Brand Core · Brand Perception · Module
Segment differences
How perception varies between customers, non-customers, employees and candidates — and which of those differences matters for what the organisation is trying to do.
The idea
How it works
Customers hold a favourable view by construction — they chose you. Non-customers hold the view that explains why they did not, and that is the group with the growth in it and the group least often asked.
The internal picture is the other systematic distortion. Employees see the intent, the effort and the constraints, which makes them the least reliable proxy for the market and the group most often used as one.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Ask non-customers separately
They are the expensive group to reach and the one whose answers change decisions.
- 02
Ask lapsed customers
They held both views and can say what changed, which nobody else can.
- 03
Compare internal against external
A large gap in either direction is a finding: over-confidence, or people inside who do not believe their own brand.
- 04
Report by segment, never averaged
The average describes nobody and reliably hides the group with the problem.
One level in
The components of segment differences
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
The internal reading
How employees and candidates see the brand, held against the external view.
Learn
Non-customers hold the view that explains why they did not buy. They are the least asked and the most useful.
The other modules in brand perception
Measuring perception
How what people think is actually established — with the method’s limits recorded alongside the result, because every method here has serious ones.
LearnThe identity–image gap
The distance between what the organisation intended and what arrived — and which of the two is wrong, because both answers occur.
LearnShifting perception
What it takes to change a belief that is wrong or outdated: how long, on what evidence, and why saying it differently is rarely enough.
Learn