James Watt College.

School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Activity 3
Perception theory
You have already been introduced to how consumers make basic learning connections with manufacturers. It is now very important that you see that consumers are not exactly the same as animals and that consumers are able to interpret their experiences as well. Whereas in the previous section, we looked at associative learning, the study of perception takes us into the area of cognitive learning which is more complex, yet just as important for manufacturers to understand. Lets start with a simple example.

Activity 3.1

Consider the food and drink you consume and list four or five
things you do not like to drink or eat:

Comment on Activity 3.1

If you look back at your list, you may find something you have listed which perhaps you have never even tasted! How can this happen? How can we make preferences when we havent even consumed the product? Perception tries to answer this puzzle.

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Perception theory
Sensation
Human beings have five major senses through which we receive information from the world. List them here:

1 2 3 4 5
Each of these senses is feeding information to the brain constantly, and the amount of information being collected would seriously overload the system if we took it all in. The brain, therefore, selects from the environment around the consumer and cuts out what is not important. Marketing considers this process very important because we need to make sure the information we are sending to the consumer is getting through. What if an important advertising message was misinterpreted? The process of sensation can therefore be illustrated as follows:

Stimulus

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Perception
The information entering the brain does not therefore provide a complete view of the world around you. When the consumer constructs a world view, they then assemble the remaining information to map what is happening in the outside world. Any gaps will be filled in with imagination and experience. The cognitive map is therefore not a photograph it is a construct of the imagination. This perception process can be illustrated as follows:

Mind

Stimulus

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Activity 3.2

Here is a very simple example of why the understanding of the

perception process is important to advertising and marketing. If you look at a very famous product like a Kit Kat in its original form of two wafer fingers covered in chocolate, do you think it is a biscuit or a sweet? Jot down your answer here:

Now, speak with someone else and jot down their response here:

Comment on Activity 3.2

Can you see how there may be two different answers to this? The reason for this lies in the world of perception and it has been used very successfully by the makers of Kit Kat to enable it to become a brand leader in two different markets.

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Examples of perception
Shifting perception
Example 1 Look at the illustration in the margin and try to remember as you look at it what your first impression is. What you have been looking at is the famous Necker Cube which is classic example of perception. It has two interpretations. Some people looking at it see the Y at the back and some see it at the front. Who is correct? They both are! It is very similar to the Kit Kat conundrum we looked at earlier. The Necker Cube is an example of shifting perception. Here are some others:

e Example 2 Look at the illustration below and try to remember what your first impression is.

This is called The Young Woman/Old Woman and shows how people can take two different interpretations of the same situation.

Example 3 Here is another example below. Try to remember your first impression. In this example some people focus on the goblet and some on the faces. Their perceptions shift.

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Example 4 Now, look at how this has been used in the following illustration. Try to remember what you see first when you look at it.

Write up your experience of this referring to the process of shifting perception:

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Illusions
Mller-Lyer illusion Visual illusions are very important to give us an idea of how the mind can often seem to play tricks. Look at this:

The Mller-Lyer illusion

If you look at the illustration you may be thinking that the line on the left is longer. Now, measure them. What did you find?

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Ponzo illusion Here is another famous example. Looking at this illustration, you may think that the top horizontal line (A) is longer than (B). Now, measure them.

The Ponzo illusion

What did you find? These examples show that what takes place in the mind of the consumer is very difficult to pin down. What if consumers had different interpretations of a manufacturers products that affected how the product was perceived? It could seriously undermine a marketing strategy.

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Figure-Ground This is a very important area of perception and is used all the time by advertisers to make sure consumers focus on the area of an advert that is important for the manufacturer. Here is an example of figure-ground. You should look at what follows, following instructions from your tutor who will ask you to focus on the black area in the first illustration.

Your mind will try to organise this. Can you see anything? Here is a clue it is a word. Here is the solution:

What happens here is the mind can only make sense of it if the focus is on the figure which is the white area. Focusing on the black area is meaningless. Here is an example of figure ground which was once used by a famous advertiser. Look at this illustration and write a short note about what you focus on when you first look at it:

The advert works because you focus on the white zebra (the Figure) and not on the other zebras (the Ground).

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Organisation of perception
The amount of information received by consumers every day is staggering and there is simply no way consumers can process all this information. One way consumers attempt to cut down the amount of processing is by organising the information in a way that will make it easier to deal with. Here are the three main processes that are used: Proximity

Can you see in the above example how we perceive the illustration as three columns of four dots rather than four rows of three dots? Why is this? It is because one object will be associated with another because of its closeness to it. Similarity

Can you see in the above example how we perceive three groupings of squares, circles and squares rather than two separate rows of objects? Why is this? It is because the mind finds it easier to group similar items together. Continuity

Can you see in this example that we do not perceive it as columns of dots but prefer to see it as an arrow projecting to the right? This is because consumers group stimuli into uninterrupted forms.

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Activity 3.3

Looking at the principles of proximity, similarity and continuity can you

take yourself on an imaginary tour of a supermarket and see how these principles are used in shelf design and store layout? Think about how the supermarket is organised. How are the products on the shelves laid out? How are the aisles organised? Make some notes here:

Comment on Activity 3.3

The impression a consumer has of a product is very important for a manufacturer and there are ways of influencing this impression that can help with the marketing strategy.

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Activity 3.4

Read the short article on the bottled water market which is one of
the fastest growing markets in the soft drinks industry.

Article
When common sense isnt on tap
Why does mineral water soar as ordinary water gets better? DRINKING water is of a very high quality throughout England and Wales and is steadily improving. Of three million tests carried out in 1996 some 99.7 per cent showed that the standards had been met compared with 99.5 per cent the previous year. These are not our words. They come from reports of the Governments Drinking Water Inspectorate which confirms that water supplies are of a very high standard and have been improving as a result of the hundreds of millions that the privatised water companies have had to shell out to meet exacting EU and UK standards. Why then is mineral water the fastest growing sector of the soft drinks industry and one of the fastest growing industries anywhere? A report published this week by Premier Waters shows that sales of bottled mineral water have risen 56 per cent since 1990 (which coincides with the post-privatisation period of intense investment). It seems the more our water improves the more we turn to more expensive substitutes. Economic theory is being turned on its head. The public buys mineral water in ever increasing quantities even though a litre of tap water costs only 0.07p delivered into our homes, while a litre of bottled mineral water costs 50p, or five or six times that in a restaurant unless you can summon up the courage to ask the waiter for the refreshment that dare not speak its name: tap water. More than half of the mineral water sold is the still variety which expert tasters cant tell apart from ordinary water and which certainly isnt safer or purer. We do, of course defend to the death peoples right to buy more expensive, inferior products if they so wish. But we also defend the right to use ones commonsense which, curiously, isnt always on tap when it is needed.

Comment on Activity 3.4

It is very puzzling isnt it? It seems that consumers are prepared to pay money for a product that is actually free elsewhere! A very famous advertising quote is: Advertising is about selling the sizzle and not the steak. This quote refers to the fact that in many advertising campaigns, the image of the product can be far more important than the product itself. How can this happen? Surrogate indicators give us an explanation.

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Surrogate indicators
A surrogate indicator literally means a substitute indicator of quality and allows the consumer to judge the product or service on whatever they consider important. In the example case study on mineral water versus tap water, the perception of quality comes from the image manufacturers project of the healthy attributes of the water and the price premium. It seems as though putting a large price on a product can increase its sales! Here are some examples of surrogate indicators: Price Price is a very important surrogate indicator and the fragrance market is based on it. The price a fragrance sells at has nothing to do with the inherent cost of the product. Very often a large price on a fragrance will encourage consumers to think of it as exclusive. This is why many retailers are excluded from selling certain fragrances in case they discount the price. Smell Quite often consumers will make a purchasing decision based on the smell of a product even though the smell is not crucial to the products use. The washing up liquid market is based on this with pine and lemon smells often being added to give perceived value. Colour The car market uses colour as a surrogate indicator and not having the consumers colour choice in the showroom can often be a barrier to a sale. The fashion industry also uses colour as a surrogate indicator with colours coming in and out of fashion with the seasons. Size The size of a product can often be crucial. Bigger is not always better. The mobile phone and MP3 markets try to get consumers to judge their products on size by inferring that the smaller product is a better product to have.

Gavin Simpson

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Activity 3.5

Look at the following brands and identify at least one surrogate

indicator for each that you consider important: Eternity by Calvin Klein

Sure Deodorant

Cadburys Flake

Apples iPod Nano

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James Watt College. School of the Creative Industries DR14 35 Music Industry Marketing 2

Review of Activity 3
You should now try to pull together all you have learned in this activity. You should select an advertising campaign for a product and show how two or three examples of perception have influenced the way the product or service is being sold. Write up your answer here:

Key points difference between sensation and perception organisation of perception shifting perception illusions surrogate indicators

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