Why Brand Perception is More Important Than Product Quality?
What I Learned About Branding Produced 5 Times More Response
I co-owned a company that makes personal care products with my wife. We started the company 8 years ago and built it at our own pace. There was a constant struggle to keep the cost low, maintain sales, and to reach out to the audience. All the way through I was determined to invest in quality but compromised on the quality of packaging. We thought people would come to us as long as the quality of the ingredient is high no matter which container we put them in. The containers were expensive, sometimes they cost a lot more than the content. So why pass on the burden to the consumer right! We saved on investing in costly packaging and passed on the savings to the customers. We were wrong, customers do judge you by the look of the cover.
Do you know Ribena? It was a nutritious vitamin C-packed drink many years ago it claimed to contain four times more vitamin C than oranges. In fact, the syrup-based drink contained negligible vitamin C and at the same time, a less popular commercial brand had more vitamins than boasted by Ribena. GlaxoSmithKline admitted the offense and was fined $217,500 in a court in Auckland New Zealand in a 2007 case. Many products were sold to consumers who probably enjoyed the placebo effect of perception which came from good brand marketing especially where the lines are thin. How do you chose the cars you drive? Do you check out the quality or ask yourself how do I look in it?
Once about 40 years ago Pepsi did some public sampling which later became a TV commercial. What they discovered was shocking, people actually picked Coca-Cola when asked about their favourite coke drink but in a public blind taste test majority preferred Pepsi. So why did people choose Coca-Cola over Pepsi all the time, it's brand perception.
I am not a marketing guru but frankly, in the real world, a better product doesn’t count as a better brand. It’s truly shameful because a better product should count a great deal but sadly in the real world it doesn’t.
In principle, good products must sell well but that’s not the way people buy. In fact the co-relation between quality and which product sells better largely rests on perception most of the time.
Once I and my partner became aware of the importance of branding and consumer experience, we started delivering products in great-looking containers and went out of our way to put them in pretty boxes. We also included additional surprise gifts. The feedback was phenomenal, customers whom we haven’t heard for ages called us to thank us and said how good they felt opening the packages. They spoke about us to their friends and referred them to us.
We didn’t change the content, we only changed how we presented our products to them. We changed the packaging design, the bottle as well as carefully crafted the experience for our customers from the moment they received the product to opening the package.
Take-Aways
- It's not who you are, it's what people perceive who you are is important.
- Branding helps you to stand out in a crowded & saturated marketplace.
- Customers read your articles, watch your life on facebook and follow you but they still judge the book by its cover.
You can be great at what you do but crafting a good brand image and managing the brand well helps you to carve out a market segment for your products or services.
