Chapter 3

PERCEPTION
Sensation is the immediate response of our
sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth,
and fingers) to basic stimuli (light, color,
sound, odor, and texture).
Perception is the process by which sensations
are selected, organized, and interpreted.
The Process of Perception
-We receive external stimuli through our
five senses
Hedonic consumption
• Multisensory, fantasy, and emotional
aspects of consumers’ interactions
with products.
• Marketers use impact of sensations
on consumers’ product experiences
Sensory marketing
companies think carefully about the impact of
sensations on our product experiences

• VISION
smell

sound
 touch

taste
 The Stages of Perception
Perception is a three-stage process that translates raw
stimuli into meaning.
Stage 1: Exposure
occurs when a stimulus comes within the range
of someone’s sensory receptors
Sensory Thresholds
-the point at which it is strong enough to make
conscious impact in his or her awareness.
Psychophysics is a science that focuses on how people
integrate the physical environment into their
personal, subjective worlds.
Absolute threshold refers to the minimum amount of
stimulation a person can detect on a given sensory
channel.
Differential threshold refers to the ability of a sensory
system to detect changes in or differences between
two stimuli.
ERNST WEBER
WEBER’S LAW
> The amount of change required for the
perceiver to notice a change systematically
relates to the intensity of the original
stimulus.
> The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater
a change must be for us to notice it.

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Subliminal Perception
-refers to a stimulus below the level of the
consumer’s awareness

Embeds are tiny figures they

insert into magazine
advertising via high-speed
photography or airbrushing.
Stage 2: Attention
Refers to the extent to which processing activity is
devoted to a particular stimulus.
Multitasking
-process information from more than one medium at a time as they
alternate among their cell phones, TVs, and laptops.
Rich Media
-the use of animated.gif files or video clips to grab
viewers’ attention.
Process of Perceptual Selection
-People attend to only a small portion of the stimuli
to which they are exposed.
Personal Selection Factors
Perceptual Vigilance means we are more likely to
be aware of stimuli that relate to our current
needs.
Perceptual Defense means that we tend to see what
we want to see and we don’t see what we don’t
want to see.
Adaptation is the degree to which consumers
continue to notice a stimulus over time.
 Factors can lead to adaptation

Intensity Discrimination Exposure Relevance

less-intense stimuliSimple stimuli Frequently Stimuli that are
habituate because habituate because they encountered stimuli irrelevant or
they have less do not require habituate as the rate unimportant
sensory impact. attention to detail. of exposure habituate because
increases. they fail to attract
attention.

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 Stimulus Selection Factors
Size
>the size of the Color
stimulus itself >is a powerful way to Position
helps to determine draw attention to a >noticing stimuli Novelty
if it will command product or to give that are in places stimuli that
attention. distinct identity. we’re more likely appear in
to look. unexpected ways or
places tend to grab
our attention.

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Stage 3: Interpretation
refers to the meanings we assign to sensory stimuli. Just
as people differ in terms of the stimuli that they perceive,
the meanings we assign to these stimuli vary as well.
Stimulus Organization
• One factor that determines how we will interpret
a stimulus is the relationship we assume it has
with other events, sensations, or images in
memory.
 Interpretational biases: The eye of the
beholder

The German word Gestalt roughly means whole,

pattern, or configuration, and we
summarize this term as “the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts.”
The Gestalt perspective provides several principles
that relate to the way our brains organize stimuli:

●The closure principle -states that people tend to perceive an

incomplete picture as complete.
●The similarity principle -tells us that consumers tend to group
together objects that share similar physical characteristics.
● The figure-ground principle- states that one part of a
stimulus will dominate , and other parts recede into the
background.
Semiotics: The Meaning of Meaning
-helps us to understand how marketers use symbols to
create meaning.
From a semiotic perspective, every marketing message has three basic
components:

• Object is the product that is the focus of the message.

• Sign is the sensory image that represents the intended meanings of the
object.
• Interpretant is the meaning we derive from the sign .
According to Semiotician Charles
Sanders Peirce, signs relate to objects
in one of three ways:
• Icon
• Index
• Symbol
Hyperreality
-refers to the process of making real what is initially simulation or
“hype.”
Advertisers create new relationships between objects and interpretants
when they invent connections between products and benefits
 Perceptual Positioning
This meaning—as consumers perceive it—constitutes the
product’s market position, and it may have more to do
with our expectations of product performance as
communicated by its color, packaging, or styling than with
the product itself.

When a marketer understands how consumers think about

a set of competing brands, it can use these insights to
develop a positioning strategy.
Marketers can use many dimensions to carve out a
brand’s position in the marketplace. These include:
• Lifestyle
• Price leadership
• Attributes
• Product class
• Competitors
• Occasions
• Users
• Quality
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Angon, ashley nicole
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