Consumers today are heavily influenced by their own perception in their everyday life. In marketing, perception applies to the product or service that he/she may consume.
First let’s define two concepts here:
Sensation: The response from our sensory receptors (taste, smell, touch, hear, see) to stimuli such as light, sound, taste.
Perception: The process of how the above sensations are organized and interpreted.If you were in the woods with a friend and a tree falls onto the ground, you and your friend would not hear the exact same thing.
So why is this?
This is because of perception, the process of how sensations are organized and interpreted inside your mind.
Now the same applies to consumer products. A perfect example of this would be Coke and Pepsi, which are almost identical in taste and chemical composition. There are many blind taste test done that consistently show that most consumers aren’t able to distinguish the difference between cold Coke or cold Pepsi. This test shows that our senses are not able to differentiate but when you add perception into the equation, everything changes.
When the participants could see what they were drinking and were asked which pop they preferred, more consumers chose Coke over Pepsi. This emphasizes how perception plays a large role in brand preference.
In other words, based on sensation alone, consumers generally prefer Pepsi and Coke equally but our perception ultimately decides what we prefer.
For you, it’s important to factor in how consumers perceive your brand and what you’re selling.
Consumer perception is based on many factors including advertising, reviews, past experience with the product/service, popularity, pricing and social media. Having a negative perception can turn your brand around and lead to problems down the road. If you’re already selling a product or service, it’s important to ensure your customers are completely satisfied. If not, they will perceive your brand negatively, resulting in negative word of mouth advertisement.
It is important that you have a positive brand perception. Having a positive brand perception will mean customers are more disposed to your brand and will likely look and choose for your brand over your competitors. This is why more companies are choosing to spend money on fixing any problems that their customers might have with the service or product. Think about it, if you go to a restaurant and the service doesn’t meet your expectation, the manager will most likely give you a free lunch or take the item off your bill in hopes you don’t spread any negative review about them.
Tip: If you’re a business, send a follow-up survey to your customers to gather information on how your customers perceive your brand. This is not only important for your brand image to grow, but also helps you identify strengths and weaknesses in your brand.
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Tommy Li | Content Creator | Social Media Expert
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Great content! Super high-quality! Keep it up! 🙂