By Ken Gasque       

June 9, 2022 

What is perception?

We come to problems with our perception because that is what we have. It is only natural. However, it won’t be easy because perceptions are reality.  So think like a 7 year old and change those perceptions. Think different.  Think like a brand developer. Ask better questions.

When doing marketing planning and brand development keep in mind the adage, “It isn’t what we don’t know that gets us into trouble, it’s what we know that isn’t so.”  We feel confident that we know something to be true.  We feel it’s just common sense.  We feel we know how others will think, act or react because that is how we think.  We also have limiting beliefs that we may not be aware of, and to compound things, we are impatient.  We want success and we want it now.  So we say, just do it.  Get started.  We solve the problem without understanding the problem.

I have read several different quotes attributed to Albert Einstein that go something like this.  “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”  Einstein is also credited as saying “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” I think both of these statements make a good model for marketing.

The brand development process is about solving problems

In the 1950s the shipping industry was losing business and revenues were going down.  The ‘common sense’ approach was to find ways to cut cost and be more efficient.  The theory of the day was to build lighter, smaller ships that could move faster and be more efficient.   But they could not cut enough out of the costs to make it affordable.

Ask a different question

One man asked a different question.  He asked how could we make
shipping more profitable?  This is how “containerized shipping’ became a reality.  Malcom McLean, owner of McLean Trucking Company, turned the industry around.  “Hand-loading a ship cost $5.86 a ton at that time. Using containers cost only 16 cents a ton to load a ship, a 36-fold savings. Containerization also greatly reduced the time to load and unload ships. McLean knew ‘A ship earns money only when she’s at sea,’ and based his business on that efficiency.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcom_McLean

Barcode

In 1948 a grocery store owner ask the question “Is there a way to make a machine read a price code? It would save labor, give the customer an accurate charge and help with inventory.” Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland, students at Drexel Institute of Technology, heard the question and were intrigued.

They succeeded when Woodland was sitting on a beach doodling Morse code in the sand and conceived the breakthrough idea. “I just extended the dots and dashes downwards and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them.” And changed the retail industry.

Questions are the answer

Well designed questions and research will give you insights to what the consumers are thinking; and the process of developing good questions can be informative and instructive for you.  First, it is critical to identify what you want to know and yet be careful not to prove what you know.  Most people know they influence the answer with the way they ask the question.  Often they ask the question in a way that will validate what they already know or what they want the answer to be.

Spend more time determining what the problem really is. Look at the problem from as many different prospective as you can imagine. Be willing to break the rules. Pretend there are no wrong answers. Think as differently as you can.  Think like a 7 year old would think.

Better questions get better answers. Spend more time crafting questions and the results may be easier to analyze.
Sales people know that the ‘questions are the answers,’ lawyers know the answers before they ask the questions, and teachers use ‘what if’ questions to stir the imagination.  Reverse the question, instead of asking ‘who are you selling?’ ask ‘who are you not selling?’  And ‘why are you not selling

them?’  In interviews ask the consumer ‘what if’ questions.  Ask questions in as many ways possible that will allow you to dig deeper.  Look for questions that will give you more insight.   Ask how they feel about a brand and then ask ‘how the brand feels about them.’  You may be surprised.

Consistency begins with questions

Consistency is the basic requirement of branding. If you lack consistency you are confusing your staff and your customer. Be consistent. How? Questions.

1. What business are you in? From Theodore Levitt’s Marketing Myopia “Levitt’s famous example on transportation. If a buggy whip manufacturer in 1910 defined its business as the “transportation starter business,” they might have been able to make the creative leap necessary to move into the automobile business when technological change demanded it.”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_myopia   The railroad industry thought they were in the railroad business, but they were actually in the transportation business. Had they thought transportation they might have controlled trucking and the airline industries.

2. What is your differentiation? You probably only have one true differentiation.  It is probably not what you think.
3. What is your mission? Does everyone on your team know your mission? Can they recite it? It has to be memorable and well as meaningful.
4. What one word tells what you stand for?

Disney–memories

Starbucks–inspiration

Harley Davidson—freedom

Mercedes—prestige

Apple—think different (well two words)

About Ken Gasque

Ken Gasque is a brand image-maker, marketing planner and designer. Ken works with small companies and Fortune 500 companies who recognize the need to differentiate their products and services to stand out in a cluttered market. Ken is a highly visual, outside-the-box-thinker on advertising, branding and marketing—his work reflects his belief that “We buy with our eyes.” Ken writes and lectures on brands, design, images and brand development. www.Gasque.com