How To Correct People Perceptions
May 22, 2008 · Reading Time: 1min 48sec · Print This Article
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Notice how I used the term ‘people’ and not customers. Because aside from correcting your product image, the following can also be used to analyze and correct your own personal branding.
The word is Perception - What is perceived of you and your product. Why should the stuff that others think about you and your product matter? Should you really be too concerned about the negative chatter? As long as you know you’re alright, nothing else should matter right?
That can be true. However, it matters a whole lot when the people whom you are trying to target, whom you would want to associate with, perceive you and your product in a way which hurts your initial branding ideas. It’s a bitter pill to swallow - realizing suddenly that you might have been caught in your own bubble, thinking that you were alright…
When feedback from people that matter tell you you’re not. It’s a wake up call. Time for marketing mix.
Correct your product’s perception in terms of how you market it. It could be a product problem, maybe the packaging doesn’t deliver the aspiration, may be the product function itself is not living up to promotional promises. It could be a pricing issue… where prices are so high that they simply erase any good feelings anyone might have about the product function. Or how about the place, the fact that yes, your product rocks, but the places which are offering them just give it a poor image association. Or maybe promotions… the communications strategy, the copyrighting perhaps is not well executed to project what you had wanted your customers to think about your product.
The same 4Ps can be applied to you too, if you think of yourself as your main product. While measuring product perceptions can be via marketing research, how then do you measure self-perceptions and try to detect whether or not you are on the right track?
Allah the Exalted says in the Qur’an: “And (remember) the Day when the wrong-doer will bite his hands and say: Woe to me! Would that I had taken a path with the Messenger. Woe to me! If only I had not taken so- and-so as a friend! He has led me astray from this Reminder (the Qur’an) after it had come to me.” [25:27-29]
In an authentic Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said: “A person is likely to follow the faith of his friend, so look whom you befriend.” [Reported by Abu Dawood & Tirmidhee]
Extras:
- Here’s a tutorial on using a tool called a Perceptual Map. You can find the video here.
- Check out the support forum for a more detailed description of positioning. View it here.
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