Saturday, January 1, 2011

THE POWER OF PERCEPTION


Is it what we see or what we believe....to be true? So how do you make a purchase decision? How does your customer or prospect make a decision?
Do you understand the power of perception? The mind is a strong and powerful organ which influences the way we think, what we believe, and how we act. Even if it is not really true.

Beliefs drive our attitudes.....attitudes drive our behaviors.....and behaviors drive our actions. Influence or change the beliefs and you can change the resulting actions. Remember the Coke formula change in the mid 1980's? The company performed thousands of consumer taste tests (yes they were blind tests....taste product A vs product B and which do you prefer?) One product was the new formula, the other was the existing formula. The new product beat the existing by a significant margin in the blind test. Now advance the clock....Coke rolled out the new flavor, replaced the existing and of course it was no longer a blind test.....it was in a new package called "New Coke."

Well, the results are now a business case study. The consumer was outraged and flooded the 800 lines with complaints. But why? They preferred the new flavor, on a blind basis. What was going on? Coke found the answer quickly.....this was about emotions....about perceptions....not about the taste. How could you take away the product I grew up with? Said the consumer. Coke brought back the original....called it Classic Coke....and the market share increased. How's that for the POWER of PERCEPTION!!!

So the lesson for you.....how can you tune in to the perceptions of your audience? Not just to do a simple test. But what are they thinking and feeling? Not so easy to do but very valuable in the end.