I say that to all of my clients. But one day I had a client object, strenuously object. He looked at me, thought about it and said, “No it’s not. Reality is reality and what you perceive it to be is not necessarily accurate or the truth.” But I had learned my lesson the hard way and I knew and understood the concept that “perception is reality.” And to fight it or ignore it is like trying to fool with Mother Nature. You’ll lose.
Clients don’t know.
Don’t misquote me. Clients know a lot about their products and their customers but clients are humans and humans have perceptions that sometimes are wrong. This can be a huge problem. Remember—perception is reality.
This is a story of how a brand developer believed a client when they told me their perception.
I met two schoolteachers who made their own ceramic buttons.
Ceramic handmade buttons
Their buttons were themed. They had a sailing collection that included boats, sailor boys, sailor girls, and flags. The art collection consisted of short paintbrushes, paint pallets, paint tubes and fat pencils. There was a flower collection, a bird collection, a flag collection and on and on. They had a great imagination and were able to create a tremendous variety of categories of buttons and they had thousands of buttons. They were so enthusiastic about their buttons it was hard to not to be swept away with it. And I was.
Why did they sell buttons?
How they got started and why–they were elementary schoolteachers and they were always looking for things that would
interest their children. They told me and I believed them…“that elementary students and all elementary teachers are tactile.” Touch is a way young children learn and the children loved their buttons.
They had knowledge and experience…so why shouldn’t I believe them.
The teachers started their business because they were making more buttons than they could use. They did it all. They designed, sculpted and fired their buttons in their own kiln. The buttons were unique, colorful and attractive. When their customers wore their buttons they received great comments on how attractive, cute and “where could I get some of those buttons?” They had done well selling to other teachers by word of mouth (this was before the Internet). They were doing brand marketing.
They wanted to expand their operation and start a clothing line through a direct mail catalog. The concept was good because it was a vertical market and we could easily purchase a mail list of elementary school teachers—the target audience they had done so well selling to and who understood their product.
A brand developer does not accept client perceptions as fact.
You know intellectually that we do not all think alike. But when we have a product or service we begin to see our customers reasoning through our filters. We believe customers think the same way we do. Big mistake.
My clients were very hands on and wanted to be part of the process of producing the catalog so they were involved in selecting the models. They had strong perceptions of who elementary school teachers were. They felt that the teachers needed to be large women because most of the teachers they had sold to were women in their 40s and 50 and who had put on some weight. My clients had the knowledge and experience and they were convincing. The result was they taught me a great lesson.
The problem was their perception was not the perception of the target audience. The elementary school teachers in the target audience did not see themselves as big, or stout, or large. They saw themselves the way the size they were when they graduated from college—medium and petite.
The result was a complete failure.
The only consolation I had was I found myself in some good company. I later read a study about some very smart people at Carlings Black
Label Beer that did the same thing. Their research showed that their best consumer was: over weight, had a beer belly, and had a small refrigerator to keep his beer by his recliner in front of his TV which he watched 4.6 hours a day. That is what they convinced their agency to show in their TV spots. This was 1968 and that was the high water mark for Carling Black Label Beer.
Miller took the same demographic information and their agency
created a view the consumer had of himself of a ‘working man’. The Miller drinker was in his twenties, strong, great shape, small waist, worked for the electric company climbing towers and ‘handling enough electricity to light up the county’. And when he walked into the bar all of the young women looked his way.
They matched his perception.
Millers’ sales shot up. Miller understood their customer’s perception of how they see themselves.
Perceptions are powerful.
If you ever doubt it think about placebos. Placebos are the best medicine there is. Doesn’t cost much. Patient does all of the healing and if there are any side affects they are imaginary.
Learn more about perceptions get our Free eBook, “How we increased sales from $14 to $28 million in four years.”
About Ken Gasque
Ken Gasque is a brand developer—a professional marketer with a design background. Ken works with small companies and Fortune 500 companies who recognize the need to differentiate their products and services in a cluttered market. Ken is a highly visual, outside-the-box-thinker on advertising, branding and marketing. Ken writes a blog and lectures on brand and brand development. To learn more, visit www.Gasque.com
