CHAPTER

FOUR

Perception
 Learning Objectives

1. To understand the subjective nature of

perception
2. To explain the three-stage process of
perception
3. To describe the sensation of consumers
4. To understand interpretation and bias in
interpretation

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 Perception

• The process by which an individual selects,

organizes, and interprets stimuli into a
meaningful and coherent picture of the
world
• Perception can be explained as a three-
stage process which is used to give meaning
to the stimuli received through the five
senses.

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 The Three-Stage Process of
Perception

Sensory Input (Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch)

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 Sensation

• Sensation is the immediate and direct

response of the sensory organs to stimuli
– A stimulus is any unit of input to any of the senses.
• The human sensory system is the source of all
the raw inputs that are received and
processed by the human brain.
 Sight (Eyes), Sound (Ears), Smell (Nose), Taste
(Mouth), Touch (Skin)

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 Sensory Threshold

• Minimal difference that can be detected

between two similar stimuli
• Weber’s law
– The (just noticeable difference) j.n.d. is the
different in intensity between two stimuli before a
consumer can perceive that these two stimuli are
different
– The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater the
additional intensity needed for the second
stimulus to be perceived as different.
 Marketing Applications
of the J.N.D.
• Marketers need to
determine the
relevant j.n.d. for
their products
– so that negative
changes are not
readily noticeable to
the public
– so that product
improvements are
very apparent to
consumers

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 Subliminal Perception

• Opposite of sensory threshold

• Stimuli that are too weak or too brief to be
consciously seen or heard
• Weak stimulus can still influence the mind of
consumers
• Eg. Mixing a recorded voice with a popular
song

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 Three-stages of Perception

1. Exposure - Happens when a stimulus can be

felt by any one of the five senses.
- Selective Exposure
- The control that the consumer has over what
he/she wants to see, hear, smell, taste or touch.
- Happens when there are too many products and
too little time for consumers to pay attention to all
of them

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 Three-stages of Perception
2. Attention- Act of directing the brain to process
a particular stimulus
 Selective – decide want consumers want to pay
attention to. Eg. Sports ads that endorsed by
famous footballers
 Divisible – consumers’ attention can be divided.
Eg. While dine-in at a restaurant, consumers enjoy
the taste of the meals and the played musical song
 Limited – short attention span. Not focus on ads.
unless it catch consumers’ interest.
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 Focal and Non-focal Attention
• Focal attention
– Attention that fixed on a subject
• Non-focal attention/pre-attentive processing
– Still can see things ‘at the corner of eyes’
– Non-concious process

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 Three-stages of Perception

3. Interpretation
-The action of explaining the meaning of
something
-Consumer assigns to stimuli (based on the stimuli,
the consumers give meaning to the situation)
-Eg. The carbonated drink is filled in two cans. The
first can is a coke and the second can is a white
plain canned.. The person who tastes the drink
said the coke drink taste better.

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 Interpretation

• Interpretation leads to schema

• Marketers activate the schema using different
stimuli
• Gestalt psychology – people respond to a total set
of stimuli rather than to an individual stimulus
– Closure principle
– Similarity principle
– Figure-ground principle

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 Stimulus Organization

• Gestalt psychology
– Closure principle – people tend to see a complete
picture even when the picture is incomplete. ‘Fill
the blanks’ using their past experience.

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 Stimulus Organization

• Gestalt psychology
– Similarity principle – group together objects that
exhibit similar physical characteristics.

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 Stimulus Organization

• Gestalt psychology
– Figure ground principle – examines how the eye
can separate shapes in a design from the
background of that design.

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 Bias in Interpretation

• The advertising campaigns and products

launches failed because the consumers only
saw what the wanted to see (interpretational
bias).
• Two ways to reduce bias in interpretation:
– Semiotics
– Hyperreality

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 Semiotics

• The art and science of

attaching meanings to
symbols.
• Symbols can be signs,
logos, words and any
graphical
representation.

The city is in your hand

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 Hyperreality

• Practices of making
real what is initially
a stimulation
(artificial)

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THANK YOU

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