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The scene is the assembly room of a large semiconductor house.
One long standing customer - Widget Manufacturing - is a mid-west
based manufacturer of refrigerators and other household appliances
. A strange thing happens, though, with the semiconductors
being built to this customer’s specs. An abnormally
high percentage of the units fail, orders ship late, and the
customer’s work gets shoved to the bottom of the pile
whenever new orders come in.
What’s wrong here?
The workers in the assembly line knew
Widget Manufacturing by reputation—or they thought they
did. The white goods maker ordered low cost semiconductors,
and so the workers concluded that Widget was a “schlock”
company and was therefore undeserving of a quality product.
The semiconductor company’s
managers found this attitude unacceptable and they wished
to change the perception—in this case, the misconception—of
their workers.
That’s when they found out that
perception isn’t easy to change. Eventually company
managers solved the problem by withholding the names of all
customers so workers couldn’t decide which were worthy
of quality work and which were not.
Perception is a powerful force. And
one that should be considered in every marketing or advertising
effort and in every selling endeavor. Here’s an illustration
of how perceptions in the market can shift.
Once upon a time there were three
sizes: a small size, a medium size and a large size. This
applied to clothing, to cups of take-out coffee, to ice cream
cones, to three bears and their bowls of porridge.
Then things got complicated. The medium
size got so small that it disappeared.
“Medium” declared Cynthia
Crossen, writing in The Wall Street Journal, is vanishing.
Medium, it turned out, didn’t
actually vanish—it just got called something else.
Starbucks calls it “tall.”
They sell “short”, “tall” and “grande”
cups of coffee. Espresso bars dribble out their minuscule
portions of brew, and sell it as “single”, “double”
and “triple” or “grande.”
Since we have been conditioned to
equate size with value, consumable products are being marketed
to our perceptions.
According to Anita Hersh, and image
and brand consultant: “They’re asking us to pay
premium prices, and we don’t want to pay premium prices
for something that is described as small.”
Perception at work.
Size “small” is still
around. It’s just going around under an alias. The word
“small”, which might be perceived as a synonym
for mingy, has been replaced with names like “individual”,
“one-time”, “disposable”, “convenient”
and “sample size.”
While sizes in the food industry are
heading upward, the women’s garment industry is seemingly
downsizing. Knowing their customers would shun clothes marked
“huge”, they’ve developed size descriptors
like “queen”, “plus-size” and “majestic”
to give large a positive spin.
Hotels have entered the perception
game too; the cheapest rooms are now “luxury”
or “executive”. British Airways changed its “coach
class” to “world traveler”.
It pays to know what perceptions prevail
in the market you are addressing. Before you seek to change
anything, ask these questions:
What are the present perceptions?
Are they correct or incorrect?
Are the perceptions—or any part
of them—founded in fact or in error?
Is it possible to correct these perceptions?
And if yes, how easy will it be to change them?
When you are dealing with perceptions
in the marketplace, truth isn’t enough. Your audience
has to believe—has to want to believe—that what
you say is so.
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