Editing Consumer behaviour (section)

====Perception====
Part of marketing strategy is to ascertain how consumers gain knowledge and use information from external sources. The perception process is where individuals receive, organise, and interpret information in order to attribute some meaning. Perception involves three distinct processes: sensing information, selecting information, and interpreting information. Sensation is also part of the perception process, and it is linked direct with responses from the senses creating some reaction towards the brand name, advertising, and packaging. The process of perception is uniquely individual and may depend on a combination of internal and external factors such as experiences, expectations, needs, and the momentary set.

When exposed to a stimulus, consumers may respond in entirely different ways due to individual perceptual processes.<ref name=":1" /> A number of processes potentially support or interfere with perception. ''Selective exposure'' occurs when consumers decide whether to be exposed to information inputs. ''Selective attention'' occurs when consumers focus on some messages to the exclusion of others.  ''Selective comprehension'' is where the consumer interprets information in a manner that is consistent with their own beliefs. ''Selective retention'' occurs when consumers remember some information while rapidly forgetting other information.<ref>Trehan, M and Trehan, E., ''Advertising and Sales Management,'' New Delhi, VK Enterprises, p. 165</ref> Collectively the processes of selective exposure, attention, comprehension, and retention lead individual consumers to favor certain messages over others. The way that consumers combine information inputs to arrive at a purchase decision is known as ''integration''.<ref>{{cite book|author1=[[Lynn R. Kahle]] |author2=Pierre Valette-Florence |title=Marketplace Lifestyles in an Age of Social Media|year=2012|location=New York|publisher=M.E. Sharpe, Inc.|isbn=978-0-7656-2561-8}}</ref>

Marketers are interested in consumer perceptions of brands, packaging, product formulations, labeling, and pricing. Of special interest is the ''threshold of perception'' (also known as the ''just noticeable difference'') in a stimulus. For example, how much should a marketer lower a price before consumers recognise it as a bargain?<ref>Kardes, F., Cronley, M. and Cline, T., ''Consumer Behavior,'' Mason, OH, South-Western Cengage, 2011 p.329</ref> In addition, marketers planning to enter global markets need to be aware of cultural differences in perception.<ref>Weber, E.U., and Hsee, C., "[https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/mygsb/faculty/research/pubfiles/12855/Weber_CrossCultural_Differences.pdf Cross-cultural Differences in Risk Perception, but Cross-cultural Similarities in Attitudes Towards Perceived Risk]", ''Management Science,'' Vol. 44, no. 9, 1998, pp 1205- 1217</ref> For example, westerners associate the colour white with purity, cleanliness, and hygiene, but in eastern countries white is often associated with mourning and death. Accordingly, white packaging would be an inappropriate colour choice for food labels on products to be marketed in Asia.