May 22nd, 2008 | 
Author: I’ve picked up a book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout, and I’m blogging a summary of each chapter.
Chapter 4. The Law of Perception
Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perception.
This chapter is a bit existential, and at times it seemed rather silly to see in a marketing book. Points such as:
- There is no objective reality
- All truth is relative
- Most people think they are better perceivers than everyone else
- People project to cope with being alone in the universe
The basic point is this: purchasing decisions are not based entirely on objective facts. The reasons for this are rooted in psychology, but it boils down to people being unique, having unique opinions, and have unique perspectives. Slap different logos on the exact same product, and you won’t necessarily get a 50-50 spread in choices. Put the same logo on two different flavors of soda and people will tell you there’s a difference between the flavors.
But whether or not perception actually is reality, a marketer should behave as if it is.
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OK here is the deal. It is all about market share. How do you get market share? Buy it? Create it over time? Aquire it by purchasing competitors, etc?
Perception is reality. People do have unique opinions and perceptions.
In a company the most important department is the sales department. The next is marketing. Everything else is overhead.