One of my early bosses gave me a mantra – in marketing perception is reality.

Once a perception has been created in the minds of people its very difficult to dislodge it. I was giving an example of doing pricing, to a new entrant into my product management team. How based on the perception that has been created for the brand it can command a premium pricing

This discussion actually started on what’s the right way to do pricing. One method that is simple to use is Cost ++.

However the market may find that very high on one extreme of the spectrum or you may end up leaving money on the table at the other extreme.

That’s when I gave her the example of how a washing machine brand which has German origins is able to command almost 70% higher premium in the market because of the perception that the German brand would have better engineering and quality.

Some people also tend you the word Positioning in lieu of Perception. There are some semantic differences but at a broad level they are similar

There was actually a very nice book by the name Positioning by Jack Trout and Al Ries. If you’re in marketing or intending to get into marketing this is one of the books you definitely need to read. This book gives a phenomenal number of examples of how once a positioning of a brand has taken place in the minds of people its very difficult to dislodge it.

A few days back I wrote about differentiation. When you differentiate your product or service you work to create a different perception or position in the minds of the customers.

Till next time.

Carpe Diem!!!