How We See the World around Us – Week Two

I have survived another week! This week, we learnt about perception. This is a procedure where stimuli selects, organises and interprets. Kotler (who people regard as the “God of Marketing”) and Armstrong (2009) define perception as: “The process by which people select, organise and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world.”

Perception is how individuals perceive our surroundings or “how we see the world around us” (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2003).

More definitions and a wider analysis of perception can found on websites such as:

http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/

http://www.webinteractiveconsulting.com/marketing/marketing-perception.php

This lecture made me think that even if my friends and/or family share similar interests with me, they see things from a completely different perspective, even if we are looking at the same thing. Ruth showed us a clip from an advert by The Guardian. This shows and explains well how we can all see the same thing, but see it differently. This link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3h-T3KQNxU

I wanted to find more examples of this which portrayed the same idea. I searched YouTube and found the following links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0SsgfstzDw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Keo97K9cs&feature=related

Ruth explained all of the different concepts that make up perception. These are: Sensation, attention and interpretation. Perception is a much broader concept in comparison to sensation. This is because sensation is the immediate response of our five senses through stimuli such as light, colour and sound. It also only simply involves receiving stimuli through sensory factors, whereas the perception process involves receiving raw data from each of the senses and then “filtering, modifying or transforming the data completely through the process of cognition” (ICMR 2010).

Attention is where individuals focus on stimuli when they are exposed to different products. Finally, interpretation is the process in which meanings are appointed to stimuli. No one will interpret the same stimulus as everyone is different. (Brassington & Pettitt 2007)

My prep which I completed for week 2 was making a start on my blog; I also sent my blog URL link to Ruth. In addition, I read through chapters 1 and 2 in more depth in the Solomon (2010) text book. From my outside reading I learnt that perception can impact on brand names.

This is because they usually have noticeably defined images or “personalities” created by their advertising, packaging, branding and other marketing strategies they use that focus on positioning a product a particular way or by groups of consumers adopting the product.

Therefore, individuals often chose a product, service, or subscribe to a particular idea, because they like the image they portray, or because they feel its “personality” “somehow corresponds to their own.” Perception and sensation defines marketing which appeals to our 5 senses as this is our way of how we perceive the world.

Finally within this lecture, Ruth explained how consumers process our buying decisions. Our buying decisions relate to two main theories. These are:

ü  The Howard-Sheth Model

ü  Engel Kollart – The Blackwell Model

I will create separate posts on these theories and explain them in depth in the next few slides. This is where it starts to get confusing! But first, let’s look at the 5 senses.

Hope to hear back from you.

Erica.