How do we perceive the world?

As consumers we do not take the bigger picture into consideration, by this i mean when making a purchase of shoes,clothes, washing machines do we go on brand awareness or do we make the purchase on practicality?

Women are perceived to be more of a target audience for marketeers due to the fact they pay more attention to detail. Where a male would purely see what is in the foreground of an advert, a woman would take in much more of what is going on in the whole of the ad, the foreground and background combined therefore taking in the bigger picture.

For example looking at the picture above we can see it is an advert aimed at the male audience, as the product is right in the foreground of the picture,which has made the advertisement simpler for the male audience to comprehend.

As consumers we have a decision process which goes through our minds subconsciously when making purchases. There are five different stages that are taken into consideration which have been stated in the diagram below:

The first stage in the mind of a consumer is the thought "do I need this product". The following stage will be looking for where the product is available from. Next, the evaluation of alternatives so thinking about which brand to choose. Then they will make the decision whether to go ahead and purchase the product or not.

There are many different factors which influence a consumer when making a purchase. A consumers beliefs and attitudes can influence their buying habits. for example a person may not purchase clothes from a certain store because they do not agree with the working conditions in the country in which they are produced.

A persons lifestyle, career and income influence their spending patterns, these factors determine what they buy and how much they will spend, as does their social class, the more disposable income a person has the more money they will spend on higher quality goods.

“Perception is the process of sensing, selecting & interpreting consumer stimuli in the external world” (Wilkie 1994)

“… is how we see the world around us” (Schiffman & Kanuk 2003)

Are the fish changing into birds or is it the other way around? The point is that it could be interpreted either way round depending on how you perceive it. This is due to the fact that peoples perception on the same thing varies. In the same way, one person could look at the image and portray it in a certain way and then come back later and see something completely different.

Perception is seen as a three step process to produce a meaning:

• selecting

• organising

• interpreting