give it a distinct identity.
CONSUMER IMAGE AND MARKETING PERCEPTION
 SEMIOTIC: The study of the correspondence between signs
and symbols and their roles in how we assign meanings.
 ICON: A sign that resembles the product in some way.
 INDEX: A sign is connected to a product because they
share some property.
 SYMBOL: A sign that relates to a product by either
conventional or agreed-on associations
 PERCEPTUAL MAPPING & PRODUCT
POSITIONING: Our perception of a brand comprises both
its functional attributes (e.g., its features, price, etc.) and its
symbolic attributes (its image ad what we think it says about
us when we use it).
 Perceptual Map: A vivid way to paint a picture of
where products or brands are “located” in consumer’s
minds.
 BRAND:
 Brand Identity: Language tone, Aesthetic style, Logo,
Tagline
 Brand Image: Emotion, Reputation, Impression, Belief
PERCEPTION OF RISK
 Many marketers view their products or services as bundles of
attributes, consumers tend to think about them in terms of
consequences.
FUNCTIONAL RISK
 Concrete outcomes of product or services usage that are
tangible and directly experienced by consumers.
PSYCHOSOCIAL RISK
 Abstract outcomes that are intangible nature and therefore
more subjective.
FIVE BASIC KINDS OF RISKS
 Monetary or Financial risk: This is mostly related to money
and property. Those with relatively little income and wealth
are most vulnerable.
 Functional risk: Relates to alternative means of performing
the function or meeting the need. Practical consumers are the
most sensitive.
 Social risk: It is closely libked to self-esteem and confidence.
Those who are insecure and uncertain are most sensitive.
 Psychological risk: It is similar to social risk, but consists of
affiliations and status. Those lacking respect or attractiveness
to peer are most sensitive.
 Physical risk: This is concerned with the aspect of physical
vigour, health, and vitality.
WEEK 6: CONSUMER LEARNING
CONSUMER LEARNING
 It is the process by which individuals acquire the purchase
and consumption knowledge and experience they apply to
future related behavior.
ELEMENTS OF LEARNING
 MOTIVATION: Is the reason for people’s action,
willingness and goals.
 CUES: a reminder or stimuli to do something.
 RESPONSE: Is a reaction to a question, experience, or some
other type of stimulus.
 REINFORCEMENT: Term used in operant conditioning to
refer to anything that increases the likelihood that a response
will occur.
2 THEORIES ON HOW INDIVIDUALS LEARN
 BEHAVIORAL THEORY: That only focuses on
objectively observable behaviors that occur as the result of
exposure to stimuli.
 COGNITIVE THEORY: Is a broad theory that explains
thinking and differing mental processes and often in response
to problem solving.
BEHAVIORAL LEARNING THEORIES
 A model of how people from their experience, much of our
behavioral responses being conditioned by events from our
background and early experience.
 Classical Conditioning: Also known as Pavlovian
conditioning) two stimuli are linked together to produce
a new learned response in a person or animal.
 Instrumental Conditioning: (Is another term for
Operant Conditioning, a learning process first described
by B. F. Skinner.) Reinforcement or punishment are
used to either increase or decrease the probability that a
behavior will occur again in the future.
 Observational Conditioning: Describes the process of
learning through watching others, retaining the
information, and then later replicating the behaviors that
were observed.
WEEK 7: CONSUMER LEARNING
MEASURES OF CONSUMER LEARNING:
 Market share and the number of brand-loyal consumers are
the dual goals of consumer learning.
 a. Brand-loyal customers provide the basis for a stable
and growing market share.
 b. Brands with larger market shares have proportionately
larger groups of loyal buyers.
 c. Marketers focus their promotional budgets on trying
to teach consumers that their brands are best and that
their products will best solve the consumers’ problems
and satisfy their needs.
 d. It is important for marketers to measure how
effectively consumers have “learned its message”.
RECOGNITION AND RECALL MEASURES
 Recognition tests are based on aided recall,although recall
tests use unaided recall.
 In recognition tests, the consumer is shown an ad and asked
whether he or she remembers seeing it and can remember any
of its salient points.
 In recall tests, the consumer is asked whether he or she has
read a specific magazine or watched a specific television
show, and if so, can recall any ads or commercials seen, the
product advertised, the brand and any salient points about the
product.
COGNITIVE RESPONSES TO ADVERTSING
 Product/Message thoughts
 Source Oriented Thoughts
 Advertisement Execution Thoughts
ATTITUDINAL AND BEHAVIORAL MEASURES OF
BRAND LOYALTY
1. Brand loyalty is the ultimate desired outcome of consumer
learning.
2. Attitudinal measures are concerned with consumers’ overall
feelings (i.e.,evaluation) about the product and the brand, and their
purchase intentions.
3. Behavioral measures are based on observable responses to
promotional stimuli— purchase behavior, rather than attitude
toward the product or brand.
4. A basic issue among researchers is whether to define brand
loyalty in terms of consumer behavior or consumer attitudes.