Perception in the Marketplace

Solomon described the world we live in as ‘overflowing with sensations’. It is from these sensations that forms our perception of the world. Our interpretation of different stimuli controls our opinions and views – they change the way we see the world. Marketers are now purposely appealing to these senses to change consumer’s perceptions, and opinions of their particular brand and product.

Marketers now largely contribute to many stimuli in our world today. They are creating all types of advertising, which are specifically design to appeal to our five senses. This may take the form of a colorful billboard, sound of a radio advert or the fragrance of a clothing store.


The stimuli are everywhere, Assael (1981) tells us we are ‘…exposed to 300-600 advertisements in a normal day’. Solomon describes this as an ‘bombardment’, which leads the human brain unable to process all, and looses the consumers attention – this is the same reason you may find your self sometimes ‘switching off’ and your attention shift. Soloman tells us ‘only a very small number of the stimuli in our environment are ever noticed. Of these, an even smaller number are attended to.’ This means marketers now need to further appeal to senses, in hope for grabbing consumer's attention

One example of sensor advertising, would be Car manufacture Lexus with their strap line, ‘The loudest sound your hear inside the Lexus is yourself thinking’ It is appealing to your sound sense, interacting with the consumer as he/she stands in silence to test how quiet a Lexus engine really is.

Also Netherland’s cleaning product Dreft is another good example. Their adverts appeal to senses via brightly coloured posters relating to the nation’s patriotic colour – ‘so the ad simultaneously underlines the colour-protecting qualities of the product and, though the national colour code, refers to the strength of the Dutch Nation’ (Solomon’s Consumer Behavior) So by using certain colours dreft successfully managed to relate the quality of their product to the country their consumers live in. This is evidence of marketers using specific colours to appeal to specific groups, proving we all have different perceptions and opinions.