Product Perception By Michelle Olguin & Karen Dambroski Undergraduate Students Fort Lewis College Durango, Colorado

Introduction In this fast past world one tends to spend as little time as possible Choosing a product The main focus of today’s consumer Is to get into the store Purchase what they need and leave.

Introduction So what grabs the attention of the consumer? Does the product have to be designed in such a way that captivates the consumers attention? Or has the consumer used a product for so long that it creates predictability and reliability?

Key Theories & Points According to Kotler& Rath, (1984) “when consumers are given the choice of two products, equal in price and function, target consumers buy the one that they consider to be more attractive”. According to an article by Bloch (1995), the product form is significant in a larger sense because it affects the quality of our lives due to the perception of beautifully designed products that may provide a sensory pleasure and stimulation.

Research has shown: Consumers tend to rely on repeat product purchases. The appearance of the box and the wording captivates their interest. The design on the product is entirely different therefore making it more successful in calling attention to the product.

Key Theories & Points According to Bloch (1995) “the combination of the wording and the appearance of the product tend to work together as they convey a message to a variety of consumers that the product is the one that they should purchase”. High quality design management can lead to heightened visual impact, greater information efficiency and considerable consumer self- satisfaction (Kotler and Rath, 1984).

Research has shown: Consumers will recognize differences in the design and try a new version of the same product because the new design appeals to them. Or a design that effectively communicates to the consumer that the product can be in fact healthier for them and the consumer will purchase it based on that fact.

Possible explanations of consumer choices. The overall design of the product, the wording, the messages and the feelings that the consumers get is what actually get the consumer to purchase the product.

Specific Research Question In the presence study the experimenters would anticipate that gender does make a difference when purchasing a product. The experimenters would expect that males would be more prone to picking the less attractive well- known brand, which was the total toothpaste. The females would be more prone to picking the sparkling toothpaste because it would appear to be most glittery and appealing in appearance The herbal toothpaste, would not be picked by either males or females because it is plain in appearance.

Methods to test the Hypothesis: The overall design of the study is that of a simple experiment. The experiment consisted of sixty-two undergraduate students whose ages ranged anywhere from 18 to 45.

Research Design Independent Variable - was gender Dependent Variable - were the three brands of toothpaste SparklingHerbalTotal Males Females

Materials The materials distributed in this experiment consisted of two sheets, a cover sheet and the actual test page The cover sheet consists of a simple version of a consent form and a space to include their background information.

Materials The actual test page was a five point rating scale used to rate each box using the following five adjectives. The five adjectives used to describe how the subjects perceived the boxes were glittery, colorful, appealing, bold and luminous.

Procedures The experimenters went to two locations on the college campus to conduct this experiment/snack bar and cafeteria. The experiment required 30 females and 30 males to view the toothpastes. The experimenters presented the stimuli to participants in one of six completely counterbalanced orders. This enabled the experimenters to eliminate product bias when subjects approached the display table.

Procedures The subjects who viewed the boxes, rated them accordingly. The experimenters would ask the subjects to indicate on the back of the sheet which of the three products they would most likely buy and why.

Results This study used twenty-eight females and males that were originally collected from the sixty-two subjects. Four subjects were excluded: one male decided to withdraw and one female was a faculty member. The other two subjects did not give a specific reason why they chose the product that they did. The experimenters did not use their data in their experiment.

Results A two-way chi square test was used to analyze and report the data of the 56 subjects who were applicable. SparklingHerbalTotal Males37%19%44% Females38%45%17%

The Results The Data collected appear to be sufficient evidence to conclude with at least 95% confidence that males differ from females in their preference for a particular package. X 2 (2)=6.42, p=0.04,effect size=0.12, which constitutes a medium effect.

Figure 1 This shows the differences in gender when it comes to choosing which Colgate product was most preferred

Table 2 is more affective in showing a side by side comparison of the differences in males and females.

Discussion The present study appeared to show that males and females differ in their product perception. The experimenters did not know what caused the differences in the gender perception of the product but speculations are as follows. In general males seemed to be repeating purchasers and the females tend to try new products. Females seem to make a conscious effort to try products that are natural and better for their bodies.

Further Directions for Research Our suggestions as researchers are males in general tend to go to the store, purchase what they need, and leave without browsing. Females in general on the other hand tend to browse all over the store therefore enabling them to explore new products and possibly purchase a new product.

Problems with Methodology This experiment used gender as a quasi- experimental variable because the experimenters were not able to manipulate anything. There was not an experimentally controlled variable. The experimenters only have a description that males differ from females in which product they would most likely purchase.

Further Directions for Research Directions to take this simple experiment would be to broaden the subjects by going to other places other than a college campus and offer to rate more than one brand of toothpaste.

Feed Back What are some of the reasons you, as an audience, would think causes the difference in the gender perception?