Individual Aspects

Of

Consumer Behaviour
- Perception

- Learning & Information Processing

- Motivation & Involvement

- Attitudes

- Personality
What do you see?
What do you see now?
What colour comes to mind?
8 Organizational
Behavior / Perception
9 Organizational
Behavior / Perception
What do you see?

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005

Now what do you see?
 What do you see?

Now what do you see?

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005

“ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS THEY

ARE, WE SEE THINGS AS WE ARE.”

 So….what then is perception?
-View the same event / phenomenon differently
& thus respond in a different manner.

- As diverse individuals we have a natural tendency to

consider reality as a unique personal occurrence, based on
his / her needs, wants, attitude, belief, value system & past
experiences.

- An individual behaviour is often connected to his / her

perception.
 Perception is the process of
selecting, organizing, and
interpreting or attaching
Perception
meaning to events
happening in the
environment.
 • Perception is the process by
which an individual selects,
organizes, and interprets the
Perception information he or she receives
from the environment.

• Perceptual defense leads to:

-Selective exposure
-Selective Attention
-Selective Interpretation
-Selective Retention (Memory)
Information Processing for
Consumer Decision Making
Exposure
Perception Random Deliberate

Attention
Low- High-
involvement involvement

Interpretation
Low- High-
involvement involvement

Short-term Memory Long-term

Active problem Stored experiences,
solving values, decisions,
rules, feelings

Purchase and consumption decisions

 Selective Exposure
• Most of the stimuli to which individuals are exposed
are self-selected.
• Exposure may be random or deliberate.
• Selective exposure includes:
– Zipping or net surfing
– Zapping or channel surfing
– Muting or A mute appeal
 Selective Attention
• Selective attention occurs when a consumer does or
does not notice a marketing stimulus.
• Stimulus factors influencing attention:
– Size and intensity
– Repetition
– Color and movement
– Position and isolation
– Format
– Contrast
– Information quantity
 The Impact of Size & intensity on
Advertising Readership*
55

40
One-page ads
Mean noted scores

24 have almost twice

the impact of
fractional-page
ads
2-page ads 1-page ads Fractional ads

Based on an analysis of 85,000 ads.

 Color and Size Impact on
Attention
200
179
180
160 145
140
117
120
100
100 *
80
60
40
20
0
1-page B&W 2-page B&W 1-page Color 2-page Color

*Readership of a 1-page black-and-white ad was set at 100.

 Selective Attention

• Individual factors influencing attention:

– Interest or need
– Ability to attend to information

• Situational factors influencing attention:

– Environment itself
– Program involvement
 Selective Interpretation
• Interpretation is assigning meaning to stimuli.
• Cognitive interpretation is the process of assigning
meaning to stimuli based on existing categories.
– Semantic meaning
– Psychological meaning
• Affective interpretation is the emotional response
triggered by a stimulus.
• Perceptual distortion occurs when a consumer assigns
meaning that is congruent with his or her prior beliefs
than it objectively is.
 Selective Interpretation
• Individual characteristics influencing interpretation:
– Learning processes
– Expectations
• Situational characteristics influence interpretation.
• Stimulus characteristics influence interpretation.
• Semiotics is the study of how meaning is created,
maintained, and altered.
• Sensory discrimination is the ability of a person to
distinguish between similar stimuli - Weber’s Law.
 Selective Retention
• People are selective in their tendency to receive
certain information & retain it in such a way that
will support their preconceptions.

• People are likely to retain information that supports

their beliefs & attitudes.
 Factors influencing perception

A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort

perception. These factors can reside in the perceiver, in the

object or target being perceived or in the context of the

situation in which the perception is made.

28 Organizational
Behavior / Perception
• Factors influencing Perception
Factors in the perceiver
• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations
Factors in the situation
• Time Perception
• Work Setting
Factors in the Target
• Social Setting
• Novelty
• Motion
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
29 • Proximity Organizational
• Similarity Behavior / Perception