CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR 3 : PERCEPTIONINDUVIDUAL DETERMINATS OF

BEHAVIUOR
INTRODUCTION
To understand the buyer and to make a customer out of him is the main purpose of
thestudy of consumer behaviour. Though this problem has been analysed from
different viewpoints under different premises, it still remains a complex one. On the
other hand the buyeris a riddle. He is a highly complex entity. His needs & desires
are innumerable. Some arelatent, some manifest and some others are highly
dominant. These have different priorities inthe his scheme of things. The buyer has
his own ideas & plans about realising these needs &desires. The first & foremost
task of the marketer is to get close to the buyer and understandhis need-structure &
priorities.
There are four major factors which influence the behaviour of the consumers. They
are :
1.Psychological factors influencing Customer Behaviour
2.Social Psychological factors influencing Customer Behaviour
3.Sociological factors influencing Customer Behaviour
4.Economic factors influencing Customer Behaviour

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
These are the factors which are the personal attributes of an individual. We shall
study Fiveof them : Attitude, Motivation, Perception, Personality and Learning.
Perception
Different people see things, events, and ideas from different view point, and hold
differentopinions, views for them. In other words they have different Perception of
the world.
Definition of perception :
Perception is defined as the process by which the individual selects, organises, and
interpretsvarious stimuli into a meaningful & coherent picture of the world.
Marketers are deeplyinterested in such perceptions the consumers hold about their
products & services, brands,company etc.
Elements of perception :
The following are the elements of perception :
1.Sensation is the immediate & direct response of the sensory organs to stimuli.
Astimulus is a single input of any of the senses. Human beings have sensory
receptorscalled sensory organs. They are :

a.Eyes for sights & seeing,

b.Ears for sounds & hearing,
c.Nose for smells & smelling,
d.Tongue for tastes & tasting,
e.Skin for textures, touch & feeling,
2.Marketers try to stimulate the sensory organs
of a consumer to create a favourableperception towards their products.

3.Absolute threshold is the minimum level that the individual can experience a
sensation.In other words, he can distinguish the difference between something &
nothing. This levelvaries from person to person & vary with time, place &
environment. Marketers often try to provide stimuli more than this level.
4.Differential Threshold or Just Noticeable Difference (JND) is the minimal
difference thatcan be detected between two similar stimuli. German scientist Ernst
Weber discoveredthat the JND between two stimuli is not absolute, but an amount
relative to the intensityof the first stimulus. Thus marketers try to change
certain attributes which are just shortof JND.
5.Subliminal Perception there are certain types of stimuli which are not strong
enough toexceed the absolute threshold, but somehow stimulates the subconscious
mind & getrecorded there, sometimes without the knowledge of the perceptor. At
a later stage
thismight surface as some form of expression or perception. Here the marketers
try tostimulate the subconscious mind of an individual. Some think its unethical,
but thereare several positive outcome of this method if applied in a constructive
way.
Information processing :
is a series of activities where the stimuli are perceived & processed to
convert/transformthem to information, and then stored (very similar to computer
data processing). Later thisinfo is used in selecting a product.
1.Exposure : Exposure occurs when our senses detect some external cue from the
variousthings we come in contact with. We are all exposed to a plethora of
marketing adscontinuously. This becomes the starting point of all information
processing. But peopletend to perceive things they need or want. The stronger the
need, the greater thetendency to ignore unrelated stimuli. Hence
Selective Perception occurs when
theconsumer selects the stimuli from the environment on the basis of interaction of
expectations & motives with the stimulus itself. These factors give rise to four
importantconcepts concerning perception :

a.
Selective exposure where the consumers want to avoid unpleasant or painfulmess
ages & seek those which are sympathetic, interesting and pleasant.b.Selective
attention or perceptual vigilance where the consumers exercise selectivityin terms
of their attention to commercial stimuli. They have a heightened
attentionregarding the stimuli that meet their needs, & minimal attention to the one
sirrelevant to their needs. People also vary in terms of kind of info like price,
quality,features etc., forms of messages & type of medium they
prefer.c.Perceptual defence where consumers
subconsciously screen out stimuli that arethreatening or damaging even if the expo
sure has already taken place. Likewisesometimes they unconsciously distort the
information that is not matching
theirneeds, values, & beliefs. This may be due to psychological factors or anyunfavo
urable past experience.d.Perceptual blocking where
consumers protect themselves from being exposed
byblocking such stimuli from conscious awareness. They do it for self protectionbec
ause of the visually overwhelming nature of the world we live in.2.Attention :
Normally all the stimuli of a message come thro the various sensory
organssimultaneously. But an individual can remember only one of them, usually
the strongestand tries to take action on that basis. Marketers try to exploit that
situation to theiradvantage, to leave an impact in the consumer. This is known
as attention.

a.Stimulus is the one which prompts an individual to initiate an action by creating

anattention. It has the following characteristics : Size & Intensity; Colour &
Movement;Position; Format & Design; Isolation; Contrast or Distinction; Information
extent.b.Individual factors The attention of a consumer depends on the following
factors :Interest & Needs; Ability; Involvement, etc.c.Situational factors Often the
situation, condition, environment or the
surroundingof the consumer have an affect on its attention of certain stimuli. Hence
themarketers should devise certain methods to help overcome that.3.Interpretation
Just like peoples exercise of selective perception on the basis of
certainpsychological principles, the interpretation of these stimuli is also
highly individualbecause it is based on what the individuals expect to see in the
light of their previousexperience, motives, interests, reasoning at the time of
perception. In the case of anyambiguous stimuli, the individuals usually interpret
these in such a way to serve theirown needs, interests, wishes, etc.
Consumer Imagery :
Consumers have a number of enduring perceptions or images of themselves.
Products &brands have also a symbolic value for consumers, who evaluate them on
the basis of theirconsistency (congruence) with the perception of themselves. This
is the consumers self-image& they attempt to preserve or enhance it by buying
products & brands or patronising services which they believe are congruent with
their self-images and avoiding which are not. Thisphenomenon is known

as consumer imagery.1.Product Image - where the consumer compares his selfimage with his perception of theproduct or brand.2.Service Image - where the
consumer compares his self-image with his perception of theservice or its provider.
Perception in Marketing :
Marketers have realised that understanding the perception process of consumers
help themto design better ways to help them perceive favourably. The main
methods of stimuli are thro advertising, communication, messaging, company news
etc. Thus the marketers have todevelop specific stimuli thro these methods so that
the consumers perception about theirproducts clearly & enduringly. These are some
techniques :
1.Brand development & Perceptual Mapping This technique helps the marketers to
determine how the products or services appear to the consumer in relation the
othercompetitive brands on one or more relevant attributes of the products or
services.2.Retail Stores In retail stores normally all the brands in a particular
category of productsare arranged at the same place, so they have a direct
competitive setting. The brands which claim to be special in any respect should be
specially displayed to gain attention.