The Law of Perception – #4 Law under the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
“Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions”. ‘There is no objective reality. There are no facts. There are no best products. All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the mind of the customer’.
We can have hundreds of examples where perception of one individual has influenced the perception of the other and therefore changed ones way of looking at things. It is a common tendency of human beings. We have also seen these factors affecting the purchase decision of individuals and ones opinion about a brand. It would be a herculean and almost an impossible task to even try change people’s perception about a brand till now. Not anymore, given the strength of the internet and the social media alignment of people, things are changing drastically.
The power of video and voice blogging has added enormous strength to Digital communication. Gone are the days when we had to heavily rely on paid media to express the facts and figures to affect ones perception in our favour. Today it is much easier to convince and change an individual’s perception towards a cause by sharing a series of effective videos and visuals of facts and testimonials to one’s advantage.
All these years it was perceived that once the customer perception is fixed, it cannot be changed. Previous examples were ‘people in Japan considered Honda to be a Motorcycle manufacturer and therefore could not accept them while manufacturing cars even though they were good enough’. The perception now has changed and changed drastically. The consumer now has become smart and ready to take a chance considering that the culture in the company is bred for excellence and therefore can expect something good if not the best in whatever they do. Add to it the social media and the content marketing initiatives, one can easily work towards changing the consumer perspective over a period of time. The best example is of ‘Bose’ the audio technology company coming up with a revolutionary automobile suspension system. The video was a rage on the internet with it going viral within minutes of its launch. The acceptance level of people is definitely changing and therefore can be tweaked accordingly if you play the right cards.
There are limitations of course, you cannot expect the Cadbury’s brand to get into toiletries and be accepted by the consumer. Chocolates and toiletries are opposites, Motor Cycles and Cars are similar as they come under automobiles. Even music technology and suspension technology can be considered far but at least they both are technologies. However, Bose has done a good job in relating the both by suggesting that if they can damp the sound waves like none in the industry, they can damp the road shocks like none other too.
