Consumer Perception
Consumer perception is a marketing term that tells us what people think about a brand, a company, or its products. Customers can have positive or negative thoughts, feelings, perceptions, inhibitions, predispositions, expectations, or experiences.
A marketing concept that includes what a customer thinks, knows, or is aware of about a company or its products. Advertising, reviews, public relations, social media, personal experiences, and other channels often have an effect on how customers see things.
If you understand the idea of “consumer perception,” you’ll realise that it’s one of the most important things that determines the success of a brand, product, or company as a whole. How a brand or business is positioned also has a big impact on this. The way a brand looks and how it acts are very important.
If we look at Apple, we can see that most of its customers have good things to say about the company. Apple does have some very loyal fans. The reason is that the company is always coming up with new ideas and has good products that connect with its customers. Because of this, Apple is one of the most successful brands all over the world.
Customer Perception decides how much a product sells and how a company is perceived.
Factors deciding customer perception
In general, customer perception can be influence by a lot of factors. Some of the major factors are
How has the brand performed in the past and how it is performing currently.
(ii) Emotional Connect
Superb brands know that emotional connection with the customer is critical to brand development.
How the brand communicates with the customers using the various media vehicles.
(iv) Holistic Marketing
A brand cannot be excellent if it has good sales staff but pathetic support staff. A brand has to be a good all rounder and satisfy customers from all its touch points.
When customers buy your products, they purchase much more than physical objects. Successful marketing involves building a brand with sensory and emotional triggers and then working daily to reinforce the image that your brand triggers in the hearts and minds of customers.
The consumer perception that can make or break your brand may be carefully cultivated through clever and effective advertising. Changes in consumer perception of brands can also spring seemingly out of nowhere, as when the Hush Puppies shoe brand became a fad during the ’90s with little engineering from the company itself.
Whether your company has painstakingly fostered customer perception or had the great fortune to unwittingly benefit from it, the importance of your brand’s reputation should never be underestimated.
(i) Importance of Marketing and Action
Successful marketing is a process of reaching out to customers through advertising, selling strategies and the product itself to create an impression that inspires loyalty. However, that impression is unlikely to endure unless you work hard to maintain it. The outdoor apparel company L.L. Bean has a return policy of replacing any product that a customer returns for any reason, regardless of how long it has been worn. This policy surely costs the company extra when unscrupulous customers choose to take advantage and return items that have been worn for a considerable period of time. Over the long term, though, this legendary return policy has worked to the company’s advantage by building trust and extraordinary loyalty.
(ii) Influence of Negative Perceptions
Negative consumer perceptions can be at least as powerful as positive ones especially in the era of social media when stories about companies’ bad behaviors spread quickly and can have devastating repercussions. When United Airlines had a ticketed customer dragged off a flight in April 2017, the story spread through both social and mainstream media, creating a backlash from consumers who boycotted the airline and canceled credit cards affiliated with it. The negative publicity rippled among shareholders as well causing the company’s price to plummet by $1.4 billion.
(iii) The Power of Referrals
Referrals are a powerful way to foster positive consumer perception because they often come about organically through customers telling their friends which products they buy and why they buy them. Because they come from customers rather than from marketing or advertising, referrals give your company genuine credibility. Referrals grow out of brand loyalty and generate additional loyalty to your brand. You can give customers incentives to make referrals such as by offering free products or services, but if you’ve done a good job fostering positive consumer perceptions, you’ll get customer referrals whether or not you reward customers for them.
Your company’s brand isn’t only about what you want customers to see, it’s also about how they already see you. Public perception can make or break a business today, making it the most valuable commodity you have in your sales and marketing arsenal.
The Role of Perception
Haunted houses and theme parks often use the idea of perception theory to make money. The visitors have to walk into a small, dark area that makes them feel squished. Visitors are led to a variety of attractions that look and sound like monsters, rodents, and so on. All of this will make us feel overwhelmed. The goal is to make people feel a rush of adrenaline, which will then spread through them as they are forced to face their fears. People who like these things usually like the thought of getting over their fears, and they often find it thrilling to do so. But you can turn this on its head. If you’re in the wrong neighbourhood, the attractions in a haunted house could easily draw people to the haunted house but drive people away from your storefront.
As a business owner, you want to maximize the amount of time that customers spend in your store. You want them to purchase an item on a whim, and to then go on a spree of impulse buying. You want them to browse your shelves, and walk through your aisles, discovering and exploring with each step. Whether your store is a brick-and-mortar store or an online store, you want them to browse and buy, so that you increase your sales.
As a business owner, you should seek to improve their experience and give them the right perception, no matter what.
Using Customer Perception to Your Advantage
So, if you want to know how your customers feel about you, you should find out what “turns them on” and then use that to your advantage when you want to attract them. If you want to attract high-end customers, play up things like quality, cleanliness and hygiene, lighting, packaging, and small details in the way you present your products and services. Sort your customers into the different groups they belong to, and then use these groups to figure out what’s important to each group and what to show them.
When you work hard to change how people think about your products, your bottom line will quickly show the results of your hard work. You will also make your customers and the people in your community feel like they are a part of your family, which is the best way to get people to stick with your brand.