You, Me And Brand Perception: The Truth

Let’s face it—what you see isn’t always what you get. Case in point: remember the internet sensation “the dress?” You may have had to be in the desert—without any electricity—to have missed the picture of the dress, which to some appeared blue/black and to some gold/white.

Personally, I thought it was a hoax until I showed the (to me) obviously blue/black dress picture to Mike and asked him what color he thought it was. When he answered “gold/white,” I was stunned. Well, truly, I thought he had seen the stir on the internet and was playing along with what had to be some sort of twisted hoax. But after a while, it became obvious that he really did see the dress as white/gold…and so did a lot of other people. People I like and trust. And here’s where the lesson begins. We all experience the world differently. As we learned with “the dress,” sometimes we see different colors. And a lot of the time though, it comes down to the way we “feel” experiences. What may feel to me one way, might feel entirely differently to someone else, based on how we each perceive that experience and depending on our own past experiences. Each and every one of us experiences an entirely unique world. It doesn’t matter if we are standing next to a friend or partner that we usually see eye-to-eye with, the way we experience our worlds is entirely our own.

Crafting Your Brand Perception

This is an important lesson, particularly when you’re trying to craft a brand position. Brand perception is in the hands of the beholder. That makes creating a brand difficult, to be sure. But our best defense in creating the brand perception we’re striving for is to be diligent and consistent with our brand. (Oh, and using high-quality photos taken in good lighting helps a lot too.) Don’t get discouraged if not everyone immediately understands or “gets” your brand. But also pay attention to the feedback you’re getting about your brand position. If you’re trying to create a brand about a blue/black dress and a lot of the people you talk with keep interpreting your marketing as selling a gold/white dress, it’s time to change up your message and material. If, on the other hand, you’re selling a blue/black dress, and that’s what people see — be consistent about how you position that dress so that it reinforces the story you’re telling and doesn’t confuse your audience. The more that you can keep your audience seeing the same things from your company over and over again, the stronger your brand will be.