When Reality is Better Than Perception
You all know that perception is reality in the mind of
your customers. When the customer's perception of
your products or services is "better" than it is, that can
work to your benefit. But what happens when the
converse is true? That is, what if your products
are "provably" better than the customer's perception?
In keeping with last month's "automotive" theme, we
thought we would share some data from Morgan
Stanley that compared the actual quality of
automobiles to their perceived quality. Their study
looked at the brands whose perceived quality
(according to the CNW Market Research Perceived
Quality Survey) differed from the brand's actual quality
(as reported by J.D. Powers 2003 Vehicle Dependability
Study).
Since the automobile firms spend a tremendous amount
of their communications budget to convince potential
buyers that their vehicles are "high quality," how well
they are doing this is likely to have an impact on sales.
It is believed by many that the U.S. automakers are
having to spend a lot of money on rebates because
their perceived quality (based on past experience) is
still quite low.
Four of the top five "under-appreciated" brands (that is
those whose actual quality as reported by J.D. Powers
exceeds their perceived quality as reported by CNW)
are U.S. brands: Mercury, Buick, Lincoln, and Chrysler.
While some Japanese brands are also
"under-appreciated," the most "over-appreciated"
brands are
from Europe with Land Rover leading the list.
VW Chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder was quoted in
USA Today as saying he would rather have an
actual quality problem than a perceived one as he can
more easily fix an actual quality problem. Bob Lutz (in
the same article) agreed, as he feels it takes at least
two product cycles to change perception even with an
extensive communications campaign.
Does any of this matter? Consider that the two
biggest gainers in perceived quality between 1997 and
2003 were Hyundai and Kia. Hyundai's market share in
that time from went from 0.7% to 2.4% while Kia's
went from 0.4% to 1.4% (according to Autodata). In
the same timeframe, the biggest losers in perceived
quality were Mercury and Jeep whose market shares
dropped from 3.1% to 2.6% and 2.9% to 1.2%,
respectively.
Perception may not be reality, but it certainly
drives buyer behavior.
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Dear Mitchell,
Welcome to the February 2004 Customer
Manufacturing Update. This month's white paper
focus is on the power of questions. While not
specifically related to marketing/sales, your ability to
learn from your customers, clients, distributors and
partners is critical to your success.
To learn more about the power of questions, be sure to
read this month's white paper written by Dr. David
Palmer, our member in the northern California area.
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| The Power of Questions | | |  Have you ever wondered about questions? Do you know
someone who consistently seems to ask all the right
questions . . . in just the right way? Have you noticed
that these people are also marvelous
conversationalists, even when you do most of the
talking?What makes questions such an effective communication
tool? How can you learn to use the power of questions
to your advantage? Download and read this month's
white paper The Power of Questions: One Secret to
Effective Communication to learn more. Download this month's white paper... | | |
| Tom's Back! | | |  We are thrilled to announce the "return" of Tom
Saichek. Tom has spent the last 18 months with one of
our clients working to improve their use of the Internet
to facilitate their business. Needless to say, Tom added
to his already extensive knowledge in this area.As a reminder, Tom's specific expertise also includes
helping
companies identify requirements and design solutions
for sales and marketing automation (CRM) systems.
Whether Internet-based or stand alone, Tom can save
you a lot of time and money, and improve the likelihood
of success by working with you before you
select the software and VAR you are going to use.
Tom is an expert and authority on helping
companies take advantage of their customer
information opportunities using targeted on-line
marketing tools and techniques. And, of course, Tom is
focused on the process side of the
implementation of useful marketing/sales systems.
Tom is resident in Northern California, and you can
reach him via e-mail at tsaichek@customermfg.com or
by phone at 408.313.8402 Review Tom's bio... | | |
| Closing Thoughts | | | We appreciate any feedback you can provide to help us
make sure these Updates give you value each
month. Feel free to respond to this e-mail with any
comments or suggestions for future topics or ways we
can make these Customer Manufacturing
Updates more valuable to you. Thank you for your interest, and if we can provide any
additional assistance in sales, marketing, strategy, or
innovation to help you increase your sales,
let us know. Our mission is to help you improve the
performance of your System to Manufacture Customers. | | |
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