Marketing communication: principles and practice

Figure 3.3
Need, motivation, and goal
Source
: Adapted from Wells and Prensky, 1996: 227

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Perception
Perception is the process by which a person generates data from the
environment, through the sense organs of the body, for incorporation into
cognitive processes of meaning and knowledge construction through
generation and synthesis. There is so much going on around us that we select
for attention from present experience only that which is most immediate or
interesting, rejecting that which is evaluated as not relevant or in conflict with
our adopted ideas (see the discussion on mindfulness later in this chapter).
Thus, we never have a full ‘mental map’ of the total possible world, and our
thinking is bound within our own ‘sub-world’ of live perception, previous
experience, and analogies drawn from other situations. Our mental map is
influenced by a number of factors (Table 3.3).
Learning
How do we turn our apprehension of what is going on around us into a basis
for judgement and action? We learn from what we observe as outcomes from
our past behaviour and may use this learning to modify our subsequent
actions. Several models of the cognitive process by which we translate data
about our environment into knowledge have been proposed. One such model
that is helpful to us is McGuire’s (1978) information-processing sequence
(Figure 3.4).
If a purchase is accompanied by undesirable outcomes, it may be rejected
in future action. On the other hand, satisfaction with product may increase
the likelihood that it will be selected the next time a similar need is felt.
Learning theory tries systematically to relate experience and subsequent
action. 
Messages in marketing communication are bundles of data constructed
by the producer as communicator that can be selectively attended to by other
people as corresponding communicators. These data can provide the basis
for the information sought in the purchase decision-making process.