Having suggested that perception is far more important that the reality of experience in determining consumer behaviour, you might think that finding out how a consumer perceives your brand is a useful exercise.

And, of course, you’d be right.

You might suggest, therefore, that asking a sample of your target consumer audience or existing customers would be a smart think to do.

And you’d be a lot less right.  In fact, if you don’t mind me saying so, you’d be wrong.

There are a number of reasons for this.

Firstly, we aren’t always aware of our perceptions.  A lot of our reactions happen at an unconscious, emotional level.  We like to believe we’re wonderfully good at decoding this responses consciously and post-rationalising them accurately, but we really aren’t.  We just make it up and then convince ourselves that what we’ve just told ourselves is true.

This is what I call “the what we like to tell ourselves” error.

In general, we’ll tell ourselves that we’re smarter, sexier, funnier and all round better than we really are.  We’ll also tell ourselves that we’re not in the snare of any silly old brand, it’s just that we’ve happened to find their products are better suited to our needs.

Secondly is the problem of how we think our answer will be perceived by someone else; we’ve learned through the “mistakes” of childhood not to say what we’re thinking but screen it for social acceptability. 

Kids are wonderfully honest and direct: I remember my two-year-old son staring at a man in the doctor’s waiting room and asking very loudly, “Why has that man drawn all over himself?”  The tattooed man didn’t take exception and it was, I think, a very good question to ask (although not one I would except to get an accurate answer to from the chap himself!).  By the age of six my son has enough of a developed sense of social awareness not to ask that sort of question in public.

This filtering process becomes automatic and gives us the “what might they think if I told them” error.

Most people don’t want to be seen as being influenced by brands and advertising even when they’ve fallen for a brand hook, line and sinker.  Even when they are aware they’re very loyal to a brand they probably wouldn’t want to acknowledge the full extent of it’s impact on what they do (even if they are aware of it).

Last, but not least, the actual process of asking someone a question changes the way they think and, therefore, how they respond.  I won’t go into all the psychological nuances of this now, but suffice it to say there’s a reason that psychotherapy makes such extensive use of balanced questions to bring about change.

So, whilst customers’ perceptions are deeply significant in determining their behaviour, asking them about those perceptions isn’t likely to reveal the nature or extent of them reliably.

Next time, if you haven’t guessed already, I’ll tell you how you can understand this aspect of consumer behaviour better.

Philip Graves

21 Comments

  9. Pam Schulz

    Your posts on consumer behaviour are both interesting and thought-provoking.

    During this past election cycle in the US it seemed like we had focus groups for every little thing. The findings from these focus groups was touted as definitive proof of “the way it was” in population in general. I found these groups annoying – especially the ones following a debate between the candidates. Rarely, if ever, did my friends or I have the same perception as the focus group did. It got to be a joke after a while. By the tone and tenor of the questions asked by the moderator of the focus group, you could tell he/she was trying to slant the focus group’s perception toward a desired result – maybe not consciously – but body language and tone of voice don’t lie!

    Pam
    Great Minds, Great Wealth: How to Raise your Return, Reduce your Risk, Cut your Cost

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  12. Don Shepherd

    I don’t know how funny, sexy or smart i am. i’ll leave that up to my clients. what i do know, (or at least i thought i did until you came along)is that i am my own “brand” and for what ever reason have some incredibly loyal clients. if i told you it’s because i give great quality and service i might be dead wrong.

    Don Shepherd
    Central Oregon Expert

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  19. Duane Cunningham

    Hi Phil

    Yep! totally agree with you on this one! Focus groups are the biggest waste of time that was veer invented! nobody has a clue why they do things as not one decision any of us have ever made was made logically!

    Yes we made up some run of the mill seemingly factual statement about why on earth we chose that brand but the reality is we don’t have the foggiest why we do anything its all unconscious wiring that controls us

    Duane

    Super-ADVANCED Sales & Persuasion Strategies
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  20. John Ho

    >
    the actual process of asking someone a question changes the way they think and, therefore, how they respond.
    >

    How true! This point came to my mind as I wrote the 3 questions that I asked yesterday

    I still awaiting the privilege to have your comment there!

    John Ho
    Numerology Expert Helps Understanding Personalities for Better Influence & Persuasion (WordPress Blog)
    Numerology Expert Helps Understanding Personalities for Better Influence & Persuasion (Money Page)

    reply to comment→

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