Perception and Purchase Decision

Scenario 1

I walk into a departmental store and as I walk towards the laundry aisle the staff pops out of nowhere to introduce me to this new product called, ‘Wishwash washing powder’. They offer me a hefty discount and assure me cleanliness like never before. My reaction is thanks but no thanks. My sister on the other hand does try new brands.

I have always been curious about the role of perceptions in consumer behaviour. Take any advertisement for that matter. Advertisements aim at influencing human behaviour to make a purchase decision. My brother who was into media buying shared interesting information some years back. He mentioned that most of the advertisements are addressed to capture the attention of children, the reason he cited was that while making purchase decisions, children play a huge role.

Now that I have children of my own, I quite identify with that statement. Most of my life decisions and not just limited to purchase is around children and what will work for them, what will benefit them, what will suit them and what will enhance them. The fact that I buy ‘Wishwash’ or not also is determined by that very factor.

What is driving my decision here?

My knowledge and experience that the current brand I use is safe and my belief that something new could be risky. The obvious being brand and value for money. I also accept that usage of a certain brand can be seen as a cognitive bias. My sister, however, seems to be rather objectively dealing with the situation and believes in making a perception based on newfound experience. Therefore even though both of us are going with the same agenda, one is working with the brand association- a perception which is biased given prior experience and the other one is open to objectively studying it to reach to a conclusion.

Scenario 2

Come festivals and stores go crazy with on Sale marketing. I normally avoid walking into stores on those days but did happen to visit one last year. It was crowded. It seemed people were buying clothes in bulk and maybe spending more than they originally intended to. The place hardly has a place to stand, and trial rooms were forever busy. Even though I had gone with the intention to purchase, I came out empty-handed.  I did see people carrying two to three bags of clothing.

What is driving my decision here?

I came across the concept of Loss aversion which means avoiding the possibility of losing what we want. Lot of decisions during the sale are made keeping this in mind. Discounts, offers, etc are thrown people’s way to create a delusion of the potential loss. There are a lot of buyers including myself who don’t want to spend time in endless queues or billing lines for the stuff that sometimes companies seem to be simply dispensing to get the new stock at original cost. On second thoughts, that could be a cognitive bias.

 There are a lot of perceptions at play. Too costly, too cheap, too complicated, too simple, not for our community, religious bias, my friend has its bias, one of its kind preferences, In-group bias, the world is full of them.  All of these affect our purchase decision and the marketers know how to leverage them.

Having this said, should it stop us taking decisions based on our perceptions? It is like saying should we stop breathing just because the air is polluted. Therefore no, just being aware will be a good idea, just like I realized my bias about the sale. Just as marketers leverage our perceptional biases we should be aware of our own and how it affects us. 

Be aware of your perceptions and how they are affecting your daily decisions. That is the first step in living a balanced life.