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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