{"id":36,"date":"2019-01-10T18:11:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T23:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/introconsumerbehaviour\/chapter\/the-perceptual-process\/"},"modified":"2021-06-01T17:34:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T21:34:14","slug":"the-perceptual-process","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/introconsumerbehaviour\/chapter\/the-perceptual-process\/","title":{"raw":"The Perceptual Process","rendered":"The Perceptual Process"},"content":{"raw":"

Perception is how you interpret the world around you and make sense of it in your brain. You do so via stimuli that affect your different senses \u2014 sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. How you combine these senses also makes a difference. For example, in one study, consumers were blindfolded and asked to drink a new brand of clear beer. Most of them said the product tasted like regular beer. However, when the blindfolds came off and they drank the beer, many of them described it as \u201cwatery\u201d tasting (Ries, 2009). This suggests that consumers' visual interpretation alone can influence their overall attitude towards a product or brand.<\/p>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_34\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"Graphic The perceptual process begins when our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin) come in contact with sensory stimuli (sights, sounds, tastes, odours, and textiles) around us. Through our sensory system, we are exposed to an infinite amount of stimuli, some of which we pay attention to, and some we tune out completely. Those that receive our attention we evaluate and interpret their meaning based on our methods of cognitive and behavioural processing. After time, some of these stimuli become adapted and we seize to remark on their significance.[\/caption]\n

The Perceptual Process<\/h1>\nPerception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information. This process includes the perception of select [pb_glossary id=\"184\"]stimuli[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> that pass through our [pb_glossary id=\"169\"]perceptual filters[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>, are organized into our existing structures and patterns, and are then interpreted based on previous experiences. Although perception is a largely cognitive and psychological process, how we perceive the people and objects around us affects our communication. We respond differently to an object or person that we perceive favorably than we do to something we find unfavorable. But how do we filter through the mass amounts of incoming information, organize it, and make meaning from what makes it through our perceptual filters and into our social realities?\n\nUltimately, the perceptual process develops a consumer's perception of a brand and formulates the brand's position vis-\u00e0-vis the competition on what marketers call a [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]positioning[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> strategy.\n
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The Importance of Perception<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n

\n\nIf consumers were to only rely on sensation, it is unlikely they would be able to draw any distinction between similar products. Peanut butter, cola, ice cream...each of these product categories have competitors vying to differentiate their products from one another. If you were to organize blind taste-tests with your friends where they could only rely on the sensation of taste, they may not be able to distinguish between them. So while sensation is what we experience when our sensory receptors are engaged, it is perception, that ultimately influences our consumer decisions and forms the basis of our preferences.\n\nFor marketers, having your brand stand out in a crowded and noisy marketplace is critical to success: playing to consumers' senses is \"next level\" marketing as these rich experiences can code a brand into the consumer's memory. Capturing the consumer's attention through stunning visual appeals, catchy sounds, tasty samples, delicious aromas and hands-on experiences (also known as [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Guerilla\u00a0 Marketing[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>) have completely over-taken the passive advertisements and billboards of the past. When done successfully, [pb_glossary id=\"158\"]sensory marketing[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> transitions a brand from \"barely being noticed\" to earning a top position in the consumer's mind.\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Exposure<\/h2>\nWe take in information through all five of our senses, but our perceptual field (the world around us) includes so many stimuli that it is impossible for our brains to process and make sense of it all.\n\nConsumers are bombarded with messages on television, radio, magazines, the Internet, and even bathroom walls. The average consumer is exposed to about three thousand advertisements per day (Lasn, 1999). Consumers are online, watching television, and checking their phones simultaneously. Some, but not all, information makes it into our brains. Selecting information we see or hear (e.g., Instagram ads or YouTube videos) is called [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]selective exposure[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>.\n
\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_419\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"A Consumers are exposed to thousands of marketing images and messages on a daily basis. How many we actually pay attention to depends on our needs, wants, and the ability of marketers to stand out in a crowd. <\/em>[\/caption]\n\n<\/div>\nExposure speaks to the vast amount of commercial information\u2014media messages, commercial, and other forms of advertisements\u2014we are constantly subjected to on a daily basis.\n\nIn 2017, Forbes.com contributing writer Jon Simpson challenged readers to count how many brands they are exposed to from the moment they awake. From the bed to the shower to the breakfast table, how many brands have you already come in contact with? 10? 20? Then turn on your phone and start scrolling through your Twitter news feed...and now Instagram. Before you leave for work or school, the number of brands you've been exposed to likely climbs into the hundreds. Simpson claims that, \"[d]igital marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 1,000-4,000 ads each day\" (Simpson, 2017).\n\nGiven this sea of images, sounds, and messages, how can we possibly make sense of any one brand's message? Consumers will devote a degree of mental processing to only those messages that relate to their needs, wants, preferences, and attitudes. Brands are banking on the fact that with higher degrees of exposure, at some point their message is going to \"stick\" and capture consumers' attention at just the right moment.\n\nThe [pb_glossary id=\"160\"]absolute threshold[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> of a sensation is defined as the intensity of a stimulus that allows an organism to just barely detect it. The absolute threshold explains why you don\u2019t smell the cologne someone is wearing in a classroom unless they are somewhat close to you.\n\nThe [pb_glossary id=\"162\"]differential threshold[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> (or just noticeable difference, also referred to as \"JND\"), refers to the change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected. In other words, it is the smallest difference needed in order to differentiate between two stimuli.\n\nThe German physiologist Ernst Weber (1795-1878) made an important discovery about the JND \u2014 namely, that the ability to detect differences depends not so much on the size of the difference but on the size of the difference in relation to the absolute size of the stimulus. [pb_glossary id=\"186\"]Weber\u2019s Law[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> maintains that the JND of a stimulus is a constant proportion of the original intensity of the stimulus.\n\nAs an example, if you have a cup of coffee that has only a very little bit of sugar in it (say one teaspoon), adding another teaspoon of sugar will make a big difference in taste. But if you added that same teaspoon to a cup of coffee that already had five teaspoons of sugar in it, then you probably wouldn\u2019t taste the difference as much (in fact, according to Weber\u2019s Law, you would have to add five more teaspoons to make the same difference in taste).\n\nAnother interesting application of Weber\u2019s Law is in our everyday shopping behaviour. Our tendency to perceive cost differences between products is dependent not only on the amount of money we will spend or save, but also on the amount of money saved relative to the price of the purchase. For example, if you were about to buy a soda or candy bar in a convenience store, and the price of the items ranged from $1 to $3, you would likely think that the $3 item cost \u201ca lot more\u201d than the $1 item. But now imagine that you were comparing between two music systems, one that cost $397 and one that cost $399. Probably you would think that the cost of the two systems was \u201cabout the same,\u201d even though buying the cheaper one would still save you $2.\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Attention<\/h2>\n

[pb_glossary id=\"161\"]Attention[\/pb_glossary]<\/span><\/strong> is the next part of the perception process, in which we focus our attention on certain incoming sensory information. Since we can't tune in to each and every one of the thousands of messages and images we're exposed to daily, we tend to only pay attention to information that we perceive to meet our needs or interests. This type of [pb_glossary id=\"177\"]selective attention[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> can help us meet critical needs and get things done.<\/p>\n

Consider a hypothetical scenario: your car has finally broken down (for good) and you need to look for something new. You're feeling stressed about what this is going to cost: a new car, or even a decent used one, will set you back financially. Although car sharing has existed for years now, you've never given it any thought: haven't had to, actually. But now, you take notice of all the reserved parking spots for car sharing at school; and at the mall; and downtown. You start seeing car sharing cars on the road more than you remember seeing before. You start to wonder, \"have these JUST appeared now, or has car sharing been this big all along, but I've never noticed it before now?\"<\/p>\nThis scenario points to the principle of [pb_glossary id=\"175\"]salience[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>: a situation in which we tend to pay attention to information that attracts our attention in a particular context. The thing attracting our attention is often something we might consider important, relevant, prominent, and timely. At other times, people forget information, even if it\u2019s quite relevant to them, which is called [pb_glossary id=\"180\"]selective retention[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>. Often the information contradicts the person\u2019s belief. A longtime chain smoker who forgets much of the information communicated during an anti-smoking commercial is an example. To be sure their advertising messages get through to you and you remember them, companies use repetition. Despite how tired we grow of seeing the same commercials over and over (and over, again), advertisers are hoping consumers will retain some of the messages for when a need or want for their brand emerges.\n\nFor many brands, however, this is an unacceptable way to get noticed! To have to wait until a consumer has a timely need isn't strategic or reliable. It could take...forever! Brand salience requires a brand to be top of mind when a consumer is ready to make a purchasing decision. It means the consumer, regardless of need and timing, already knows about you (who you are, what you're selling, and where to find you) and when it comes time to buy, they choose you over the competition. As you might have guessed, the problem is this: how can a brand be noticed when it lacks salience?<\/em>\n

\n\nFive Ways to Command a Receiver's Attention<\/strong>\n
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