Perception is a process of analysation of sorts of sensation we as human beings gather in our world. These sensations are gathered by every living being on the planet through their inbuilt senses within their bodies, for example the sensation of light is gathered through a living beings eyes. In other words, sensation is the “functioning of our senses and the immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin) to basic stimuli such as light, colour, sound, odour and texture” (Solomon, Michael, et al).
Perception is the next step living beings take after gathering sensory information, and can be defined as “the process by which these sensations are selected, organised and interpreted” (Solomon, Michael, et al). The study of perception therefore focuses on what we add to these raw sensations in order to give them meaning.
Over the years, marketers have capitalised on the general landscape of what we add to these raw sensations to create meaning, and market their products toward meaning taken that is positive in order to maximise likability of the product. For example, the scent of fruit is gathered through sense of smell and is found by a lot of people to be sweet, mouthwatering, fresh and pleasurable . People who find the scent and taste of fruit to have these positive effects will naturally have a liking towards fruit, and will create a personal attachment to the fruit. In other words, their perception of fruit will be that of a positive one. Marketers can use this information to their advantage when marketing and designing their products. For example, a company could scent their soap with citrus flavours like orange, raspberry and blueberry to attract people who already have a positive perception of fruit to buy their products (Shapiro, B, 2013). Consumers in todays world generally need some type of soap to stay hygienic, so by coupling this necessity with a positively perceived item such as fruit will naturally attract more consumers to the product. Overtime, people will begin to associate the product and its nature with fruit, and so the product gains the original perceptions that fruit has.(Shapiro, B, 2013). In this case, the soap would be perceived as sweet, nice smelling, having the ability to keep you fresh like fruit etc.
Perception of everything in this world therefore is very important in a person’s understanding of an object or person, which is why marketers take it heavily into account when promoting their brand and company (Friederichsen, P, 2017). Adidas is of course no different being one of the world’s leading clothing and activewear brands and use many perception techniques within promotion and design of products to increase the want for their brand. The major perception tool used in Adidas’ products is “stimulus selection factors”. This refers to factors of the product that catch the eye of consumers better than other factors (Solomon, Michael, et al). Due to the modern world and the ease of sensory overload from all the distractions that can affect us marketers must find a way for their brand or product to stand out in order to grab their attention, and these selection factors Adidas use are very effective ways of doing so.
Adidas has a reputation, especially within their sports selection to design their products with a vast variety of bright and contrasting colours, whilst also having a selection of more standard colours as well. This is done on purpose by Adidas for many reasons. Use of bright and attention grabbing colours forces the eye to look at the product before other things in its field of view which leads to more exposure of the product. Colour for attention is not the only reason it’s used though however as colour also has commonly associated meanings as well. For example, alot of Adidas’ tracksuits and jackets are black with white stripes. This colour scheme is chosen as black typically represents elegance and elite reputation (Solomon, Michael, et al) and Adidas wants consumers to feel that way when they wear their brand. As mentioned earlier though Adidas typically have products in every colour imaginable in order to create an image of diversity and range within their brand and also to account for the many type of colour meaning that people find desirable.
The second stimulus selection factor used heavily within Adidas is it’s clever use of positioning. Research over the years has proven that products placed at eye level gain the most traffic of interaction, and that from a front on view products slightly placed to the right of the viewer get the most attention. Adidas of course like many other companies use this research within their ads and product layout in store. Adidas ads will almost always display their logo in the bottom right of the medium to allow the eye to view it most easily, and products in store that the company wish to gain consumer traffic such as discounted products or stock that must go will be placed towards the right of the store or the right of a display wall (Solomon, Michael, et al).
References:
Shapiro, B (2013) Scent Adds Sophistication to Hair Products, The New York Times
Friederichsen, P (2017) Brands Can Get Type Cast Too, Business Strategy Insider
Solomon, Michael., Russell-Bennett, R. and Previte, J. (2019) Consumer Behaviour, Australian Edition, 4th Ed., Pearson
Adidas Marketing 101 