For marketers, brand managers and advertisers, consumer perception is reality. However illogical and half-baked and misplaced, ‘what consumers think and perceive’ about one’s product and brand is the unshakeable truth set in stone. In a consumer-driven economy where the customer is royalty, it is understandable to think so. But...
- Does having such a mindset and attitude help?
- Does it help the consumer, the company, the brand itself?
- Is it right to formulate business strategies based on beliefs?
- Is it right to invest billions of dollars based on opinions?
- Does this gap between the marketer’s reality and the consumer’s reality create a conflict?
- Do the objective reality and the subjective perception of the brand create a dissonance in the marketer’s mind?
- Is it time to bid goodbye to brand image and brand perception and welcome brand reality?
What is reality?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines reality as the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The world view about reality is that it is in fact ‘perceptions, beliefs and attitude towards reality’. We all live travel the journey of life through our own reality tunnel which is a subconscious set of mental filters formed through our beliefs and experiences. And as we all use different filters, each one of us observes the same world differently and therefore we can say ‘truth lies in the eyes (or mind) of the beholder’. Out of all the realities, the reality of everyday life is the most important one since our consciousness requires us to be completely aware and attentive to the experience of everyday life.
Our sense of reality is deeply affected by how our senses work together. If at all there is an objective truth, it gets mediated through our senses. And although we are bombarded by stimuli and data from all directions, we choose only a fraction of them to form perceptions. Our reality is not just defined solely by how you and I see the world. It’s something we share. Our society is akin to a fabric woven out of shared beliefs. Observations and opinions are shared, discussed, adopted and what emerges is an amalgamation of shared reality.
Why a ‘brand’ is shared reality?
Sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann talk about social construction - the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality. The theory centres on the notion that meanings are developed in coordination with others rather than separately within each individual.
What we think and feel about a brand, its usefulness, its contribution and the role it plays in our lives is a belief. The idea of a brand might well be born in the mind of an entrepreneur or conceived in a company’s boardroom. It might be given a name, an image, a colour and description by the design team of a creative agency. It might be promoted by a celebrity. But is that its reality? A brand’s image and perceptions about it is decided by its consumers – both the accepters and the rejecters. And while the opinion about a brand might be expressed individually, it gets shaped collectively. It is therefore an example of shared reality. And shared reality is the greatest illusion of all.
What then should a marketer or a brand manager or an advertiser know while creating, managing and promoting a brand? How much time and money should these professionals invest in these activities if they know that the brand’s reality is based on selective perceptions? And is there a way in which the marketers and advertisers can understand precisely how these perceptions are formed and which of these perceptions shape the brand reality and how this happens?
