Understanding Consumer Behavior: Insights into Perception Trends

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.

Perception  

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.

Intellectual process through which an individual selects data from environment organise it derives meaning from it is a cognitive process which involves organism selecting, organising and interpreting the stimulus. For example – child hit brother after seeing violent movie.

We use our sensory organ to select data from environment called sensation and then organise it and derive meaning that is perception. Perception corelates, integrates and comprehends different sensation.

Consumer perception is the opinions, feelings and beliefs customers have about your brand, customer perception can be positive or negative.  The customer perception process occurs when customers interact with your brand, products or services.

Importance of consumer perception

1. Generate more leads and sales contributing to company success and longevity
2. By cultivating positive emotions and experiences can encourage your customers to come back for repeat purchases. 
3. Plays an important role in building customer loyalty and retention as well as brand reputation and awareness.

Consumption Perception Process

This process includes 

1. Sensing meaning what they see, touch, taste, hear and feel related to the product or services such as the music playing in the background at a retail store or restaurant.
2. Organizing after sensory experience their minds organize this information based on their own personal values and beliefs. For example, a customer may consider where to eat for dinner by comparing menu prices, distance from their house and the sustainability practices of different restaurant. 
3. Reacting stage is when customer decide to act. It means they making a purchase from one company, purchase from another business or don’t buy the product.

Factors influencing consumer perception

1. Past experiences – Previous interactions with a product or company shape expectations and influence future buying decisions, whether positive or negative.
2. Prices – Consumers often associate price with value; higher prices may suggest better quality, while lower prices may imply affordability or lower quality.
3. Quality – The performance, durability, and reliability of a product strongly affect how consumers judge its worth.
4. Location – Convenience and accessibility of a store or service influence consumer perception and willingness to purchase.
5. Customer service – Friendly, helpful, and efficient service builds trust and creates a positive impression of the brand.
6. Marketing – Advertising, promotions, and branding shape how consumers view a product and can influence their emotions and preferences.
7. Reputation of the product or organisation – A well-known and trusted brand is often perceived as more reliable and higher quality.
8. Recommendations from family & friends – Personal opinions from trusted people are highly influential and often considered more credible than advertising.

Branding 

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. Positioning, Repositioning or De positioning .

1. Positioning is the process whereby marketers attempt to build a brand. 
2. Repositioning is the process of altering this image, usually in order to influence a larger target market. 
3. De-positioning is the practice of trying to devalue alternative, competing brands in the perceptions of a shared target market.

Value and Quality  

Value refers to the perceptions a consumer has of a product's benefits when weighed against its cost. It can be measured both qualitatively&-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.

Buyer’s remorse 

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.

Selective Organization of perception 

1. Selective Attention – We may attention to some of messages not all. Attractive ads force our attention toward the message.
2. Selective Distortion – New sensation independent of previous perception do not exist. We distort the message to suit our belief & attitude.
3. Selective Retention – 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 

1. Stimulus factors – Perceptual org. are primarily dictated by the physiological events occurring in the nervous sys of an individual as a direct reaction to the stimulation by the physical object.
2. 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.

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