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Marketing Strategy: Perception is Everything

The mind is a deeply complex organ, at times influenced by small, seemingly trivial things, and at others closed off to any external stimuli. Think of it as an onion, with belief at the center and perception at the outermost layer. Subtle stimuli can alter perception not just more easily than they can on belief,but also can alter perception in nearly imperceptible ways, as air overtime hardens and dries the top layer, not affecting the layer beneath.

The point is: Associations with brand logos are more easily influenced as there is no core belief needed to deal with this logos. People were more creative with their task when subliminally exposed to Apple's logo than with IBM's logo as recent study shows. The reason behind is perhaps the attractiveness and design of the Apple logo than with the simpler plainer letter logo design of IBM.

In short, perception is easily manipulated because people are less likely to guard their perceptions than their beliefs. Understanding this relationship is important when considering the implications of other studies and how those implications apply to marketing efforts. More than one piece of research has found, for example, that people are more likely to be influenced by friends and families than by an A-list blogger. Part of that rests with the belief that someone is trustworthy versus the perception that someone is trustworthy. Some, though, take that information
and jump to the conclusion that blogger endorsements and celebrity endorsements are over-credited for effectiveness.

The underlying assumption is that it all comes down to how much trust people put into a recommendation. People these days are much less likely to put trust in a celebrity they know is paid to say something. That distrust could extend to bloggers as well, either for that reason, or lack of certainty of the person's identity (especially in light of recent hoaxes), or a myriad other reasons not to trust a stranger.

So, one may always think that influence and trust is the most important metrics in marketing, but it is not so. The importance of building awareness or as some call it the "power of suggestion" is more likely what is needed as a marketing strategy. While bloggers-the so-called "A-listers" may not have influence, they do have eyeballs. They are A-listers, after all, because people read them. I may have greater trust in my friend in the next cube, but where did he hear about it? and if he heard about it from a trusted friend or family member, they read about it from a source that gets a broad distribution. The information has to start somewhere.

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