Perception
A particular way of looking at or understanding something. Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world. Perception depends not only on the physical stimuli but also on the stimuli relations to the surrounding field and on conditions within the individual. The key point is that perception can vary widely among individual exposed to the same reality. For example, a fast-talking salesperson aggressive & insincere another as intelligent and helpful less talking person shy, introvert, egoist, arrogant.
In general, psychological terms, perception is our ability to make some kind of sense of reality from the external sensory stimuli to which we are exposed. Several factors can influence our perception, causing it to change in certain ways. like, repeated exposure to one kind of stimuli can either make us oversensitive or desensitized to it.
Consumer Perception
Consumer perception theory is any attempt to understand how a consumer’s perception of a product or service influences their behavior. Those who study consumer perception try to understand why consumers make the decisions they do, and how to influence these decisions. Usually, consumer perception theory is used by marketers when designing a campaign for a product or brand. However, some people study consumer perception in order to understand psychology in a much more general sense.
In marketing, perception is more important than the reality as it is perceptions that will affect consumers actual buying behaviour. People can emerge with different of the same objective because of three perceptual processes.
- Selective Attention
- Selective Distortion
- Selective Retention
Selective Attention
The act of focusing on a particular object for some time while simultaneously ignoring distractions and irrelevant information. Average person exposed to over approx. 50 ads or brand communication a day. Selective attention means that marketers have to work hard to attract consumers notice. The real challenge is to explain which stimuli people will notice.
Here some findings – people are more likely to notice stimuli that relates to a current need, that they anticipate, whose deviations are large in relation to the normal size of the stimuli, unexpected stimuli, such as sudden offers in the mail, over the phone or from a salesperson.
In short Selective Attention, We may attention to some of messages not all. Attractive ads force our attention toward the message.
Selective Distortion
Selective distortion is the tendency to interpret information in a way that will fit out preconceptions. Selective distortion advantage is marketer with strong brands, when consumers distort neutral or ambiguous brand information to make it more positive. Experiment blind test of same product, labelled or brand or unbranded. But people prefer known brand which is identical brand.
So Selective Distortion is new sensation independent of previous perception do not exist. We distort the message to suit our belief & attitude.
Selective Retention
The inclination for people to be more likely to remember information that closely aligns with their needs, beliefs, interest & values. People will fail to register much information that supports their supports their attitudes and beliefs because of selective retention. We are likely to remember good points about a product we like and forget good points about competing products that is why marketer do repetition of Ads.
In short terms Selective Retention is Out of all messages that we receive we tend to retain some of them. Then these messages are either retained in our short memory or in our long-term memory.
Determinant of perception
- Stimulus factors – Perceptual org. are primarily dictated by the physiological events occurring in the nervous system of an individual as a direct reaction to the stimulation by the physical object.
- Functional factors – Since perception is always selective perceive only those things that make sense within the context of our cognitive structure. On one hand we screen out messages we do not want to pay attention to on the other we distort, modify and even add elements so as to see what we wish to.
FAQ's
Branding in terms of consumer perception?
The goal of a brand is to set a product or service apart from others of its kind, and influence the consumers to choose the product over similar products simply because of its associations.
What is Positioning, Repositioning or De positioning in consumer perception?
- Positioning is the process whereby marketers attempt to build a brand.
- Repositioning is the process of altering this image, usually in order to influence a larger target market.
- De-positioning is the practice of trying to devalue alternative, competing brands in the perceptions of a shared target market.
What is Value and Quality in consumer perception?
- Value refers to the perceptions a consumer has of a product's benefits when weighed against its cost. It can be measured both qualitatively and the emotional a consumer derives from a product or service.
- Quality can be related to value, and may be taken into account when measuring the value of a product or service.
What is Buyer’s remorse in consumer perception?
Buyer’s remorse is a strong feeling of regret which occurs after a purchase has been made. It is a specific case of cognitive dissonance, or the psychological state of worry or unease which comes about when attempting to come to terms with conflicting ideas, perceptions or motives.
