Gold marketing principle 10 Its perception not product

It's one of the oldest marketing principles: 'Build a better mouse trap, and people will beat a path to your door.' The only trouble with this famed principle is that it is not true. In the end, it's not the best product that wins the marketing game. It's the product with the perception of being the best that wins. That's a subtle but important distinction!

Remember this: the perception in the mind of the consumer is reality. Your product is not reality. Your product is only as good as people perceive it to be, no matter how good or bad it is.

For example, let's look at two popular competing brands of soup. In the United Kingdom, Heinz is the undisputed dominant brand. But in the United States, Heinz soup sells very poorly, and is even unknown to most Americans. Campbell's soup is the undisputed No. 1 soup in America, yet has never been able to compete with Heinz in Britain.

Both companies have conducted rigorous scientific testing of their soups in both countries. In totally blind, objective taste tests, neither the British nor the Americans could tell the difference between either brand of soup. In other words, science has proved that both Heinz and Campbell's are exact equals of each other in taste, for all intents and purposes.

Yet, why do Americans refuse to buy Heinz and why do Brits snub Campbell's? The only answer is that this phenomenon is an artefact of the mind - it's all about perception. Americans PERCEIVE Campbell's to be better, even though in blind taste tests they couldn't tell the difference. The same is true in the UK. The citizens of both countries have made up their minds, and once they do, changing it is extremely difficult.

So what does this tell us? It shows how vitally important the perception of your product is. It means that the 'reality' of the mind is far more important that the 'reality' of the physical product itself. Thus, your marketing effort is a battle of perceptions. You must strive to win the minds of consumers more than you do anything else.

Many marketers take cynical advantage of this. They produce a second rate product, and then pour tons of advertising and marketing effort into convincing people that the product is good. If they succeed, they win. That may not be fair, but that's the way it is.

Does this mean you don't have to worry about quality? Well, yes and no. Your product must be at least equivalent to your competitors. A truly shoddy product will eventually expose itself to be what it is - junk. But the bigger lesson here is the overwhelming importance of building the perception that your product is the best. You do that with your marketing messages, with repetition, with promotion and all the rest. When you're thinking about how to best present your product, always think 'mind' first and 'objective reality7 second. This means concentrating on 'benefits' and not features. Benefits are what the product will do for the customer. A feature is an attribute of the product itself. People don't care what your product is made from, they only want to know what it will get them: love, prestige, happiness, satisfaction, relief - not one of these is a solid 'thing' - yet that's what people want to buy.

Keep the rule of perception in mind, and you'll cut closer to where the real battle for the customer is fought and won - in the mind.

Continue reading here: Never underestimate the intelligence of the buyer

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