There is an axiom that says “perception is reality.”
And in marketing, this is especially true!
Absolute objective truth does not matter and therefore for most marketing purposes; it does not exist.
The only sure reality is prospects’ and customers’ subjective perception of your brand.
The Understanding and Misunderstanding Effect, as described in Tony Buzan’s book The Most Important Graph in the World, says individuals have different associations with different words.
When I say the word “apple”, Person A may have a different association with the word then Person B, depending on their past experience.
This means there are different perceptions of the same situation.
For example, one person gives a book a one-star review, and another gives it a five-star review.
Who is right? Who is wrong?
It’s the same product, service or solution, just a different reaction to our perception of it.
Let’s look at another example using an analogy; if one person says you have a tail, they are probably insane, because humans do not have tails.
However, if ten people say you have a tail, they are probably right, and you better turn around and see if it’s true, as they may be on to something!
It follows then that everyone has a perception of your product, service or solution.
When a child is born, a process of “limbic imprinting” occurs.
Limbic imprinting is where the human nervous system memorizes new data and stores it in their formative period.
For example, you usually always remember the first times certain milestones happen – your first tooth lost, your first kiss and so on.
Children learn very quickly in their formative years because they have a lot of these first experiences.
The same happens with prospects and customers when they first come across something new like your brand.
Once that imprint has occurred, it’s almost impossible to delete or reposition what is already perceived and formed in the prospects’ mind.
With this considered, you never get a second chance to make a first impression with prospects or customers.
Let me repeat, because it’s important.
YOU NEVER GET A SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION.
First impressions matter and first impressions last!
This is called the Primacy Effect in psychology.
And you probably already know it’s hard to change someone’s mind (or perceptions) once it’s made up.
Your brand cannot be different in their mind from then on.
Look at politics, money, vaccinations, abortions, religion, sex, drugs and so on!
People are willing to die for their perceptions and beliefs on these topics.
You can’t change them!
This means that something new can only be related to something that is already in one’s mind, such as prior knowledge or experience.
In other words, humans can only understand a new data if it is relative or related to something else they understand.
The Interest Effect, as described in Tony Buzan’s book The Most Important Graph in the World, says that the more someone is naturally interested in something, the more they will retain on the subject.
In humans, this is called the Reticular Activating System.
The Reticular Activating System is the way a human brain controls what it gives attention to.
Only 2,000 pieces of information are processed by the brain per second out of 400 billion (400,000,000,000) pieces of information that they are exposed to each second.
This is the reason why advertising or constant marketing and sales communication works.
You, as a brand, you have no idea where a prospect is at metaphorically or when a need arises, so using advertising or constant marketing and sales communication helps you catch prospects and customers at the right time for them.
One of the jobs of marketing is to help prospects become aware of their needs as well as be at the right place at the right time for when they do become aware of those needs.
Prospects and customers believe and see what they want to believe and see.
The mind accepts consistencies and ignores the rest.
Differentiation exists only in prospects and customers’ perception.
Again, similar to the Primacy Effect, children learn really quickly in their formative years because they have a lot of interest in new things.
This leads us to explore the prior experience of what perception is already in prospects’ and customers’ mind about your brand’s marketplace.
Marketing’s job is to manipulate these perceptions.
The rest of this will explore this manipulation.
And, as I alluded to previously with the Understanding and Misunderstanding Effect, don’t be fooled; the word “manipulation” may have a negative association with you, but I do not intend to put it that way in this context!
It could be said that there are two types of value:
- Functional (or practical) value; and
- Emotional value.
Both are quite distinct forms of value.
Value is the difference between a prospects’ current pain and wanted gain.
The realization of that value is money used for payment.
Functional value, on the one hand, is what your product, service or solution delivers to your prospects and customers including all its features.
It is the difference between the pain and gain prospects and customers want to be solved.
Emotional value, on the other hand, is all of the intangible, emotive and irrational things your prospects and customers want in addition to the functional value.
This could be things like their:
- Wants;
- Results;
- Desires;
- Aspirations;
- Hopes;
- Dreams;
- Goals;
- Fantasies;
- And so on…
It can also mean the relationship that prospects and customers have with your products, services or solutions.
These emotions are the real true value of your product, service or solution and everything else is tertiary.
Prospects and customers want to feel these things more than they actually want something solved.
It’s the emotional value that creates a perceived value that allows your brand to charge a premium price for similar products, services or solutions to what your competitors offer.
The difference between functional and emotional values are both minor and “cosmetic” differences.
Therefore, a premium position is the combination of functional and emotional value.
The term positioning was arguably coined by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their book, Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind.
Positioning can be defined as the process of influencing the perception of a brand, so it has a certain position and related attribute (or attributes) in the mind of prospects and customers.
This position and related attribute (or attributes) could be based on price, quality, service or any multitude of other options.
So, why should you care about positioning?
Here is the reason.
We have recently seen a flood of new products, service or solution and subsequent marketing messages (even the human body can be used as billboard now).
But, attention is scarce and limited – prospects and customers can’t digest it all.
They see on average 362 marketing messages per day.
That is approximately 100,000 marketing messages per year!
It’s impossible to take all of that information in and process it.
“Ad blockers” on Facebook and native content are on the rise to combat this situation by both prospects and customers and brands, respectively.
Cognitive psychologist George A Miller said the human mind can only hold on average seven individual units of information in working memory at once.
99% of these messages will be missed by prospects and customers.
So, unless your marketing message stands out, as you can probably guess, it will be lost forever.
Therefore, positioning helps simplify a marketing message, make a good impression and break through all the other competing marketing noise.
Let’s look at how information is absorbed, and perceptions are formed.
I drive along Goodwood Road fairly often…
And Goodwood Qualify Meats have done an outstanding job on their re-brand.
There are endless tools to create emotional value, but Goodwood Qualify Meats have obviously used one – appearance.
That in my opinion instantly positions them as a premium.
Specifically, it’s the wood look.
It’s not just any wood.
It’s a stained mahogany look which implies associations with quality – i.e. premium.
The wood is arranged like a Tea Chest construction which also implies associations with quality – i.e. premium.
The colour brown represents quality – i.e. premium.
And finally, the typeset is congruent with all of the above.
I suspect none of this is by accident!
So hat’s off to Goodwood Qualify Meats for a job well done.