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STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 3

Exposure, Attention, and Perception

MODULE OVERVIEW

In this module you will be able to examine how information in consumers’ environments (ads,
prices, product features, word-of-mouth communications, and so on) is internally processed by
consumers—how they come in contact with these stimuli (exposure), notice them (attention), and
perceive them.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, you should have:

1. discuss why marketers are concerned about consumers’ exposure to marketing stimuli and what
traditional and nontraditional tactics they use to enhance exposure.

2. explain the characteristics of attention and how marketers can try to attract and sustain consumers’
attention to products and marketing messages

3. describe the major senses that are part of perception and outline why marketers are concerned about
consumers’ sensory perceptions.

LEARNING CONTENTS (Factors Influencing Exposure)

Before any type of marketing stimulus can affect consumers, they must be exposed to it. Exposure refers to
the process by which the consumer comes into physical contact with a stimulus. Marketing stimuli are
messages and information about products or brands and other offerings communicated by either the marketer
(via ads, salespeople, brand symbols, packages, signs, prices, and so on) or by nonmarketing sources (e.g.,
the media, word of mouth). Consumers can be exposed to marketing stimuli at the buying, using, or disposing
stages of consumption. Because exposure is critical to influencing consumers’ thoughts and feelings,
marketers must ensure that consumers are exposed to stimuli that portray their offering in a favorable light.
The position of an ad within a medium can affect exposure. Consumers’ exposure to magazine ads is
greatest when they appear on the back cover because the ads are in view whenever the magazine is placed
face down. Also, consumers are most likely to be exposed to ads placed next to articles or within TV
programs that interest them. Exposure to commercials is greatest when they are placed at the beginning or
end of a commercial break within a program because consumers either are still involved in the program or are
waiting for the program to come back on. Some advertisers sponsor commercial-free TV programs in which
the company gets product placement within the show or airs a single ad before or after the show. Moreover,
product distribution and shelf placement affect consumers’ exposure stores in which the product is. The
more widespread the brand’s distribution is (the more available), the greater the likelihood that consumers will
encounter it. Likewise, the product’s location or the amount of shelf space allocated to it can increase
consumers’ exposure to a product. Consumers are most likely to be exposed to products that are displayed at
the end of an aisle or those that take up a lot of shelf space. Products placed from waist to eye level get more
exposure than those placed higher or lower. Exposure also increases for products placed at locations in the
store where all consumers must go and spend time. For example, sales of some products increase because
of their higher exposure in point-of-purchase displays at checkout counters in supermarkets, automotive
stores, and restaurants. to brands and packages.

Selective Exposure

While marketers can work very hard to affect consumers’ exposure to certain products and brands, ultimately
consumers, not marketers, control whether their exposure to marketing stimuli occurs or not. In other words,

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consumers can actively seek certain stimuli and avoid others. Readers of Vogue magazine are more likely to
selectively expose themselves to fashion-oriented ads, whereas readers of Car and Driver choose to look at
different kinds of ads. Some consumers try to ignore the ads altogether. Online, a growing number of Internet
users have software to block “pop-up” ads that would otherwise open while a Web page is loading. One
reason consumer’s want to avoid ads is that they are exposed to so many that they cannot possibly process
them all. Consumers avoid ads for product categories that they do not use (this action indicates that the ads
are irrelevant to them); they also tend to avoid ads they have seen before because they know what these ads
will say. With zipping, consumers record TV shows and fast-forward through the commercials when viewing
the shows later Consumers zip through up to 75 percent of the ads in recorded shows—yet they can still
identify the brand or product category of many ads in shows they zip through. Although digital video recorders
now allow consumers to skip ads easily, users choose to watch specific ads that seem relevant and
interesting, especially eye- catching ads for forthcoming movies. With zapping, consumers avoid ads by
switching to other channels during commercial breaks. Approximately 20 percent of consumers zap at any
one time; more than two-thirds of households with cable TV zap regularly.

Measuring Exposure

Why would advertisers pay nearly $3 million for a single 30-second spot during the Super Bowl? In part, they
do it because projections of exposure measurements indicate that hundreds of millions of consumers around
the world will watch the game. Marketers are very interested in determining which media will generate
exposure to their marketing stimuli and whether the desired exposure rates have actually been reached. How
to measure exposure to websites and online advertising is a big concern. At present, advertisers have no way
of knowing exactly how many consumers see an Internet ad, although they can track the number of people
who click through to reach an ad. Earlier measures of online audiences, such as page views—the number of
pages that people see—do not account for newer technologies that let users view a marketer’s content on
multiple sites (such as YouTube). Marketers are therefore pushing for standardization in the way that Internet
exposure levels are measured so they can fine-tune their targeting and better measure the results of
marketing campaigns.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1

Questions for Review and Discussion:

How do zipping and zapping affect consumers’ exposure to stimuli such as products and ads?

What is selective exposure in consumer behavior?

L LEARNING CONTENTS (Attention)

Attention The process by which an individual allocates part of his or her mental activity to a stimulus.

Characteristics of Attention

Attention has three key characteristics: (1) it is selective, (2) it is capable of being divided, and (3) it is limited.

 Attention Is Selective

Selectivity means that we decide what we want to focus on at any one time. At any given time, we are
exposed to a potentially overwhelming number of stimuli. When we go to a store, for example, we are
exposed to numerous products, brands, ads, displays, signs, and prices all at the same time. Because we
cannot examine all these marketing stimuli simultaneously, we must determine which to focus on. Research
shows that people pay less attention to things they have seen many times before. Attention can also be
affected by goals: If we look at a product’s package with the goal of learning how to use it, we may be more
likely to read the directions than to read about its ingredients. Because attention is selective, consumers
searching for information online can decide what to focus on

 Attention Can Be Divided

A second important aspect of attention is that it is capable of being divided. Thus, we can parcel our

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attentional resources into units and allocate some to one task and some to another. For example, we can
drive a car and talk at the same time. We can allocate attention flexibly to meet the demands of things in our
environment, but we also have the potential to become distracted when one stimulus pulls our attention from
another. If we are distracted from a product or ad, the amount of attention we devote to it will be greatly
reduced. Knowing that viewers can divide their attention, TV networks reinforce their brands and flash on-
screen reminders of upcoming shows during other programs.

 Attention Is Limited
A third, and critical, aspect of attention is that it is limited. Although we may be able to divide our attention, we
can attend to multiple things only if processing them is relatively automatic, well practiced, and effortless.
Imagine that you are watching TV and, at the same time, listening to your friends talk. If the conversation turns
serious, you will need to turn down the TV so you can devote your attention to your friends. The fact that
attention is limited explains why consumers browsing in an unfamiliar store are less likely to notice new
products than when those same consumers browse in a familiar store. Consumers will inevitably miss some
products when they try to pay attention to many unfamiliar products.

 Focal and Non focal Attention

These three characteristics of attention raise questions about whether we can attend to something in our
peripheral vision even if we are already focusing on something else. For example, when we read a magazine
article, can we process the information in an adjacent ad—even if our eyes are concentrating on the article
and we are not aware of the ad? When we drive down the highway, can we process any information from a
roadside billboard if we are focusing only on the road?

 Pre attentive Processing

To the extent that we can process information from our peripheral vision even if we are not aware that we are
doing so, we are engaged in pre attentive processing. With pre attentive processing, most of our attentional
resources are devoted to one thing, leaving very limited resources for attending to something else. We devote
just enough attention to an object in our peripheral vision to process something about the object. But because
attention is limited, we are not aware that we are absorbing and processing information about that object.

Hemispheric Lateralization
Our ability to process information pre attentively depends on (1)
whether the stimulus in peripheral vision is a picture or a word
and (2) whether it is placed in the right or left visual field (to the
right side or the left side of the object on which we are focused).
These factors are influential because of how the two halves of the
brain—the two hemispheres— process information. The right
hemisphere is best at processing music, grasping visual and
spatial information, forming inferences, and drawing conclusions.
The left hemisphere is best at processing units that can be
combined, performing tasks such as counting, processing
unfamiliar words, and forming sentences.
Interestingly, stimuli placed in the right visual field (ads on the
right side of the focal article or billboards on the right side of the
road) tend to be processed by the left hemisphere; those in the
left visual field tend to be processed by the right hemisphere.
Stimuli on which we focus directly are processed by both
hemispheres. These findings suggest that people will most likely
pre attentively process stimuli such as pictures in ads if the
pictures are placed to the left of a magazine article because the
processing takes place in the right hemisphere—the hemisphere
that is best at processing visual stimuli.
Likewise, stimuli such as brand names or ad claims are most
likely to be pre attentively processed if they
Hemispheric Lateralization are placed in the right visual field because
The two hemispheres of our brain specialize in processing different types of
information. When a stimulus is in focal vision, it is processed by both
they will be processed by the left
hemispheres. When it is in peripheral vision (i.e., it is not being focused on), hemisphere. Studies confirm that
it is processed by the opposite hemisphere. Information presented in the left consumers’ ability to pre attentively process
visual field is therefore processed by the right hemisphere. Exhibit 3.1
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pictures, brand names, or claims in ads depends on whether the ad is in the right or left visual field.

Pre attentive Processing, Brand Name Liking, and Choice

Although we may notice and devote some minimal level of processing to stimuli placed in peripheral vision, an
important question is whether such pre attentively processed stimuli affect our liking for an ad or brand or our
decisions to buy or use a particular brand. In fact, some research suggests that consumers will like the same
brand name more if they have processed it pre attentively than if they have not been exposed to it at all. Pre
attentive processing makes a brand name familiar, and we tend to like things that are familiar. Other evidence
suggests that stimuli processed pre attentively can affect consumer choices.

Customer Segments Defined by Attention

One set of researchers asked the following question: If we do pay attention to things that are relevant,
pleasant, surprising, and easy to process, can we identify groups or segments of consumers who are more
affected by relevance, pleasantness, surprise, and ease of processing? The answer to this question appears to
be yes. Researchers identified a group of consumers who paid minimal attention to an ad because the
elements in the ad were not relevant to them. A second group focused on things in the ad that were visually
pleasant, such as the picture. The last group spent the longest time looking at the ad and devoted equal
amounts of time to the picture, package, headline, and body text. One reason for their attention may be that
they viewed the product as personally relevant and its purchase as potentially risky. Hence the consumers
needed sustained attention to properly evaluate the ad’s information. Marketers often need to take steps to
attract consumers’ attention by making the stimulus (1) personally relevant, (2) pleasant, (3) surprising,
and/or (4) easy to process.

Make stimuli personally relevant. One of the most powerful

ways for a stimulus to be perceived as personally relevant is for
it to appeal to your needs, values, emotions, or goals. If you are
hungry, you are more likely to pay attention to food ads and
packages.

Make stimuli pleasant. Because people tend to approach

things that are inherently pleasant, marketers can increase
consumers’ attention to marketing stimuli by

 Using attractive models. Ads containing attractive

models have a higher probability of being noticed
because the models arouse positive feelings or a basic
sexual attraction.

 Using music. Familiar songs and popular entertainers

have considerable ability to attract us in pleasant ways.
As one example, General Motors has used music by Led
Zeppelin, Hum, and other groups to reach out to
Exhibit 3.2 prospective Cadillac buyers.
Capturing Attention
Consumers are more likely to pay attention
to ads with unexpected elements.  Using humor. Humor can be an effective attention-
getting device.

 Make stimuli surprising. Consumers are likely to process a stimulus when it is surprising due to its
novelty, unexpectedness, or puzzling nature.
 Using novelty. We are more likely to notice any marketing stimulus (a product, package, or brand
name) that is new or unique—because it stands out relative to other stimuli around us.
 Using unexpectedness. Unexpected stimuli may not necessarily be new to us, but their placement
or content differs from what we are used to, arousing curiosity and causing us to analyze them further
to make sense of them.

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 Using a puzzle. Visual rhymes, antitheses, metaphors, and puns are puzzles that attract attention
because they require resolution. Consumers tend to think more about ads that contain these
elements.

 Make stimuli easy to process. Although personal relevance, pleasantness, and surprise attract
consumers’ attention by enhancing their motivation to attend to stimuli, marketers can also enhance
attention by boosting consumers’ ability to process the stimuli.

Four characteristics make a stimulus easy to process: (1) its prominence, (2) its concreteness, (3) the extent
to which it contrasts with the things that surround it, and (4) the extent to which it competes with other
information.

 Prominent stimuli. Prominent stimuli stand out relative to the environment because of their intensity.
The size or length of the stimulus can affect its prominence. For example, consumers are more likely
to notice larger or longer ads than to notice smaller or shorter ones. This is why larger ads in yellow
pages directories generate more phone calls than smaller ads. Pictures in an ad capture attention
regardless of their size; increasing the amount of ad space devoted to text increases the viewers’
attention to the entire message.

 Concrete stimuli. Stimuli are easier to process if they are concrete rather than abstract.

 Concreteness is defined as the extent to which we can imagine a stimulus.

 Contrasting stimuli. A third factor that makes stimuli easier to process is contrast Color newspaper
ads are more likely to capture attention because they are surrounded by black and white, just as a
black-and-white TV ad is likely to stand out when aired during shows broadcast in color.

 The amount of competing information. Finally, stimuli are easier to process when few things
surround them to compete for your attention.

Habituation

When a stimulus becomes familiar, it can lose its attention-getting ability, a result called habituation.
Think about the last time you purchased something new for your apartment or room (such as a plant
or picture). For the first few days, you probably noticed the object every time you entered the room.
As time passed, however, you probably noticed the item less and less, and now you probably do not
notice it at all. You have become habituated to it.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2

Questions for Review and Discussion

 What is attention, and what are its three key characteristics?

 In what ways do prominence and habituation affect consumer attention?

LEARNING CONTENTS (Perception)

After we have been exposed to a stimulus and have devoted at least some attention to it, we are in a position
to perceive it. Perception occurs when stimuli are registered by one of our five senses: vision, hearing, taste,
smell, and touch.

Perceiving Through Vision

What arouses our visual perception?

Size and shape. Size attracts attention. When choosing among competing products, consumers tend to buy

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products in packages that appear to be taller than others; even the ratio of the dimensions of rectangular
products or packages can subtly affect consumer preferences. Moreover, consumers perceive that packages
in eye-catching shapes contain more of a product.

Lettering. The size and style of the lettering on a product or in an ad can attract attention and support brand
recognition and image. The distinctive Wendy’s script, for instance, is eye-catching and instantly identified
with the name of the hamburger chain.

Color. Color is an extremely important factor in visual perception. Research suggests, in fact, that color
determines whether we see stimuli. A given color can be described according to hue, saturation, and
lightness. Hue refers to the pigment contained in the color. Colors can be classified into two broad categories
or color hues: warm colors such as red, orange, and yellow; and cool colors such as green, blue, and violet.
Saturation (also called chroma) refers to the richness of the color, leading to distinctions such as pale pink or
deep, rich pink. Lightness refers to the depth of tone in the color. A saturated pink could have a lot of lightness
(a fluorescent pink) or a lot of darkness (a mauve).

Effects of color on physiological responses and moods. Color can also influence our physiological
responses and moods. Color psychologists have discovered that warm colors generally encourage activity and
excitement, whereas cool colors are more soothing and relaxing. Thus, cool colors are more appropriate in
places such as spas or doctors’ offices, where it is desirable for consumers to feel calm or to spend time
making decisions. Warm colors are more appropriate in environments such as health clubs and fast-food
restaurants, where high levels of activity are desirable. One study found that deeper and richer colors
(greater saturation) and darker colors evoked more excitement than did less deep and lighter colors.

Perceiving Through Hearing

Sound represents another form of sensory input. A major principle determining whether a sound will be
perceived is its auditory intensity. Consumers are more likely to notice loud music or voices and stark noises.
When the announcer in a radio or TV ad speaks more quickly, the faster pace disrupts consumers’ processing
of the information, yet a low-pitched voice speaking syllables at a faster-than-normal rate actually induces
more positive ad and brand attitudes. When a company uses one person to speak the voice-over lines during
many of its ads or plays the same jingle in many commercials, consumers come to associate those sounds
with the product or brand. McDonald’s and other firms consciously seek to define a certain sonic identity—
using sounds such as music or particular voices to support a brand’s image. Further, consumers infer product
attributes and form evaluations using information gleaned from hearing a brand’s sounds, syllables, and
words, a process known as sound symbolism.

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Exhibit 3.3 shows the influence of various in-store tactics perceived through vision, hearing, touch, and taste.

Perceiving Through Smell

If you were blindfolded and asked to smell an item, you would probably have a hard time identifying it; most
consumers do. However, consumers also differ in their ability to label odors. Compared with younger
consumers, the elderly have a harder time identifying smell and men in general are worse at the task than are
women. Marketers are concerned with the effects of smell on consumer responses, product trial, liking, and
buying.

Effects of Smells on Physiological Responses and Moods

Like the other senses, smell produces physiological and emotional responses. For example, the smell of
peppermint is arousing, and the smell of lily of the valley is relaxing.

Smells and Product Trial

Companies can expose consumers to marketing stimuli through their sense of smell. Smell (often in
combination with other sensory perceptions) can entice consumers to try or buy a food product. Krispy Kreme
designs its outlets so that customers can smell—and see—the doughnuts coming fresh out of the oven.

Smell and Liking

Retailers also realize that smells can attract consumers. For example, grocery retailers often locate in-store
bakeries so that the aroma of fresh bread can be smelled at the main store entrance.

Smell and Buying

Research has found that providing a pleasant-smelling environment can have a positive effect on shopping
behavior by encouraging more attention to relevant stimuli that consumers encounter and encouraging
consumers to linger longer. In one study, shoppers in a room smelling of flowers evaluated Nike shoes more
positively than did consumers in an odor-free room.

Perceiving Through Touch

Touch (both what we touch with our fingers and the way that things feel to us as they come in contact with our
skin) is a very important aspect of many products and services, although individual preferences for touch vary.
Depending on how we are touched, we can feel stimulated or relaxed. And research has shown that
consumers who are touched by a salesperson are more likely to have positive feelings and are more likely to
evaluate both the store and the salesperson positively. In addition, customers who are touched by the
salesperson are more likely to comply with the salesperson’s requests. However, the effectiveness of being
touched in sales situations differs from culture to culture.

When Do We Perceive Stimuli?

Our senses are exposed to numerous inputs at any given time. To perceive each one would be overwhelming
and extremely difficult. Fortunately, our sensory processing is simplified by the fact that many stimuli do not
enter our conscious awareness. For us to perceive something, it must be sufficiently intense. Stimulus
intensity is measured in units. The intensity of a smell can be measured by the concentration of the stimulus in
a substance or in the air. Stimulus intensity of sounds can be measured in decibels and frequencies, and
stimulus intensity of colors can be measured by properties like lightness, saturation, and hue. In the area of
touch, stimulus intensity can be measured in terms of pounds or ounces of pressure.

Perception Through Touch

Absolute Thresholds

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The absolute threshold is the minimum level of stimulus intensity needed for a stimulus to be perceived. In
other words, the absolute threshold is the amount of intensity needed for a person to detect a difference
between something and nothing. Suppose you are driving on the highway and a billboard is in the distance.
The absolute threshold is that point at which you can first see the billboard. Before that point, the billboard is
below the absolute threshold and not sufficiently intense to be seen.

Differential Thresholds
Whereas the absolute threshold deals with whether or
not a stimulus can be perceived,
the differential threshold refers to the intensity
difference needed between two stimuli before people
can perceive that the stimuli are different. Thus, the
differential threshold is a relative concept; it is often
called the just noticeable difference (j.n.d.). For
example, when you get your eyes checked, the eye
doctor often shows you a row of letters through different
sets of lenses. If you can detect a difference between
the two lenses, the new lens is different enough to have
crossed the differential threshold.

The differential threshold has two important

“Johnson’s moment” marketing implications.
Perception Through Touch
The way a product feels can influence whether consumers 1. Sometimes marketers do not want consumers
choose it.
Exhibit 3.4
to notice a difference between two stimuli.
Marketers of nonalcoholic beers, for example,
have hoped that consumers would not be able
to tell the difference between the tastes of real
and nonalcoholic beers. Some marketers might not want consumers to notice that they have
decreased a product’s size or increased its price, a situation that raises ethical concerns. For
example, some consumers were unhappy when they noticed that Nips had reduced the amount of
candy in its value pack from 5.5 ounces to 4 ounces.

2. In other instances, marketers do want consumers to perceive a difference between two stimuli. For
example, McDonald’s once increased the size of its regular hamburger patty by 25 percent but left the
price the same, hoping that consumers would notice the change. Many marketers hope that
consumers can tell the difference between an old and an improved product. However, sometimes
consumers cannot make the distinction because differential thresholds vary from sense to sense. For
example, since our sense of smell is not well developed, we often fail to differentiate the smell of two
versions of the same object.

Subliminal Perception

The concept of the perceptual threshold is important for another phenomenon— subliminal perception.
Suppose you are sitting at a movie and are being exposed to messages like “Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coke.”
However, each message is being shown on the screen for only a fraction of a second, so short a time that you
are not consciously aware of it. Stimuli of this type, presented below the threshold level of awareness, are
called subliminal messages, and our perception of them is called subliminal perception.

The question of whether stimuli presented subliminally affect consumers’ responses has generated
considerable controversy in the marketing field. A widely known but fraudulent study in the advertising
industry claimed that consumers at a movie theater had been subliminally exposed to messages on the movie
screen that read “Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coke.” Reportedly, exposure to these subliminal messages
influenced viewers’ purchase of Coke and popcorn.

How Do Consumers Perceive a Stimulus?

Perceptual Organization

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Our eyes naturally focus on information in the foreground as opposed to the background of an ad.

The principle of figure and ground suggests that people

interpret incoming stimuli in contrast to a background. People
tend to organize their perceptions into figure and-ground
relationships, and the manner in which this process occurs
will determine how the stimulus is interpreted.

Closure refers to the fact that individuals have a need to

organize perceptions so that they form a meaningful whole.
Even if a stimulus is incomplete, our need for closure will
lead us to see it as complete. We therefore try to complete
the stimulus. The key to using the need for closure, then, is
to provide consumers with an incomplete stimulus. For
example, putting a well-known television ad on the radio is an
effective way to get consumers to think about a message.
The radio version of the ad is an incomplete stimulus, and
consumers’ need for closure leads them to picture the visual
parts of the ad.

Exhibit 3.5
Grouping refers to the fact that we often group stimuli to
form a unified picture or impression, making it easier to
process them. We view similar or nearby objects as belonging together. Marketers can often influence the
image or perception of a product or service by grouping it with other stimuli.

The Exhibit 3.6 shows the two groups of yellow bottles

are seen as being different from the green bottle. In
advertising, companies sometimes include more than
one brand or product in message to generate exposure
through grouping. In merchandising, marketers often
create a unified impression by displaying related items as
a group. Consumers may perceive a table setting as
elegant when the napkins, napkin holders, wine goblets,
silverware, dishes, and serving bowls are cleverly
grouped.

Exhibit 3.6

Bias for the whole is the principle that consumers perceive more value in the whole of something than in two
or more parts that are equivalent to the whole. Say for example, Flight attendants on Cathay Pacific Airlines
ask passengers whether they will contribute their leftover foreign coins to UNICEF. Simply asking for spare
change, the airline has collected more than $1 million for UNICEF since 1991.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 3

Questions for Review and Discussion

 In what ways do prominence and habituation affect consumer attention?

 What is perception, and what methods do we use to perceive stimuli?

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 4

Consumer Behavior Case

“Heinz Is Looking for Attention”

From upside-down bottles and wacky-colored ketchups to unusual store displays and customer-created
television commercials, H. J. Heinz is definitely looking for attention. Although Heinz sells 650 million bottles
of ketchup each year, the company is anything but complacent about keeping its brands and products in the
public eye. One way it does this is by using special in-store displays. To catch the eye of tailgaters browsing in
Sam’s Club and other warehouse stores, the company has created cardboard displays shaped like the back
of a pickup truck and filled them with grab-and-go picnic packs of Heinz ketchup, mustard, and relish. When
Heinz introduces new products and packaging, it gains more shelf space, attracts attention, and highlights
each item’s appeal to the senses. Its E-Z-Squirt Ketchup, in vivid, child-friendly colors like green, purple, and
blue, was a standout on store shelves. Its organic ketchup comes in an upside-down squeeze bottle with a
green lid that sets the product apart while linking it to the category of natural and organic foods. Heinz is also
developing a sweeter variety of tomato for future ketchup products. However, what appeals to consumers’
taste buds in one country may not appeal in those in another country. “Consumer tastes are still very local,”
observes a Heinz executive, “[which is the reason why] we still like our recipes to be very locally tweaked,
even in ketchup.” Chefs, scientists, designers, engineers, and marketers work together to create and taste-
test new ketchups and other food products at the Heinz Global Innovation and Quality Center outside
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The result is untraditional new flavors keyed to specific markets, such as the chili
ketchup and sweet onion ketchup recently launched in U.K. stores. The center also hosts a “supermarket”
where marketers can observe how consumers behave as they walk down aisles filled with products by Heinz
and competing fi rms. With so many food products vying for attention in advertising media and on
supermarket shelves, getting consumers to notice a ketchup ad—let alone act on it—is another key challenge.
Heinz communicates through numerous messages running in print and broadcast media as well as online; it
also uses in-store and in-restaurant communications to reinforce brand image and loyalty. Heinz has also
sponsored Top This TV contests in which consumers submit homemade 30- second commercials featuring
Heinz ketchup, which are then posted on YouTube for viewing and voting. The top prize is $57,000 (a play on
“Heinz 57 varieties”) and a spot-on national TV for the winning commercial. To encourage participation and
wave the brand banner, Heinz promotes these contests on its ketchup labels, on TV, in print, and online.
Hundreds of consumers uploaded entries to the first two contests; many of these commercials, including
those created by the finalists, are still available on YouTube and on Heinz’s topthistv.com website. Media
coverage and word -of- mouth buzz spread the contest message quickly and kept people talking about the
homemade commercials even after the voting was over and the winners had been announced. Heinz also
mounted a contest to gain community attention and involve U.S. students and teachers with the brand and its
communications. The Ketchup Creativity contest invited students in grades 1 through 12 to submit artwork for
Heinz single-serve packets. From more than 15,000 entries, the judges chose 12 winners to have their
artwork displayed on millions of Heinz ketchup packets. Each winner received a $750 scholarship; each
winner’s school received $750 worth of Heinz ketchup and $750 worth of art supplies. Student created artwork
made the winning ketchup packets stand out and added to the visual appeal of a product that rarely gets the
spotlight to itself.

Case Questions

1. Using the concepts discussed in this module, explain how Heinz has been successful in generating
exposure and capturing attention. What other ideas would you suggest Heinz try to foster exposure, attention,
and perception?
2. In terms of exposure, attention, and perception, what are some of the potential disadvantages of Heinz’s
Top This TV contests?
3. Do you think that Heinz will gain long-term benefits from holding a contest for students that focused on the
visual appeal of designing single-serve ketchup packets? Explain your answer.

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY 10

 FM-AA-CIA-15 Rev. 0 10-July-2020

Study Guide in (COG 101 CONSUMER BEHAVIOR) Module No.3

Note: Submission of home base requirements on 09/28/2020 thru Professors’ E-mail Account
gsamson_ms@psu.edu.ph

SUMMARY

For a marketing stimulus to have an impact, consumers must be exposed to it, allocate some attention to it,
and perceive it. Consumers need a basic level of attention to perceive a stimulus before they can use
additional mental resources to process the stimulus at higher levels. Exposure occurs when the consumer is
presented with a marketing stimulus. Knowing that consumers’ exposure to marketing stimuli is selective,
marketers use a variety of tactics to increase stimulus exposure. Attention occurs when the consumer
allocates processing capacity to the stimulus. Attention is selective, divided, and limited. Using tactics such as
product placement does not guarantee that consumers will directly attend to marketing stimuli, although
consumers may attend to such stimuli pre attentively. Making a marketing stimulus personally relevant,
pleasant, surprising, or easy to process enhances its attention-getting properties. Consumers perceive a
stimulus by using one of their five senses: vision (through size and color stimuli), hearing (through sound
intensity, pitch, pace, and other characteristics), taste (especially for food and beverages), smell (affecting
responses, moods, trial, liking, and buying), and touch (affecting responses, moods, and liking). Consumers
can sometimes perceive things outside of their conscious level of awareness, a phenomenon called
subliminal perception, but this seems to have a limited impact on consumers’ motives or behaviors. Finally,
perceptual organization occurs when consumers organize a set of stimuli into a coherent whole, affected by
the principles of figure and ground, closure, grouping, and bias for the whole.

REFERENCES

Hoyer, W. D. MacInnis D. J. Pieters R. (2018). Consumer Behavior 7th Edition: South Western Cengage
Learning. USA.

Hoyer, W. D. MacInnis D. J. (2008). Consumer Behavior 5 th Edition: South Western Cengage Learning. USA.

Kardes, F.R., Cronley, M.L., and Cline, T. (2015). Consumer Behavior, 2 nd Edition, South-Western, Cengage
Learning.

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY 11