Chapter 3: Perception

schema

-The meaning we assign to a stimulus depends on the schema, or set of beliefs, to which we assign it. This in turn leads us to compare the stimulus to other similar ones we encountered in the past. -Identifying and evoking the correct schema is crucial to many marketing decisions because this determines what criteria consumers will use to evaluate the product, package, or message

semiotics

-a discipline that studies the correspondence between signs and symbols and their roles in how we assign meanings. -a key link to consumer behavior because consumers use products to express their social identities

kansei engineering

-a philosophy that translates customers' feelings into design elements. -the designers of the Mazda Miata focused on young drivers who saw the car as an extension of their body, a sensation they call "horse and rider as one.

colors

-influence our emotions more directly. Evidence suggests that some colors (particularly red) create feelings of arousal and stimulate appetite, and others (such as blue) create more relaxing feelings. -people associate darker colors with males and lighter colors with females.2

dollars and scents

-odors stir emotions or create a calming feeling, they invoke memories or relieve stress -we process fragrance cues in the limbic system, the most primitive part of the brain and the place where we experience immediate emotions

hyperreality

-refers to the process of making real what is initially simulation or "hype." -Advertisers create new relationships between objects and interpretant when they invent connections between products and benefits, such as when an ad equates Marlboro cigarettes with the American frontier spirit

adaptation

-the degree to which consumers continue to notice a stimulus over time. -occurs when we no longer pay attention to a stimulus because it is so familiar

rich media

-the use of animated.gif files or video clips to grab viewers' attention. -LowerMyBills.com is notorious for its endless loops of silhouetted dancers and surprised office workers, whereas other ads spring into action when you move the cursor over them.

sensory overload

-we are exposed to far more information than we can process -in our society, much of this bombardment comes from commercial sources, and the competition for our attention steadily increases

cultural factors

A food item's image and the values we attach to it (such as how vegans regard beef menu items, which is not kindly) influence how we experience the actual taste.

vision

Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising,store design, and packaging. They communicate meanings on the visual channel through a product's color, size, and styling.

webers law

The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a change must be for us to notice it

positioning strategy

a fundamental component of a company's marketing efforts as it uses elements of the marketing mix (i.e., product design, price, distribution, and marketing communications) to influence the consumer's interpretation of its meaning in the marketplace relative to its competitors.

index

a sign that connects to a product because they share some property

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 carries over to the company's approach to investments

audio watermark

a technique where composers and producers weave a distinctive sound/motif into a piece of music that sticks in people's minds over time

gestalt perspective

an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. The perspective provides several principles that relate to the way our brains organize stimuli: -The closure principle states that people tend to perceive an incomplete picture as complete. That is, we tend to fill in the blanks based on our prior experience. -The similarity principle tells us that consumers tend to group together objects that share similar physical characteristics. -The figure-ground principle states that one part of a stimulus will dominate (the figure), and other parts recede into the background (the ground).

trade dress

color combinations come to be so strongly associated with a corporation

media snacker

consumers who visit media venues about 27 times per nonworking hour—the equivalent of more than 13 times during a standard half-hour TV show

endowment effect

encouraging shoppers to touch a product encourages them to imagine they own it, and researchers know that people value things more highly if they own them

stages of perception

exposure: occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone's sensory receptors attention: extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus interpretation:

psychophysics

focuses on how people integrate the physical environment into their personal, subjective worlds

sensory data

from the external environment (e.g., hearing a tune on the radio) can generate internal sensory experiences; a song might trigger a young man's memory of his first dance and bring to mind the smell of his date's perfume or the feel of her hair on his cheek

age

influences our responsiveness to color. As we get older, our eyes mature and our eyes mature and our vision takes on a yellow cast. Colors look duller to older people, so they prefer white and other bright tones

hedonic consumption

multisensory, fantasy, and emotional aspects of consumers' interactions with products

perceptual selection

people attend to only a small portion of the stimuli to which they are exposed. consumers practice a form of "psychic economy" as they pick and choose among stimuli to avoid being overwhelmed.

haptic touch

plays in consumer behavior. Haptic senses appear to moderate the relationship between product experience and judgment confidence.

subliminal perception

refers to a stimulus below the level of the consumer's awareness

differential threshold

refers to the ability of a sensory system to detect changes in or differences between two stimuli.

sensation

refers to the immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers, skin) to basic stimuli such as light, color, sound, odor, and texture.

interpretation

refers to the meanings we assign to sensory stimuli. Just as people differ in terms of the stimuli that they perceive, the meanings we assign to these stimuli vary as well.

absolute threshold

refers to the minimum amount of stimulation a person can detect on a given sensory channel.

context effects

that subtly influence how we think about products we encounter.

eyeball economy

the argument that in today's media environment marketers compete for consumers' attention rather than their money

just noticeable difference

the minimum difference we can detect between two stimuli

sensory threshold

the point at which a stimulus is strong enough to make a conscious impact on a person's awareness

perception

the process by which people select, organize, and interpret these sensations, focuses on what we add to these raw sensations to give them meaning

sound symbolsim

the process by which the way a word sounds influences our assumptions about what it describes and attributes, such as size

embeds

tiny figures they insert into magazine advertising via high-speed photography or airbrushing

perceptual vigilance

we are more likely to be aware of stimuli that relate to our current needs

perceptual defense

we tend to see what we want to see and we don't see what we don't want to see. If a stimulus threatens us in some way, we may not process it, or we may distort its meaning so that it's more acceptable

sensory marketing

where companies think carefully about the impact of sensations on our product experiences. From hotels to carmakers to brewers, companies recognize that our senses help us decide which products appeal to us—and which ones stand out from a host of similar offerings in the marketplace.

multi-tasking

where they process information from more than one medium at a time as they alternate among their cell phones, TVs, and laptops