How,Your,Customers,Perceive,Va marketing How Your Customers Perceive Value

Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie

The challenge is that understanding how your customersperceive value is difficult to quantify due to its subjectivity. Valueperceptions are influenced by many variables including attitudes, culture,social standing, political affiliation and a myriad of other influencers. Howthen can we make any measure of value perception responsibly? One thing we knowwe can do is understand how our mind fundamentally processes data at thesubconscious level before our emotive and logic receptors muddy up the waters. To illustrate this example, imagine you are looking at fouridentically sized and spaced squares on a piece of paper. One square is red,one is green, one is yellow, and one is blue. Being that our minds are systematic and finite in theiroperation, it first attributes 100% of the possible value to the entire series.It then dissects the series of images and makes value judgments based onphysiological triggers. Our mind confirms that spatially, these four images areof equal size, shape and spacing. Therefore, our mind attributes an equal 25%of value to each of the four images. At this point, as far as our mind isconcerned, these four images are equal. The next thing our mind does is process color. Because redhas the lowest frequency and highest wavelength of any color, it is the firstto reach our eye (this is why important things are red…like stop signs, firetrucks and Twizzlers). Yellow is the second to hit our eye followed by greenand then blue. Our mind concludes that the red square must be more valuablethan the yellow square which is more valuable than the green square, etc. Keepin mind that these processes are happening in a nanosecond before our coreemotional reactions tell us that the red square makes us feel energetic, theyellow square makes us feel happy, the green square makes us feel comfortableand the blue square makes us feel creative. Keeping this process in mind, it is important to understandthat every potential customer makes a multitude of value judgments, on asubconscious level, about the messages they receive from your business. Do thevalue judgments that are made about your business help or hurt your brand as itapplies to the position your brand holds in the human mind? A frequent radio advertisement in our area depicts ahandyman business with the owner declaring "I'm not sure if everyonerealizes all of the things we can do." He then begins spouting off all ofthe services his company can perform such as basements, kitchens, bathrooms,roof repair, plumbing, heating & AC, floor repair, foundation crack repair,siding, windows, guttering, decking and a number of other services - the listis long and forgettable (For the purposes of this piece we will ignore the factthat average human mind can only remember four to five items in any listwithout applying a pneumonic device). Because the only sense being utilized inthis example is auditory, our mind breaks the statements that are made into aseries, again applying 100% of total value to the entire service portfolio ofthe company. Each time this owner reveals another service our mind divides thevalue of the overall service portfolio in half. This means that if ten serviceswere mentioned in the advertisement our mind attributes 10% of value to eachservice. So, before our mind even begins processing the specific messages beingcommunicated it thinks that the company provides a whole lot of services…but itisn't good at any of them. Think of the most powerful brands that exist in our society.With few exceptions, these brands represent one concept in the human mind. Google = searchMcDonalds = hamburgerCoca-Cola = soft drinkIBM = business computersIntel = computer processorsBMW = driving machineNike = athletic shoesBudweiser = beerMicrosoft = softwareApple = computer electronicsJersey Shore = a systematic dumbing-down of our society While you might argue that our remodeling company doesrepresent the concept "remodeler", you should ask yourself howeffective is this concept in the human mind? If you want a new deck don't youthink to call a decking company? If you need work done to your roof don't youcall a roofing company? If your pipes are leaking don't you call a plumber?Many companies such as this one tend to group as many services together as theycan in hopes that you think of them when something in your house goes wrong -they want to be all things to all people. Unfortunately, our mind simply doesnot work like that. At the end of the remodeling company radio commercial, ourowner says "Oh ya, we are also problem solvers, I think we have seen justabout every problem there is." This statement, which is thrown in as anafterthought, is actually the only effective brand statement in the entirecommercial. This company should embrace the concept of "home problemsolvers". This concept implies strategic thinking and could be establishedas a premium brand to which there are many advantages, but most importantly, itis a clear, concise message that is easy to remember and that our mind willattribute 100% of value. What concept or service does your brand occupy in the humanmind? Is it one clear, concise message with which the human mind can attribute100% value? or can you do a multitude of services incompetently?