CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTION OF SAFETY OF FOOD IN SOUTH -SOUTH AND SOUTH – EAST OF NIGERIA

Analysis of the perception and the consumer decision making processes are extremely important to assist the marketer to understand consumer behavior, draft better positioning strategies and develop more effective advertising campaign base on product attributes (Aaker and Gary,2008). According to them, the perception process has long been recognized 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, since correct decoding of marketing information hinges on the consumer’s perception of the communication content. Perception refers to the senses that any organism uses to collect information about its environment (Alban and Wesley, 2009).In consumer behaviour, however, perception refers to much more than just the biological use of our sense organs. Therefore, Brunwick (2009), define consumer perception as the entire process by which an individual becomes aware of the environment and interprets it so that it will fit into his or her frame of reference for making decision on a product or service.

Consumers acts and reacts on the basis of their perceptions, not on the basis of objectives reality. With this, Dickson and Alan (2009), says it is important that marketers understand the whole notion of perception and its related concepts so that they can determine more readily what influences consumers to buy.

The problem with perception studies, according to Aaker and Gary (2008), is that two individuals may be subjected to the same stimuli under apparently the same conditions, but how they recognize, select and interpret them is a highly individual process base on each person’s needs, values, expectations, and the like. Add to this difficulties in understanding perception, is that perception is largely a study of what we subconsciously add to or subtract from raw sensory inputs to produce a private picture of the world.

In most parts of the world, eating habits have long been dependent on a mixture of local production and imported conserved foods. More recently, manufactured foods have become an important part of many people’s diet and many of the world staple foods are now traded internationally as commodities.