Perception establishes the meaning about a product or brand when a consumer makes initial contact. In marketing, this is described as consumer information processing. At this stage all of the senses are engaged in receiving brand marketing communicate messages. In marketing literature, four distinct stages of perception occur during consumer information processing: sensation, attention, interpretation and retention.
Sensation describes what occurs when a person's senses are initially exposed to the external stimulus of a product or brand marketing. The sensory receptors of a consumer are engaged by product or brand cues through sight, sound, smell, taste and texture. For example, Starbucks engages all the senses in its sensory brand marketing. A customer who enters a Starbucks coffee shop may hear the sounds and smell the aroma of the grinding of fresh coffee in the store. Background music and a unique store design round out the experience of the taste of hot or cold coffee and food products that can be enjoyed in-store at quaint cafe tables.
In consumer information processing, attention occurs when a person lingers and gives mental processing capacity to the external stimulus from a product or brand. Selective perception is when a consumer pays attention to messages that are consistent with her attitudes, beliefs and needs. When a product is inconsistent with these factors, the consumer will withdraw attention.
Interpretation occurs when a person assigns a meaning to the sensory stimulus from a product or brand marketing. Comprehension is aided by expectations and familiarity. A consumer scans his memory to retrieve previous experiences with the brand or a similar brand. Store-brand marketing frequently capitalizes on the interpretation stage when product packaging design contains logos, colors and other elements that are similar to national brands that consumers are generally more familiar with.
The conclusion of the consumer perception process is the retention stage. This is marked by the storage of product or brand information in short-term and long-term memory. The marketer's goal is to provide positive stimuli in the proceeding stages that translate into consumers storing the information about the product or brand into long-term memory.
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