JND of marketing

PRODUCT PROMOTION: A customer chooses a brand or a product not by knowing the exact contents of the product or the way it was produced but simply by the perception he had formed about the product through aesthetics of the product, its ads or because of the association it has with one of his favourite celebrities etc. he believes in his perception, thus it forms the reality and the person decides to buy/reject a product.

The term "J.N.D." is widely used and a very significant one which a marketer can use appropriately to market his product by influencing the customer's perception about the product and its attributes.

The minimal difference that can be detected between two stimuli is called the differential threshold or the just noticeable difference (JND).

The J.N.D. between two stimuli is not an absolute amount but an amount relative to the intensity of the first stimulus.

The principle of J.N.D. has important applications in marketing. manufacturers and marketers endeavour to determine the relevant J.N.D. for their product because of several reasons like, the negative changes (reduced amount, increased price) are not readily noticeable to the consumers.

The positive changes (extra amount, reduced price) are very well noticeable without being wastefully extravagant.

For example, in some cases where the manufacturer wants to give an 'extra' to face the ever increasing competition often fall in a dilemma as to how much extra he has to deliver so that the consumers easily detect the positive change and the company wants to put the extra amount which is exactly equal to the J.N.D. amount nothing less or nothing more.

If they opt for a less than J.N.D. amount, consumer's are unable to notice the change and thereby the whole effort fails, and for the other option of a greater than J.N.D. amount, the company would result in sacrificing a good deal of repeat purchase frequency. Hence both these conditions are harmful and should be avoided.

If a company has determined the J.N.D. (in terms of life of the product) for its present product (say) 'paint' is two years which now gives a life of six years, it means that the life given by the improved variety must last at least one-third longer than that of the existing variety if it is to be perceived by the majority of users as, in fact, improved.

So by finding the J.N.D. of two years, the company has isolated the minimum amount of the time necessary to make its claim of 'lasts longer' believable to the majority of consumers.

The 'story' of J.N.D. is not limited to product sales but it has more or less importance in advertising too.

Marketers often want to update existing packaging without losing the ready recognition by consumers who've been exposed to years of cumulative advertising impact or they want to popularise the new brand name, and in such cases they heavily rely on the J.N.D. aspect.

They usually make a number of small changes, each carefully designed to fall below J.N.D.

The Lexmark International Inc., which bought the office supplies and equipment line from the IBM Corporation in March 1991, agreed to relinquish the IBM name by 1996.

Recognising the need to build a brand image for Lexmark while they moved away from the well-known IBM name, Lexmark officials conducted a four stage campaign for phasing in the Lexmark name on product.

First stage carried only the IBM name. Second stage featured the IBM name and downplayed Lexmark name. Third stage featured Lexmark name and downplayed IBM name. And the fourth stage featured Lexmark name only.

Marketers can use the J.N.D. to determine the amount of improvement they should make in their products. The key thing is that less than J.N.D. is a wasted effort as the improvement will not be perceived; more than J.N.D. may be wasteful by reducing the level of repeat sales.

I. YASOKARAN

Dept. of Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka.