Brand Core · Brand Perception · Module
Shifting 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What it takes to change a belief that is wrong or outdated: how long, on what evidence, and why saying it differently is rarely enough.
The idea
How it works
Beliefs are revised by evidence that contradicts them, not by assertions that they are wrong. A brand perceived as expensive does not become affordable by saying so; it becomes affordable when people encounter a price that surprises them, repeatedly.
The timescale is years rather than campaigns, and the organisation will lose patience before the market updates. Committing to that in advance is most of what makes it work.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Change the behaviour, then say so
Messaging ahead of the change confirms the existing belief that the brand overstates itself.
- 02
Pick one perception at a time
Changing several beliefs simultaneously changes none of them, and the effort is impossible to attribute.
- 03
Set the horizon before starting
Two to three years is normal. Agreeing that in advance is what stops the work being cancelled at month nine.
- 04
Measure the shift, not the activity
Campaigns delivered is not evidence. The tracking measure moving is.
One level in
The components of shifting perception
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Change the behaviour first, then say so. Messaging ahead of the change confirms that the brand overstates itself.
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.
LearnSegment 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.
Learn