DYNAMICS OF PERCEPTION IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
One of the major principles of perception is Raw sensory input by itself does not produce or explain the coherent picture of the world that most adults possess.
Human beings are constantly bombarded with stimuli during every minute and every hour of every day. The sensory world is made up of an almost infinite number of discrete sensations, which are constantly and minutely changing. According to the principles of sensation, such heavy intensity of stimulation should serve to “turn off’ most individuals, as the body protects itself from the heavy bombardment to which it is subjected.
Otherwise, the billions of different stimuli to which we are constantly exposed might serve to confuse us totally and keep us perpetually disoriented in a constantly changing environment. However, neither of these consequences tends to occur, because perception is not a function of sensory input alone, rather, it is the result of two different kinds of inputs that interact to form the personal pictures—the perceptions—that each individual experiences.
One type of input is physical stimuli from the outside environment, the other type of input is provided by individuals themselves in the form of certain predispositions, such as expectations, motives, and learning based on previous experience. The combination of these two very different kinds of inputs produces for each of us a very private, very personal picture of the world. Because each person is a unique individual, with unique experiences, wants, needs, wishes, and expectations, it follows that each individual’s perception are also unique. This explains why no two people see the world in precisely the same way.
Individuals are very selective as to which stimuli they “recognize”, they organize the stimuli they do recognize subconsciously according to widely held psychological principles’ and they give meaning to such stimuli (i.e. the interpret them subjectively in accordance with their needs, expectations, and experiences. Let us examine in more detail each Of these three aspects of perception selection, organization and interpretation of stimuli.
PERCEPTUAL SELECTION IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Consumers subconsciously exercise a. great deal of selectivity as to which aspects Of the environment—which stimuli—they perceive, An individual may look at some things, ignore others, and turn away from still others. In total, people actually receive—or perceive—only a small fraction of the stimuli to which they are exposed. Consider, for example, a woman in a supermarket.
1. Nature of the Stimulus
Market stimuli include an enormous number of variables that affect the consumer behaviour/perception, such as
• Nature of Product
• Physical appearance of Product
• Package Design
• Brand Name
• The advertisements and commercials
• Position of commercial
• Time of commercial
• Editorial environment
2. Expectations
People usually see what they expect to see, and what they expect to see is usually based on familiarity, previous experience, or preconditioned “see”.
In a marketing context, people tend to perceive products and product attributes according to their own expectations. The man who has been told by his friends that new brand of Scotch has a bitter taste will probably perceive the taste to be bitter, a teenager who attends a horror movie that has been billed as terrifying will probably find it so.
3. Motives
People tend to perceive things they need or want ; the stronger the need, the greater the tendency to ignore unrelated stimuli in the environment. A business man concerned with fitness and health is more likely to notice and to read carefully an ad for a health club than one who is without such concerns.
4. Attitudes
Consumer attitudes are a composite of a consumer’s
(1) beliefs about,
(2) feelings about,
(3) and behavioural intentions toward some object–within the context of marketing, usually a brand or retail store.
These components are viewed together since they are highly interdependent and together represent forces that influence how the consumer will react to the object. It is evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people or value. It reflects how we feel about something.
5. Interest
State that power the force an attitude has towards manifestation in a person’s behaviour
6. Experience
It states that anticipation of a particular behaviour from a person that affects what a person perceives.
PERCEPTUAL ORGANISATION IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
People do not experience the numerous stimuli they select from the environment as separate and discrete sensations, rather, they tend to organise them into groups and perceive them as unified wholes. Thus, the perceived characteristics of even the simple’s stimulus are viewed as a function of the whole to which the stimulus appears to belong. This method Of organization simplifies life considerably for the individual.
The specific principles underlying perceptual organization are often referred to by the name given the school of psychology that first developed and stressed it—Gestalt psychology. (Gestalt in German means “pattern” or “configuration”) Three of the most basic principles of perceptual organization centre on figure and ground relationships, grouping, and closure etc.
- FIGURE AND SOUND
Sometime stimuli must contrast with their environment in order to be notified. A sound must be louder or softer, a colour, brighter or pales.
The simplest visual illustration consists of a figure on the ground. It consists of:
• Sound
• Size
• Background
• Novelty
• Contrast
Sound: Sound level or noise level is physical quantity measured with measuring instrumental. Loudness is a psycho-physical sensation perceived by the human auditory perception or human ear/brain mechanism.
Size: Larger object is more likely to be noticed as compared to-smaller.
Background: Some time the background consideration changed the overall view of picture or image for example in images.
Novelty: Novelty is uniqueness or peculiar idea, likely to attract anyone’s attention.
White person or a black person in India catches attention faster. Contrast like
- GROUPING
Individuals tend to group stimuli automatically so that they form a unified picture or impression. The perception of stimuli as groups or “chunks” of information, rather than as discrete bits of information, facilitates their memory and recall.
Grouping can be used advantageously by marketers to imply certain desired meanings in connection with their products. For example. an advertisement for tea may show a young man and woman sipping tea in a beautifully appointed room before a blazing hearth. The grouping of stimuli by proximity leads the consumer to associate the drinking of a tea with romance, fine living, and winter warmth.
Most of us can remember and repeat our social security numbers because we automatically group them into three chunks rather than nine separate numbers. When the telephone company introduced the idea of all-digit telephone numbers, consumers objected strenuously on the grounds that they would not be able to recall or repeat so many numbers. However, because we automatically group telephone numbers into two chunks (or three, with the area code), the problems that were anticipated never occurred.
In the above images the proximity and similarity is shown.
Proximity: Proximity or geographical proximity is an important factor from formation of groups. For the same reason an individual behaviour may be perceived to be group behaviour.
Similarity: But real is all the ball are not happy in image, on basis of Similarly and difference, items are placed in groups to recognize fast as compared to ungrouped.
- CLOSURE
Individuals have a need for closure, They express this need by organising their perceptions so that they form a complete picture. If the pattern of stimuli to which they are exposed is incomplete, they tend to perceive it nevertheless as complete. That is, they consciously or subconsciously fill in the missing pieces. Thus, a circle with a section of its periphery missing will invariably be perceived as a circle and not as an arc. The need for closure is also seen in the tension and individual experiences when a task is incomplete, and the satisfaction and relief that come with its completion.
PERCEPTUAL INTERPRETATION
The preceding discussion has emphasized that perception is a personal phenomenon. People exercise selectivity as to which stimuli they perceive, and organise these stimuli on the basis of certain psychological principles. The interpretation of stimuli is also uniquely Individual, since it is based on what individuals expect to see in light of their previous experience, on the number of plausible explanations they can envision, and on their motives and interests at the time to perception.
Stimuli are often highly ambiguous. Some stimuli are weak because of such factors as Poor visibility, brief exposure, high noise level, and constant fluctuation. Even stimuli that the strong tend to fluctuate dramatically because Of such factors as different angles of viewing, varying distances, and changing levels of illumination.