Developing a Marketing Strategy

Perceptual Process

Today's lecture I learnt about the perception process and what factors are involved within this process. The perception process is a procedure, which consists factors such as people, experiences and objects that
influence humans.
The three main stages of the perceptual process are Sensation, Attention, and Interpretation. Each stage involves a different process and interpreting stimuli. Perception is unique to everyone, as everybody experiences things differently through their senses such as:

*Sight
*Sound
*Touch
*Smell
*Taste

An overview of the perceptual process:

Stimuli

*Sight
*Sound Sensory >>> Attention >>> Interpretation >>> Response >>> Perception
*Touch
*Smell
*Taste

This diagram is taken from Solomon,M.Bamossy (2006)pp37

Kotler's buyer decision process:

This process illustrates five factors, which relate to customers buying habits.
This theory takes place for customers who are usually purchasing a product for the first time. The five factors help customers to decide whether there is a low or high involvement and how the model is impacted by the level of participation in the product category. The five factors are:

*Need recognition
*Information search
*Evaluations of alternatives
*Purchase decision
*Post purchase behaviour

Havard perceived risk model:

This theory was established by the Havard Business School in the 1960s. According to this theory behaviour of customers depends upon an individual's subjective perception of the risk inherent in buying a product, therefore people's tolerance levels relating to risk tends to vary.

Perceptual Set:

The perceptual set enables individuals to develop a persistent and deep rooted way of perceiving, thinking and believing. Vernon 1955, stated that "we get set in our ways".

The perceptual set can be influenced by the marketing strategy. This process works as a selector and interpreter, also it is beneficial as it can help prevent us from problem solving as it focuses on the mind.

The Gestalt Psychology:

The Gestalt principle of 'Closure' illustrates that consumers tend to observe an incomplete picture as complete, the reason for this is because the mind tends to deprive meanings of pictures that are not perceived fully an example is given below:



The principle of 'Similarity' takes place when objects look similar to one another. Consumers tend to collect
together objects, which share similar physical features. An example is given below:



The principle of 'Figure-Ground' is used when elements in a scene are similar in appearance and shape; they can then be grouped
together as a whole. Similar elements such as figure are contrasted with dissimilar elements such as ground in order to give an impression as a whole. An example is given below:



Perceptual mappping:

Perceptual mapping is developed in order to help marketers with their marketing positioning strategy for their products and services. Perceptual maps help organisations identify a marketing postioning strategy as this strategy attempts to visually represent perception of customers or potential customers for a organisation.
When plotting a perceptual map two dimensions are commonly used. A basic perceptual map is shown below:

Diagram: Perceptual Map UK Confectionery Brands



Perceptual maps are plotted on the basis of people's perception, therefore some people may have different opinions about a certain product than others, for example Milktray maybe seen as a quality product to someone, however this may not be percieved as quality to another.

Example ads:

Some of the adverts that represent perception are given below:

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This advert represents the perception of beauty, it shows how images can be transformed and changed.

This advert shows more illusions in advertising by using the Gestalt theory.
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