The document discusses the key stages in information processing: 1. Exposure, where a consumer comes into contact with a marketing stimulus. Factors like ad placement influence exposure. 2. Attention, where a consumer allocates mental activity to a stimulus. Attention is selective, limited, and can be divided. Methods to enhance attention are discussed. 3. Perception, where stimuli activate the senses. Perception of visual, auditory, taste, smell and touch stimuli are examined. Principles of perceptual organization are also covered. 4. Comprehension, where a consumer tries to understand a message. Sources of inferences and objective vs. subjective comprehension are addressed.

1. Exposure, Attention,
Perception

2. What is Information Processing?
2
Information Processing:
◦ Forming beliefs and attitudes about a single object (e.g., watching
an ad and forming an attitude towards the advertised brand)
Decision Making:
◦ Choosing among several brands
◦ Buy / no-buy decisions

3. Reminder: A Model of Complex
Decision Making
3
Problem
Recognition
Information
Acquisition
Information
Processing
Comparative
Evaluation/
Purchase
Post-Purchase
Evaluations

4. A Model of Information Processing
Exposure,
Attention
Perception Understanding
Outcome:
Attitudes
sensations information
Memory / Prior Knowledge
Individual
Consumer
Environmental
Characteristics
Stimuli
beliefs

5. 5
Exhibit 3.1
Chapter Overview:
From Exposure, to
Comprehension

6. Chapter Overview
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 Exposure
(e.g., Consumer Must “See” Your Message)
 Attention
(e.g., Consumer Must “Look at” Message)
 Perception
(e.g., Consumer Must “Take In” Message)
 Comprehension
(e.g., Consumer tries to “Understand” Message)

7. Exposure
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“The process by which a person (consumer) comes into contact
with a (marketing) stimulus.”
Factors Influencing Exposure
◦ Ad location and scheduling (magazine or TV) and product placement
◦ Product distribution and shelf placement
Selective Exposure
◦ Zipping and Zapping

8. Attention
“The process by which a person allocates part of his / her mental
activity to a stimulus.”
 Characteristics of Attention (“Paying attention”)
 Selective
 Can Be Divided
 Limited
 Focal vs. Nonfocal Attention (hk.yahoo.com)
 Preattentive Processing: Liking and Choice
 Hemispheric Lateralization
8

9. Hemispheric Lateralization
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10. Marketing Implications:
Methods of Enhancing Attention
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Make the Stimuli:
 Personally Relevant
 Appeal to Needs (e.g. hungry  food
ads)
 Using Similarity
 Using Dramas
 Using Rhetorical Questions
(e.g. Who wants to be a Millionaire?)
 Pleasant
 Using Attractive Models
 Using Music
 Using Humor
 Surprising
 Using Novelty
 Using Unexpectedness
 Using a Puzzle
 Easy to Process
 Prominent Stimuli
 Concrete Stimuli
(e.g. Sunlight vs. Joy)
 The Amount of Competing
Information
 Contrasting Stimuli

11. Using a Puzzle
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12. Exposure and Attention: A Quick Review
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Exposure: The process by which a person (consumer) comes
into contact with a (marketing) stimulus
Attention: The process by which a person allocates part of
his / her mental activity to a stimulus.
◦ Selective
◦ Can Be Divided
◦ Limited
◦ Focal vs. Nonfocal Attention

13. Perception
The process by which stimuli activate one of
the five senses: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and
touch
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14. Perception
14
 Perceiving Through Vision
 Size and Shape
 Lettering
 Image location (on package)
 Color:
 E.g. Warm vs. Cool colors
 Effects: Moods, Physiological Responses, Liking

15. Perception
15
 Perceiving through hearing
 Consistency in message delivery
 Sonic identity: e.g. McDonalds
 Sound symbolism: e.g. fast vs. slow music
 Perceiving through taste
 Food sampling

16. Perception
16
Perceiving Through Smell
◦ Physiological and emotional responses
◦ Product Trial
◦ Effects: Liking and Buying
Perceiving Through Touch
◦ E.g. clothes

17. When Do We Perceive Stimuli?
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Absolute Thresholds
◦ The lowest level of stimulation at which you can detect a difference
between “something” and “nothing”
Differential Thresholds
◦ Just Noticeable Difference (JND)
 Change in stimulus intensity required to result in detection of a change
◦ Weber’s Law
 The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater the change required for the
second stimulus to be perceived as different

18. When Do We Perceive Stimuli?
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 Weber’s Law
 The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater the change required for the
second stimulus to be perceived as different
 Usually a constant proportion (k) of the baseline intensity of the stimulus.
 Example: if k = 0.1
 Case 1: initial price of hamburger = $5, so ∆ S?
 Case 2: initial price of hamburger = $50, so ∆ S?
∆S (i.e., Change in Stimulus Intensity)
k =
S (i.e., Initial Stimulus Intensity)

19. The “Betty Crocker” Brand:
Evolution of a Brand Image 1920-2000
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What psychological principle has been exploited here?

20. When Do We Perceive Stimuli?
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 Subliminal Perception
 “Eat Popcorn”, “Drink Coke”
 Does Subliminal Perception Affect
Consumer Behavior?

21. How Do Consumers Perceive a Stimulus?
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Perceptual organization: The process by which stimuli are organized into meaningful
units
1.Figure and Ground
 Interpreting a stimulus in the context of the background
2.Closure
 Organizing perceptions to form a meaningful whole
3.Grouping
 A tendency to group stimuli to form a unified impression
3.Bias for the whole
 Perceiving more value in a whole than in the combined parts that make up the whole
(e.g. $500 vs. 5 x $100)

22. Figure and Ground: Examples
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23. Closure: Examples

24. Grouping: Examples

25. ComprehensionComprehension
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 Source Identification
 Comprehension: Try to understand
 Objective Comprehension: The extent to which a receiver correctly
understands the message
 Subjective Comprehension: What the receiver thinks s/he knows (may or may
not be correct)
 Miscomprehension = Objectively wrong

26. Sources of Consumer Inferences
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 Brand Names and Brand
Symbols
 Misleading Names and Labels
(e.g. lite)
 Inappropriate or Similar Names
 Product Features and
Packaging
 Product Attributes
 Country of Origin
 Package Design
 Color
 Price
 Retail Atmospherics,
Displays, and
Distribution
(e.g. discount store)

27. Consumers make
inferences based on
a brand’s country-of-
origin.

28. 28
 Memory and Knowledge (Session 10 and 11)
 Read Chapter 4