layout: true background-image: url(figs/tcb-logo.png) background-position: bottom right background-attachment: fixed; background-origin: content-box; background-size: 10% --- class: title-slide .row[ .col-7[ .title[ # Consumer Behavior ] .subtitle[ ## Perception ] .author[ ### Dennis A.V. Dittrich ] .affiliation[ ] ] .col-5[ ] ] --- .row[.col-5[ ![](img08/031.jpg) ] .col-7[ ### Products and commercial messages often appeal to our senses, but because of the profusion of these messages we don’t notice most of them ] ] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ How has your sense of touch influenced your reaction to a product? Which of your senses do you feel is most influential in your perceptions of products? ] --- ## Sensation: A brand’s sensory system .row[ .col-7[ Our senses play a big role in the decisions marketers make. Vision * marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, store design, and packaging; they communicate meaning through a product’s color, size, and styling. Scent * Starbucks requires baristas to grind a batch of coffee each time they brew a post instead of just once each morning to ensure customers have that intense smell during their Starbucks’ experience. Sound * Stores and restaurants often play certain kinds of music to create a certain **mood**. Taste * A food item’s image and the values we attach to it influence how we experience the actual taste. ] .col-5[ ![](img08/032.jpg) Touch * simply touch an item for 30 seconds or less creates a greater level of attachment with the product. This boosts the willing to pay for it. (**Endowment effect**) ]] --- # Sensory Marketing .row[ .col-6[ Companies think carefully about the impact of sensations on our product experiences. Marketers rely heavily on **visual** elements in advertising, store design, and packaging. * Many of our **reactions** to color come from **learned associations**. * **Cultural** connotations such as the color black for mourning. * But other reactions are **biological**. Because **colors** are so powerful, they are an important concern in **packaging design**. Ultimately they can become a part of a company’s **brand**. ] .col-6[ ![](img08/033.jpg) ]] --- # Vision .row[ .col-7[ **Trade dress**: some color combinations come to be so strongly associated with a corporation Color forecasts * the blue box/bag from Tiffany’s Color forecasts are colors that manufacturers and retailers buy so they can be sure they stock up on the next hot hue. * Pantone, Inc. (one of these color arbiters) identified “Marsala”—a naturally robust and earthy wine red—as the color of the year for 2015. ] .col-3[ ![](img08/034.jpg) ]] --- # Marketing Applications of Colors .large[ |Color| Associations| Marketing Applications| |---|---|---| |Yellow| Optimistic and youthful| Used to grab window shoppers’ attention| |Red| Energy| Often seen in clearance sales| |Blue| Trust and security| Banks| |Green| Wealth| Used to create relaxation in stores| |Orange| Aggressive| Call to action: subscribe, buy or sell| |Black| Powerful and sleek| Luxury products| |Purple| Soothing| Beauty or anti-aging products| ] .caption[ Adapted from Leo Widrich, “Why Is Facebook Blue? The Science Behind Colors in Marketing,” __Fast Company__ (May , 2013), fastcompany. ] --- # Dollars and Scents .col-7[ Like color, **odor** can also stir **emotions** and **memory**. * A consistent scent could ultimately register with consumers as a brand’s sensory signature. **Scent Marketing** is a form of sensory marketing that we may see in lingerie, detergents, and more. ] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ Imagine you are the marketing consultant for the package design of a new brand of premium chocolate. What recommendations would you make regarding sight and scent? ] --- # Key Concepts in Use of Sound .col-7[ Brands can use **audio watermarking** to encourage the retention of the message * when producers weave a sound/motif into a piece of music that acts like an earworm we compulsively hum **Sound symbolism** as a way to influence brand image with sound. * Sounds can even influence how we feel about size. * Consumers are more likely to recognize brand names that begin with a hard consonant (K or P). Vowel and consonant sounds (or **phenomes**) can even be associated with perceptions of large and small. ] --- # Key Concepts in the Use of Touch .col-7[ **Endowment effect**: when consumers touch a product, they have a higher level of attachment to the product. **Haptic** sense (touch) * We are more sure about what we perceive if we can touch it. * We have a tendency to want to touch objects. * The philosophy of computer design related to touch is known as **natural user interface** and it incorporates **habitual human movements** that we don’t have to learn. **Kansei engineering**: A Japanese philosophy that translates customers’ feelings into design elements. ] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ Some studies suggest that as we age, our sensory detection abilities decline. What are the implications of this phenomenon for marketers who target elderly consumers? ] --- ### Perception is a three-stage process that translates raw stimuli into meaning ![](img08/035.png) .col-7[ 1. **Exposure** occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone’s sensory receptors. 2. Attention 3. Interpretation ] ??? **Sensory marketing** means that companies pay extra attention to how our sensations affect our product experiences. Marketers recognize that our senses help us to decide which products appeal to us. In addition to scent and sight, sound, touch, and taste are also relevant. --- ## Stage 1: Key Concepts in Exposure .row[ .col-7[ **Sensory threshold**: the area within which stimuli can make a conscious impact on the person’s awareness. **Psychophysics**: how people integrate the physical environment into their personal worlds. **Absolute threshold**: the minimum amount of stimulation a person can detect on a given sensory channel * the stimulation used by marketers must be sufficient to register * a billboard might have the most entertaining copy ever written, but this genius is wasted if the print is too small to read **Differential threshold**: the ability of a sensory system to detect changes in or differences between two stimuli. **JND** (just noticeable difference): the minimum difference we can detect between two stimuli ] .col-5[ Sometimes a marketer may want to ensure that consumers **notice a change**, as when a retailer offers merchandise at a **discount**. In other situations, the marketer may want to **downplay** the fact that it has made a change, such as when a store **raises a price** or a manufacturer **reduces the size** of a package. A consumer’s ability to detect a difference between two stimuli is relative. * Psychophysicist Ernst Weber found that the amount of change required for the perceiver to notice a change systematically relates to the intensity of the original stimulus. * **Weber’s Law**: The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a change must be for us to notice it. ]] --- .row[ .col-7[ ![](img08/036.png) ] .col-5[ ## The Pepsi Logo over Time The images illustrate how Pepsi has changed its logo over the years. If the difference didn’t pass our **sensory threshold**, we wouldn’t notice the logo had changed. ] ] --- .row[ .col-7[ ![](img08/037.jpg) ] .col-5[ # Subliminal Perception **Subliminal perception** refers to a stimulus below the level of the consumer’s awareness * hidden images, usually of a sexual nature, supposedly exert strong but unconscious influences on innocent observers * **embeds** may alter the moods of men when they’re exposed to sexually suggestive subliminal images * effect is small at best, can be in opposite direction * virtually no proof that this process has any effect on consumer behavior ]] --- # For Reflection .row[ .col-7[ The slogan for the movie Godzilla was “Size does matter.” Should this be the slogan for the United States as well? Many marketers seem to believe so. * The average serving size for a fountain drink has gone from 12 ounces to 20 ounces. * An industry consultant explains that the 32-ounce Big Gulp is so popular because “people like something large in their hands. The larger the better.” * Some cities (most notably New York) have tried to ban sales of sugary drinks greater than 24 ounces but so far unsuccessfully. * Hardee’s Monster Burger, complete with two beef patties and five pieces of bacon, weighs in at 63 grams of fat and more than 1,000 calories. * The standard for TV sets used to be 19 inches; now it is 32 inches and growing. * Hulking SUVs have replaced tiny sports cars as the status vehicle of the new millennium. ] .col-5[ What’s up with this fascination with bigness? Is this a uniquely U.S. preference? Do you believe that “bigger is better”? Is this a sound marketing strategy? ]] ??? This question comprises multiple questions. The first, “What’s up with our fascination with bigness?” is very general and should spark some general comments or discussion. If anything specific is to come from this particular question, students should be directed to theorize as to “why” people in the United States prefer bigger sizes. The second question, “Is this a uniquely American preference?” can only really be addressed when students have a concept of product size in other countries. Thus, foreign students and students who have lived or studied abroad will be a good resource here. Another option if assigning this question as an at-home project is to have students research product sizes in other countries to make comparisons. It might be helpful if you give a few specific products for them to research, such as soft drinks, automobiles, and televisions. The third question, “Do you believe that ‘bigger is better’?” should be directed toward whether or not larger sizes benefit the consumer. The final question examines whether super-sized products benefit the marketer. --- ## Stage 2: Attention .col-7[ **Attention** is the extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus * The allocation of processing activity can vary depending on the characteristics of the stimulus and the recipient. Consumers experience **sensory overload**: they are exposed to far more information than they can process * Much of this comes from commercial sources. * We are exposed to thousands of advertising messages each day in addition to the other types of stimuli we sense. Marketers need to break through the clutter ] --- # How Do Marketers Get Attention? .row[ .col-7[ **Experience**: the result of acquiring and processing stimulation over time. It helps to determine how much exposure to a particular stimulus a person accepts. **Perceptual filters** based on our past experiences influence what we decide to process. * **Perceptual vigilance**: consumers are more likely to be aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs. * A consumer who rarely notices car ads will become very much aware of them when she or he is in the market for a new car. * **Perceptual defense**: people see what they want to see—and don’t see what they don’t want to see. * If a stimulus is threatening to us in some way, we may not process it, or we may distort its meaning so that it’s more acceptable. * **Adaptation** ] .col-5[ In addition to the **receiver’s mindset**, **characteristics of the stimulus** itself play an important role in determining what we notice and what we ignore. Characteristics that can aid in enhancing the chances of a stimulus for being noticed include * size, * color, * position, and * novelty. ] ] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ Marketers may elect to shrink the amount of product they sell and maintain the same price rather than raise the price. Is this ethical? ] ??? This question needs to be split into two parts: 1. whether marketers have the right to charge the same for less product and 2. whether the marketer is responsible to inform the consumer of the price to quantity ratio or whether the consumer is responsible to judge value on his or her own. --- # Factors Leading to Adaptation .row[ .col-5[ **Adaptation** is the degree to which consumers continue to notice a stimulus over time. * occurs when consumers no longer pay attention to a stimulus because it is so familiar. * A consumer can “habituate” and require increasingly stronger “doses” of a stimulus to notice it. ] .col-7[ **Intensity**: Less intense stimuli have less sensory impact. **Discrimination** * Simple stimuli habituate because they do not require attention to detail. **Exposure** * Stimuli that require lengthy exposure in order to be processed habituate because they require a long attention span. * Frequently encountered stimuli habituate as the rate of exposure increases. **Relevance**: Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant habituate because they fail to attract attention. ] ] --- # Stimulus Selection Factors: Characteristics of the stimulus .row[ .col-6[ Several product characteristics can aid in enhancing the chances of a stimulus for being noticed * Contrast * Size * Color * Position * Novelty Marketers need to understand these factors so they can create messages and packages that will have a better chance of cutting through the clutter. ] .col-6[ Eye-tracking studies reveal that people typically spend most of their time on a website looking at the “**golden triangle**” outlined by yellow, orange and red. ![](img08/038.jpg) .caption[Enquiro Search Solutions, Inc. (Now Mediative PerformanceLP).] ] ] --- # Interpretation .row[ .col-6[ **Interpretation** refers to the meaning we assign to sensory stimuli, which is based on a schema, or set of beliefs In a process called **priming**, certain properties of a stimulus evoke a schema. * leads us to compare the stimulus to other similar ones ] .col-6[ When you first look at this ad what is the word in blue? ![](img08/039.jpg) .caption[Client:XXXLutz; Head of Marketing: Mag. Thomas Saliger; Agency: Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann; Account Supervisor: Andrea Kliment; Account Manager: Albin Lenzer; Creative Directors: Rosa Haider, Tolga Buyukdoganay; Art Directors: Tolga Buyukdoganay, Rene Pichler; Copywriter: Alistair Thompson.] Now look at the spelling. ]] --- class:practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ How much of a change would be needed in a favorite brand’s price, package size, or logo would be needed for you to notice the difference? How would differences in these variables affect your purchase decisions? Do you think that subliminal perception works? Under what conditions could it work? ] --- .row[.col-6[ ![](img08/0310.jpg) ] .col-6[ ## The field of semiotics helps us to understand how marketers use symbols to create meaning. One factor that determines how we will interpret a stimulus is the relationship we assume it has with other events, sensations, or images in memory. **Semiotics**: a discipline that studies the correspondence between signs and symbols and their roles in how we assign meanings. ]] --- # Stimulus Organization .row[.col-7[ Our brains tend to relate incoming sensations to others already in memory based on some fundamental organizational principles. __Gestalt:__ whole, pattern, or configuration * the whole is greater than the sum of its parts The Gestalt perspective provides several principles that relate to the way our brains organize stimuli * **Closure**: people perceive an incomplete picture as complete * **Similarity**: consumers group together objects that share similar physical characteristics * **Figure-ground**: one part of the stimulus will dominate (the figure) while the other parts recede into the background (ground) ] .col-5[ **Gestalt psychology**: a school of thought that maintains that people interpret meaning from the totality of a set of stimuli rather than from an individual stimulus. ]] --- # Semiotic Relationships .row[ .col-7[ **Object** of the product: focus of the message (e.g., Marlboro cigarettes) **Sign**: the sensory image that represents the intended meanings of the object (e.g., the Marlboro cowboy). **Interpretant**: the meaning we derive from the sign (e.g., rugged, individualistic, American) **Icon**: a sign that resembles the product in some way (e.g., the Ford Mustang has a galloping horse on the hood). **Index**: a sign that connects to a product because they share some property (e.g., the pine tree on some of Procter & Gamble’s Spic and Span cleanser products conveys the shared property of fresh scent). **Symbol**: a sign that relates to a product by either conventional or agreed-on associations (e.g., the lion in Dreyfus Fund ads provides the conventional association with fearlessness and strength that it hopes to carry over to the company’s approach to investments). ] .col-5[ ![](img08/0311.png) ]] --- # Brand Positioning .row[.col-5[ When a marketer understands how consumers think about a set of competing brands, it can use these insights to develop a positioning strategy. Marketers can use many dimensions to carve out a brand’s position in the market place including * lifestyle, * price leadership, * attributes, * product class, * competitors, * occasions, * users, and * quality. ] .col-7[ **Value-based** positioning: * The value often relates to the customer-centric tangible benefits DuckDuckGo - the search engine which doesn’t collect and use your data, unlike Google. ![](img08/duckduckgo.png) ] ] --- ## Brand Positioning .row[ .col-6[**Features-based** positioning: * When the competition is huge and the products are similar, companies usually position their products by focusing more on product-specific features like price, quality, or other micro features depending on the product sold. * also called **Unique Selling Point** focused positioning. ![](img08/oneplus.jpg) ] .col-6[ **Problem And Solution based** positioning: * focus on positioning the product as a one-stop solution for a specific problem .col-10[ ![](img08/tide.jpg) ] ] ] --- ## Brand Positioning .row[ .col-6[**Lifestyle** positioning: * a brand tries to sell an image and identity rather than the product. * the focus is to associate the brand with a lifestyle and focus is more on the aspirational value than the product value. .col-8[ ![](img08/redbull.jpg) ] ] .col-6[ **Parent Brand Driven** positioning: * aims at establishing a brand promise and a reputation of the parent brand. ![](img08/maggi.jpg) ] ] --- ## Brand Positioning .row[ .col-5[**Experience-based** positioning: * based on the experience the customer gets while buying or consuming the product. * The focus is on to developing a unique experience for the customer which differentiates the offering from the competition. ] .col-7[ ![](img08/Holiday-Inn.jpg) ] ] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ Think of a commercial you have recently seen and explain the object, sign and interpretant. Give an example when you were affected by closure, similarity, or the figure ground principle. How do your favorite brands position themselves in the marketplace? Which possible positioning strategies seem to be most effective? ] --- # Review .col-7[ Products and commercial messages often appeal to our senses, but because of the profusion of these messages we don’t notice most of them Perception is a three-stage process that translates raw stimuli into meaning The field of semiotics helps us to understand how marketers use symbols to create meaning. ]