Page 82 - DMGT506_CONSUMER_BEHAVIOUR

Unit 5: Consumer Perception

Notes
season, crop yield and a host of other factors. Scale is a saviour in such a scenario as small
mills become unviable and often go broke during the cyclical lows.
Price
The fifth factor is possibly the simplest - the price you pay. Paying a sensible price can help
the investor avoid a great deal of pain associated with moody equity markets. Several
retail and professional investors got suckered into buying newly-fangled, esoterically-
named, mutual fund schemes or over-priced IPO's during the market peak of late 2008
only to lose their shirts over the next year.
Overpaying is possibly the most common risk the investor overlooks. As Buffett says, the
above factors are difficult to 'precisely quantify' but ''investors in an inexact but useful
way 'see' the risks inherent in certain investments without reference to complex equations
or price histories.''
The perception of various factors which are deemed 'risky' does not always lend itself to
a convenient number. But acknowledging that they exist and attempting to base the price
you pay after roughly factoring in those risks goes a long way in determining your
investment outcome.

Question
What are the implications for the diffusion of technological innovations?
Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com

5.4 Summary

Perception consists of those activities by which an individual acquires and assigns meaning
to stimuli.
Different individuals may be exposed to the same stimuli under the same conditions but
how each individual recognises the stimuli, selects them organises them and interprets
them is unique in case of each person and depends on each individual's needs, wants,
values, beliefs, personal experiences, moods, and expectations.
Sensation is the immediate and direct response of sense organs. Absolute threshold refers
to the lowest level at which an individual can experience a sensation. Differential threshold
is the smallest detectable difference between two values of the same stimulus and is
referred to as JND (Just Noticeable Difference).
Stimulus factors are physical characteristics of the stimulus itself, such as contrast, size,
intensity, colour, movement and position etc. Individual factors refer to individual's
characteristics, such as expectations, motives, and learning etc.
Individuals can also perceive stimuli, which are below their level of conscious awareness.
Such stimuli are too weak or brief to be consciously seen or heard but prove strong
enough to be perceived. This is referred to as subliminal perception.

Individuals interpret stimuli in their own unique way. This is based on personal
experiences, plausible explanations they can assign, their motives, beliefs, and interests at
the time of perception.

Marketers are particularly interested in how consumers differentiate between brands,
how they interpret images, what type of risks they perceive, and how they deal with risk.

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