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Gustav Puth: Professor of Marketing Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Pierre Mostert: Product Manager, Telkom SA Ltd, Pretoria, South Africa
Michael Ewing: Senior Lecturer of Marketing, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
Introduction
Comparisons between competitive brands
Product attributes play an important role in marketing communication for both the consumer and the marketer alike. Consumers use attributes as the basis for evaluating a product and attributes promise benefits consumers seek when purchasing a product. Consumers also use attributes to make comparisons between competitive brands. The importance of studying attributes goes beyond the physical features of a product since consumers link attributes to benefits of purchasing and consuming products. These benefits, or consequences, in turn lead to certain end states or values that consumers wish to achieve (Aaker et al., 1992; Belch and Belch, 1995; Kotler, 1991; Mowen, 1993; Peter and Olson, 1994).
Decision-making process
Although the focus of this study is on product attributes and their function in advertising, it is important to note that it is the consumer's perception of product attributes that is of crucial importance to the marketer. As Lewin (1936) points out, people respond on the basis of their perceptions of reality, not reality per se. Porter (1976) confirms that perceptions are important to study, even if they are misconceptions of actual events. Attributes and their function can therefore not be discussed in isolation. Analysis of the consumer perception and decision-making processes is therefore extremely important to assist the marketer to understand consumer behaviour, draft better positioning strategies and develop more effective advertising campaigns based on product attributes and the associated perceived benefits.
The perception process has long been recognised as the most significant barrier to effective communication. It is at this point that the sender does or does not get through to the receiver (Aaker and Myers, 1987), since correct decoding of marketing information hinges on the consumer's perception of the communication content (Koekemoer, 1991). The process of decoding may further be influenced by the level of abstractness of the material. Consumers nevertheless act and react on the basis of their perceptions, not on the basis of objective reality. With this in mind, it is important that marketers understand the whole notion of perception and its related concepts so...