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The Marketing of "Perception"
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The average person’s initial perception of a company is “What does that concept or company, and its product, mean to me?” Simply put, that perception defines how one views and classifies a person, product, or company. Image is not everything, but as the saying goes, “You only have one chance to make a first impression.” The opposite of this premise is the axiom “Resources follow results.” The “results” premise is the one that proves to be the most important issue for the long run however, people prefer to make quick assessments and act impulsively.
What this means is you must be careful to generate an image that moves
people toward accepting your company as the one with whom they want to do
business.
Also understand that people buy what they want
to buy more often than just what they need,
especially if times are good and they have expendable funds. They also buy
from whom
they want to do business so, be attractive to people.
Remembering that desire = value, you should become more desirable to do
business with than the other guys. This can have some subjective parts to
it. One example may be having appealing people who communicate with your
customers. I know of sales managers who are worth a lot of money to their
companies, not because they are such great salespeople or even motivators,
but because the customers really like them and want to do business with
them. I’ve seen car dealer ads with a cute little doggie as the mascot
that people wanted to come in and see in person. Trite as this sounds, the
perception becomes the reality of the image to a large bunch of the
marketplace.
My next article will be “Marketing for the Long Run.” There’s an
attitude that will make or break your long-term profits, learn how to use
it! Daniel Wadleigh is
President of Profit Experts of Austin, Texas. They offer a turnkey
Internet package and have a Web site available for ISOs for retail and
Internet. Mr. Wadleigh can be reached at (888) 379-0659.
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