Week Three - Sensation

Welcome back! I hope you now have a little insight into perception and how it relates to marketing. This week Ruth wanted to go into more depth about the perception process, starting with sensation. Marketing companies know that consumers are subjected to stages of information processing in their minds using stimuli to input and store in our minds. The meaning of stimuli according to Solomon et al (2010) “Is interpreted by the individual, who is influenced by their unique biases, needs and experiences.” Consumers concentrate on certain stimuli, because the brain’s capacity of processing information is restricted, consumers are particular about what they process and pay attention to. Perceptual selectivity makes the consumer acknowledge to only a minimal quantity of stimuli in which they are exposed to in everyday life. They pick and choose among stimuli to require to their needs so they cannot be bombarded with advertising.

As explained briefly before sensation, attention and interpretation make up the process of perception. Sensation is the immediate response of our five senses through stimuli such as light, colour and sound. I wanted to do an experiment and took my mum to Tesco in Rickmansworth, and put this to the test. More importantly, it would determine if the marketing company had done their research and had tapped into their consumers five senses. Here are examples shown in the tables below how the five senses are used in a variety of products. 


P.s Special thank you to my mum for being a good sport!


Example one: Old El Paso Burritos!

Five Senses
Sound	The sound of the spices shaking in packet.
Sight	The look of the packaging using bright bold colours draws immediate attention. The packaging has tried to perceive it self as a Mexican style villa. It tries to make you feel you do not have to go to Mexico to eat delicious food, but you can have Mexico come to you! We all know burritos are not the healthiest of choices, however using pictures of fresh, crisp looking lettuce and tomatoes this gives the impression of it being fresh and healthy.
Smell	With the large burritos taking up half of the front of the packaging, looking cooked to perfection it is almost like you can smell it yourself, imaging the smell of the spices mixed with the meat.
Touch	The packaging feels ‘silky smooth’.
Taste	The reasons for the sense of smell are the same for taste. On the front of the packaging it shows a picture of a large burrito. The bold colours and the size of the burrito draw your eye to the picture. Looking gives you a sense of what it tastes like.

Example two: Splenda!

Five Senses
Sound	The sound of light splenda shaking in the box when moving it. It almost reminds me of a rain shaker.
Sight	Again the look of the packaging using bright bold colours draws immediate attention. The packaging has used italic style writing, which gives it a smooth, flowing appeal. With bold pictures of tasty looking treats, it is trying to indicate you can still have all these treats with fewer calories. It can possibly make consumers think they can still loose weight, whilst still eating cake!
Smell	With the large cake and other treats on the front of the packaging, it is almost like you can smell the fresh cake coming straight out of the oven.
Touch	The packaging feels ‘silky smooth’. It seems to flow, there are no extreme edges.
Taste	The reasons for the sense of smell are the same for taste. On the front of the packaging it shows a picture of a cake. The bold cake again draws your eye to the picture. Looking gives you a sense of what it tastes like.

So, I have a proposal to you. Go to your local supermarket or shop and choose a packaging that catches your eye. Using your five senses (sound, sight, smell, touch and taste) analyse the packaging and see what it does to your senses. Then come back on to my blog, and share your findings! Doing this we can see how different packaging effects us. 

Hope to hear from you and come back next week when I will be learning about the last stages of the perception process, attention and interpretation.