PERCEPTION IN MARKETING

Use of Perception in Marketing

Use of Perception in Marketing

In advertising, marketers must highlight a best point of their products and attempt to show why their product is better than their competitors'. By doing this, they will shape a consumer's view of a product and a impact that it will have on their lives. Even for low involvement products - products that have little personal importance (Schiffman 1991: 209) - marketers must in effect teach consumers that their product is superior.

In terms of this essay it can be seen that 'perception' has two separate meanings and both are of importance to marketing managers. 'Perception is a process by which an individual selects stimuli from his or her environment, organizes (sic) information about those stimuli, and interprets a information to form coherent, meaningful view of a world' (Wells and Prensky, p.257)

So, perception not only occurs when we register stimulus by one of our five senses but it also relates to a view that that is developed as result of a stimulus (Evans 2009).

However, person's reaction to stimuli and a perception that they form as result of stimulus often depends on past experiences and a expectations that they have built up as result. Police witness reports are often conflicting as two people see a same incident in different ways. In similar way, two people who see McDonald's advert may react to it in very different ways but it is up to a marketing manager to try to appeal to as many of a target audience as possible.

If person has had good experience with McDonald's meal then it is likely that they will think of this pleasurable experience when they see something that they associate with McDonald's, for example a 'Golden Arches' logo. This is because of 'classical conditioning', as people have learnt to associate a logo of McDonald's with pleasurable meal. If, however, consumer contracted food poisoning from McDonald's then they would not react to a sight of a McDonald's trademark in a same way: a logo would remind them of their previous negative experience. This is an extension of Pavlov's famous experiment with his salivating dogs, and although it is highly unlikely that anyone would salivate merely at a sight of Golden Arches, a theory is ultimately a same (Evans 2009).

Marketing managers are well aware of a way a brain subconsciously associates things together and this is why almost every consumer product has logo, catchphrase or advertising jingle. Through repetition in advertising and a media we have learnt to associate a product with a slogan and so whenever we hear or read a slogan again we think of a product. If at that time we are at pre-purchase stage for that type of product then we will be more aware of a brand in question and, in theory, more likely to purchase it.

In a question that was set, four stages of a consumption process were given, a first being 'search'. However, this assumes that a consumer has already decided that they ...