How perception influences consumer behaviour

Dr Catherine Ngahu talks about how perception influences consumer behaviour
Consumer perception is a major influencer of consume behaviour.
• For that reason, perception is of great interest to marketers as they strive to understand how consumers make buying decisions.
• Perception influences consumer behaviour. This topic basically relates to how an individual selects, organises and interprets the things they see, or hear, into a meaningful and clear or reasonable picture of the world,
• Perception is described as “How we see the world around us”. This is how perception influences in consumer behaviour.
• Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organises and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world, and this influences consumer behaviour
• A stimulus – is Any unit of input to any of the senses, - in marketing context this includes products, services, prices, and advertisements
A stimulus – is Any unit of input to any of the senses, - in marketing context this includes products, services, prices, and advertisement.
Marketers use the knowledge of perception to create strategies to influence consumer buying decisions. Perception basically relates to how individuals select, organise and interpret the things they receive through the senses into a meaningful and reasonable picture of the world.
An interesting thing is how two people can be somewhere and see the same thing but they will interpret it differently – you find one saying he was wearing a red shirt, the other says it was orange or blue or even green. That happens because of different ways of individuals perceive.
An interesting example of this is what happens when a crime is committed and witnesses give contradictory stories of what they saw. All this is because of differences in perception and interpretation. Consumers receive marketing input through the sensory receptors. Input regarding products, services advertising and prices comes to the consumer through the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.
Senses are the - Human organs (the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin) that receive the sensory inputs. They are called Sensory receptors
All these functions are called into play, either singly or in combination for the evaluating or use of most consumer products.
Sensation is the immediate and direct response of the sensory organs, to simple stimuli e.g. an advertisement.
Stimuli that are too weak or too brief to be consciously seen or heard may be enough to be perceived by one or more receptor cells.
This process is called “Subliminal Perception” because the stimulus is beneath the threshold, of awareness, though obviously not beneath the absolute threshold of the receptors involved.
How perception influences consumer behaviour also relates to price changes and the big difference in price between the before and after.
• Perception is dynamic and is not a function of sensory input alone, rather, it is the result of two different kinds of inputs, which interact to form the personal pictures, - the perceptions that each individual experiences.
• One type of input is physical stimuli from the outside environment.
• The other type of input is provided by the individual in the form of certain predisposition’s, such as expectations, motive, and learning based on previous experience.
• Since each individual is a unique entity, with unique experiences, wants, needs, wishes and expectations, it follows that each individual’s perceptions are also unique.
• This explains why no two people see the world in precisely the same way.
Perception is not a function of sensory input alone. It is generally the result of two different kinds of inputs, which interact to form the personal images that each consumer experiences. One type of input is physical stimuli from the outside environment while the other is the input provided by the individual in the form of certain preconceptions. Individual preferences are based on beliefs, expectations, motivations, and learning related to previous experience.
In Kenya today the recent increase in the price of petrol has caused serious concern because of the big difference in price between the before and after.
• Varying the product advertising to specific market segments so that consumers in each segment will perceive the product as meeting their own specific needs, wants and interests.


Dr Catherine Ngahu
Elevatus
00:00 Consumer perception and behaviour
00:22 What is perception?
01:37 Perception and the senses
03:03 Sensory receptors in perception
03:55 Sensation and perception
04:43 Subliminal peception
05:25 Perception is dynamic