What Is Consumer Perception?

Consumer Perception Theory (CPT) illustrates and explains one method through which advertising is effective. There are two basic concepts that need to be accepted in order for CPT to be understood: Cultural filtration, perceptual reality.

Cultural filtration is simply the reason that people perceive day to day life differently from one another. Each person is unique and has had a unique set of life events that shape the way they experience. An easy way of understanding cultural filtration is by comparing the cultural filter to a pair of sunglasses. When we wear tinted glasses we view the world as being the color of the lens, the same applies with our cultural filters. We gather our experiences on a wide variety of topics (politics, education, experience, vocabulary, travel, geographic location, cultural knowledge, tradition, family, heritage, race, ethnicity, sexuality, habits, etc) and form our own unique cultural filter. It is through this unique filter that we experience everything, including advertising. In the model above the pink tinted rectangle represents the cultural filter.