Perception and the decision making process

Perception is an assumption, belief or opinion often held by many which is based on appearances. In the words of Wilkie (1994) 'Perception is the process of sensing, selecting & interpreting consumer stimuli in the external world' or in the words of Lindsay, P & Norman, D. (1977) perception is 'the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world’.

Perceptual Process

The perceptual process in terms of marketing is the consumer being influenced by stimuli such as sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures. Next the consumer develops a sensation from these, thus drawing their attention, interpreting these stimuli and generating a response. This is shown below:

This response is determined by the consumers own schema's, which are defined by Solomon, M et al (2006) as ‘organized collections of beliefs and feelings’..... ‘We tend to group the objects we see as having similar characteristics, and the schema to which an object is assigned is a crucial determinant of how we choose to evaluate this object at a later time’. Playing on the consumers five senses can trigger historical imagery or fantasy imagery. Historical imagery is when past events are recalled. This can influence the consumer to buy a product if this historical imagery is positive. Fantasy imagery on the other hand, is when the consumer responds to sensory systems by creating a new imaginary experience. Linked with the five senses and stimulus there are many factors which marketers use to influence the decision process. Marketers do this by targeting a consumer’s selective attention and stimulus using movement, repetition, size, contrast, intensity, expectations, habituation, interest, needs and motives, pleasant images, surprise, easy-to-process images, use of drama and rhetorical questions and subliminal advertising. For example this advert below is for Carlton Beer and exploits a consumers selective attention and stimulus through use of size, contrast, expectations, needs and motives, intensity and movement.



The advert itself isn't original in its design and is stolen from a British Airways advert used in 1989. Despite this, the advert is memorable, exciting and appeals to the male consumer.

An example of perception is the Sony Bravia TV advert, watch out for the frog!



At first you perceive this as nothing to do with televisions until the end but you remember it, so it works right? The use of explosive amounts of colour exploits sight and the background music sound. Therefore the advert makes the viewer perceive that Sony Bravia televisions are embraced with colour!






Messing with your perception!







Here's a website i found outlining how are visual perception can be influenced:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC10220/visindex.html

Kotler's Black Box Model

Within the second lecture we used the idea of perception to name different shades of paint to appeal to different markets. This helped confirm how perception of products is determined by many factors. These factors were expanded within the third lecture and introduced me to Kotler’s Black Box model which outlines every aspect of buyer behavior. This model is shown below:

The Black Box model explains how the consumer is first influenced by marketing stimuli; these are the product, its price, place and whether it is on promotion. Marketing stimuli is also tied with other stimuli such as economic, technological, political and cultural factors. Next the consumer takes these stimuli and applies them to their Black Box. This black box is the buyer’s characteristics and the buyer’s decision process. Buyer characteristics are the social background of the individual, which is shaped by the family, roles and status and the individuals reference groups; their cultural background, which are determined by social class, subculture and cultural influences; their personal characteristics such as age and life cycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle and personality and finally their psychology which includes their motivation, learning beliefs, attitudes and most importantly perception. These buyer characteristics are shown below:

Returning to Kotler’s model these buyer’s characteristics are also linked with the buyer decision making process. This is formed of five steps which a consumer undertakes before buying a product. These steps are a need for recognition, an information search, an evaluation of alternatives, a purchase decision and their post purchase behavior. This is shown in the diagram below:


Kotler then went on to outline that after the buyer’s Black Box has been considered that this would influence the buyer’s responses. The main responses are the product the consumer chooses, the brand choice, the purchase timing and the purchase amount. In reflection this process is all well and good when the consumer is buying a product for the first time. However, if the consumer has purchased a product similar to this before the customer may be influenced by brand perception, brand loyalty and consumer confidence within a brand. For example, if I were to go out on the high street in search of nothing more than a can of drink, I would usually go for something I am familiar with and confident that I like. So in terms of buying a product for the first time this model is relevant, but otherwise it is flawed.

Harvard Perceived Risk Model

There are many different theory’s and models which outline how a consumer makes their decision when buying a product; Kotler’s Black Box being one of them. A second theory behind the decision process is the Harvard perceived risk model proposed by the Harvard Business School in the mid 1960's. They stated that behavior depends upon an individual’s subjective perception of the risk inherent in buying a product. Therefore people’s tolerance to risk varies. To expand on this, to look at something with a subjective view is when an object is looked at with the individuals own opinion or perspective in mind. Therefore, when buying a product it is the consumer’s opinion which confirms the purchase.

FTPEPS

Laurent & Kapferer (1985) on the other hand argue that a consumer’s level of involvement when buying a product will be affected by six factors known as (FTPEPS):

F)inance
T)ime
P)erformance
E)go
P)hysical
S)ocial

Depending on what product the consumer is buying influences their involvement with each factor. For example, if a 25 year old man was buying a gift for his girlfriend he would apply more time, finance and may look for the remaining factors depending on what the product is. Whereas, if he was looking for a gift for his parents, for example, he would most likely apply less of each factor.

Perceptual Set

The perceptual set is another theory. Vernon (1955) stated that the perceptual set is the idea that an 'individual develops a persistent and deep rooted way of perceiving, thinking and believing'. Therefore in laments terms a perceptual set is when a consumer gets tied down to certain products or a certain way of doing things. The perceptual set acts as a selector and interpreter. Thus when a new way of doing something, or a new product is released it may be hard for the consumer to consider trying it. This ties in with my point about Kotler's model being affected by previous purchases and brand loyalty. When a producer is faced with this problem marketing becomes handy and can influence a consumers perceptual set.

Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt psychology is a final theory and outlines principles of stimulus organization. Gestalt psychology outlined by Solomon, M et al (2006) is ‘a school of thought maintaining that people derive meaning from the totality of a set of stimuli, rather than from any individual stimulus’.....’The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. There are three main principles outlined by Gestalt psychology. Firstly there is the principle of closure. Closure is the idea that a consumer may look at an incomplete advertisement and consider it as complete. The use of closure in marketing encourages the consumer to take part in the marketing, fill in the gaps and as a result take in the message it is trying to convey.

Closure


Secondly there is the principal of similarity. Skaalid, B (1999) outlines it to be ‘objects which share visual characteristics such as shape, size, color, texture, value or orientation are seen as belonging together.’ The idea of similarity is used by brands who want their extended product lines to be recognized as their brand. If the perception of this brand is positive or in the consumers favor then utilizing the principal of similarity is beneficial.

Similarity


Finally the gestalt concept of figure-ground is defined by Rutledge, A (2008) as ‘elements that are perceived as either figures (distinct elements of focus) or ground (the background or landscape on which the figures rest)’. Which part the consumer considers figure or ground is up to their own individual perception of objects. Figure-ground is used in marketing as the difference between the two acts a stimulus for the consumer. This then leads the consumer to stop, think and take in the marketing.

Figure-Ground