Perception literally is the opinion others have formed about you over a period of time, whether good or bad people generally have impression about one another. Sometimes you hear something like “The guy is so nice” or ” That lady is very rude” the good thing about perception is that most times our habits and characters largely determines what kind of impression people have about us. This same perception is applicable to companies or individual brand.

For instance any time you see the Coca-cola logo there is a thought that pop up in your mind which is simply the impression you’ve held long time ago about Coke. Do you know customers opinion is more significant than ever in determining brand perceptions?

You might think you’ve rightly positioned your brand but on the long run what the customers says about you is what matters most. The consequence of this is that we must first understand what those opinions really are, what do consumers really think about you, your products and services? How does this compare to your competitors and the wider market?

What even is a brand?

Majority have different ideas of what the word “brand” means. To some a brand is a logo, to others a slogan, and to others it represents the people, products, or services of a company they see in the media.

A social media expert Brian Solis and Chris Brogan came up with a creative idea that “it is simply a mental creation to help users understand one company/product/service/industry over another, and ultimately a culmination of shared experiences”.

Understand before acting

While marketing managers and brand owners may believe they have a very strong understanding of what their brand is, it may not be accurate.They certainly may have a good grasp of what their brand means to them, how it is positioned and what the message is supposed to be.

However, the public perception may not correlate to this vision. As we all know, perception is reality, so whatever people are thinking about and saying about your brand, is your brand.

Brand perception

Brand perception and experiences are developed over time through a variety of sources, including:

Previous experience with the brand
Interactions with sales, customer service, and other employees
Recommendations from friends and colleagues
Reviews by reputable sources
Advertising

I have seen most people tagged a particular eCommerce site as selling fake and late delivery, some online retailers have been tagged fraudulent, while very few have actually been credited for great service, the danger of this is that if the negative opinion is not changed the company may fold up eventually because the customers largely determine the existence of any firm.

I have seen companies in Nigeria go on extinction because of incessant poor customer feedback about the brand, some are currently loosing customers because of bad perception they are getting from customers while some are concentrating so much effort to work on this some believe it’s just a tale of an angry customer believing they have monopoly of the market or the customers can’t do without them. Watch your business dwindle right before your eyes if you don’t pay adequate attention to customers needs.