Perception Experiment

I carried out a perception experiment which involved analyse two competing retail department store's atmospheres in order to test whether perception theories are able to be accurately applied in today's society.

The theory under investigation were the black model in this experiment.

The experiment was undertaken to analyse of the use of atmospheres in two competing department stores John Lewis and House of Fraser as well as to test out theory regarding perception. A personal observation was carried out by myself in these stores in order to gather and record information regarding the use of music, lighting, colour and store layout in trying to influence people’s perception in these stores. During this experiment an observations were made on each of the floors of these two departments in order to observe the layout of the store and the way that products were displayed their products. I listen attentively to the music which was being played and noticed what types of the flooring was used in these stores. Also, an observation was made to the different types of lighting that was used by the store and how bright they made the stores as well what colours were displays in the two department stores. Stimuli were used to make decide on what information should be recorded and what was less relevant to be recorded in this task.

Personal observation is a research strategy that an individual observers the phenomenon as they are occur. – Malhotra second edition. Page 214.

The finding of the experiment

The findings of the experiment was that House of Fraser is located in as town centre in the Eden shopping centre. Cox, Fourth edition pg 116, Many department stores tend to be located in shopping complexes as a result they receive many consumers visiting their stores in order to purchase products. However, the department store John Lewis is actual location in a out of town location in Cressex. This retail outlet tries to influence people’s perceptions by the store being location in a less noise, crowded atmosphere and where there is less traffic congestion. Also, John Lewis are able to increase their income/consume as they are not located near their direct competitors whereas House of Fraser is located near another retailer who specialises in selling similar products which they sell in their store.

Layout of store

The above shows the John Lewis store layout of their branch in High Wycombe. McGoldrick, second edition, page 468. This department store has adopted a free-flow store layout which enables their consumers to have more freedom to move around the store and tends to increase impulse purchases. As a result of John Lewis having this layout allows them to be flexible so they can rearrange the store whenever they wish to do so.

The store layout House of Fraser has is a boutique store layout as the department are “arranged in the form of speciality individual speciality shops, targeted at specific market segments”. Also House of Fraser has concession of well kno

wn brands like Ted Baker inside their stores. .

Below is an image of ground floor of House of Fraser.

In regards to John Lewis product positing,

they only displayed designer goods together such as DKNY bags and perfumes.

Whereas products like small electronic products were displayed together in spite of their brands. Levy, fifth

edition page 608, Also on the first floor of John Lewis the sports were displayed on “feature fixture” according to their brands. Although House of Fraser have concession to separate their brands and products.

Furthermore, I found that during this exper

iment the lights which were on the ground floor were much brighter than the

first floors one as I walked around in the store despite the fact that the first floor has a selection which displays lights.

In relation to House of Fraser their store lights were much bright than John Lewis throughout their store. The picture displayed on the left hand side is of House Of Fraser and the picture displayed on the right hand side is John Lewis's department store. As you can see clearly the department store of House of Fraser is much more bright and airer than John Lewis's department store. In relation to the music bein played in the department store of House of Fraser was Pop/Rock whilst in John Lewis no music was being played whilst their customers are shopping in their store.

The limitation of this experiment was that I should have been more structured and should have planned the experiment before undertaken it by specifying in detail what is needed to be observed as well how the information was to be recorded. Malhotra second edition. Page 213.

Another limitation of this experiment is that it can be time consuming as I had to plan and structure the research in order to observe the atmospheres of these two large department stores. Also another limitation was the expense of the experiment as I travelled to John Lewis which was located outside the town centre. Malhotra second edition. Page 256