perception
Definition:
A complex process by which people select, organize and interpret sensory stimulation into a meaningful picture of the world. A fundamental aspect of perception is that it represents the receiver's effort to organize received stimuli into a meaningful structure. In doing so two major groups of factors are involved - stimulus factors and functional factors. Stimulus factors are neutral in the sense that they are intrinsic to the stimulus and so will be received in exactly the same way by all receivers with normal sensory capabilities. On receipt the brain organizes the incoming stimuli into patterns following four basic tendencies: similarity, proximity, continuity and context. By similarity we understand the tendency of the receiver to group similar things together, while proximity results in the perception that things which are close to one another belong together. In marketing practice similarity is to be seen in the concept of segmentation, while proximity is employed in the use of prominent people to endorse particular products, in the use of generic brands like Safeway, and so on. The need to impose a meaningful structure on stimuli is particularly noticeable in the case of continuity, which is closely associated with closure. The phenomenon of continuity is well illustrated by Sperling with the use of a simple diagram like that shown in Figure 20. In this one sees the dots as straight lines rather than as separate dots, and as two continuous lines rather than four short ones. Closure occurs when one completes an otherwise incomplete diagram, picture, sentence etc. Finally, context, or the setting in which a stimulus is received, will have a marked effect upon perception (see any basic book for illustrations of the context influencing perception). In this sense context can have a similar 'halo' influence to proximity and is frequently used by marketers when seeking to develop an image of a product by using media or a setting which conveys the overall impression they wish to create, e.g. use of the Sunday colour supplements to convey a feeling of quality allied to value for money, or young people in leisure situations for Coca-Cola. As noted, stimulus factors are neutral and create sensations which are then interpreted in light of what are generically termed functional factors. Thus individuals have an ability to screen out stimuli which they do not understand or do not wish to recognize, just as they also have an ability to modify stimuli to make them acceptable to us - a phenomenon sometimes termed SELECTIVE PERCEPTION. Another perceptual phenomenon of importance to the marketer is that of PREPARATORY SET, which, put simply, means that people tend to perceive objects in terms of their expectations (see CLOSURE). A well-known marketing manifestation of the influence of preparatory set is the use of branding and price labelling. Hence, while consumers are unable to distinguish between unbranded products they have no such difficulty when brand names are given. Similarly, Gabor and Grainger, Shapiro and others have clearly demonstrated that we use price as an indicator of quality and will select products with a higher price as 'better' when no differences exist with those carrying a lower price and even when the higher-priced items are objectively inferior.
Cross-References:
[preparatory set]
[closure]
[selective perception]
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© Westburn Publishers Ltd 2002, The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing edited by Michael J Baker, ISBN 978-0-946433-01-8. www.themarketingdictionary.com. Entry: [Michael J. Baker and Jennifer L. Drayton], [1998].