Perception Continued...

This week, we put our 'perception' knowledge into practice and devised some experiments that would test our classmates perception. Natasha and Laura used a variety of visual perception tests to discover what we saw clearly in the foreground and what we disregarded in the background.
The picture to the left can either be seen as a young woman or an old hag. It is your perception which interprets the way that you see it. Natasha and Lauran found that 7 out of the 8 particpiants (four female and four male) saw the young maid with only one seeing the old hag. This concept of foreground and background is important to printed advertising as a means of marketing communications. For example the picture to the right is an effective printed advert for wonderbra as the product is in the foreground and the image conveys the busty 'wonder' image that they are trying to achieve.

Natasha and Laura's experiment gave us all valuable insight into our visual perceptions and how this can be applied into marketing communications. However, it is not only visual techniques that can produce effective marketing communications but all of our other senses too. For example, Agata and Magdalena showed the class how perception can be aroused through smell. We were asked to smell different shampoos and discuss their price and if we could relate it to a brand. A majority of the participants recognised the brand of Dove and everyone identifed the cheapest brand which smelt the worst. This highlighted that our sense of smell is an important part of our perception and that we relate a less inticing smell to a cheaper brand. This lead to a discussion about the success of Dove in creating a smell which is continuous across their products, therefore making it clearly identifiable.

This developed into a more academic discussion of the perceptual set which can be best described by Vernon (1955) '' the individual develops a persistent and deep rooted way of perceiving, thinking and believing''. The perceptual set works as a selector interpreter and can be influenced heavily by marketing strategies. Our tendancy to try to make sense of things means that we actively seek to process stimuli and make some sense of it. This concept is important in Gestalt Psychology. In essence:

Gestalt is the German word for "form," and as it applied in gestalt psychology it means "unified whole" or " configuration." The essential point of gestalt is that in perception the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

To understand the complexities of Gestalt psychology please click on the following link : Gestalt Psychology