Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams

It’s often said, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but in today’s world of business, that’s easier said than done.

With more and more sales being conducted through direct mail and the internet, plus fierce competition for shelf space in retail stores… consumers often simply don’t have the time to make an informed decision, and will make a choice based entirely on which product has the better packaging.

The right packaging can immediately give the customer a sense that your product is the perfect one for him and can often close a deal just like that. However, it’s not enough to simply have good copy and strong visual design in your packaging; there’s one other thing to keep in mind that might be the most important one of all.

“Product Perception” refers to the way customers identify new products. Their unconscious mind makes links between the new product and old products they’ve bought in the past. Like many of the unconscious processes of the human mind, this isn’t always a logical process, but luckily it is a predictable one.

Take for example a book. No matter the content of that book, a customer who first approaches it will take it for what it is on the surface: a book. What’s more, they’ll associate it with other books they’ve bought in the past and at that point, the main idea of product perception comes into play. If the customer has routinely paid $20-30 for a book in the past, it’s unlikely that he’ll be willing to pay more than that for your book.

If the exact same material covered in that book, however, were recorded onto audio discs and then re-packaged, or if the exact same book were to be bundled with a piece of matching computer software, the customer would approach that type of merchandise with a higher price point in mind from the start. Keeping this in mind, we can anticipate and control a customer’s initial, most basic reaction to our products.

So, now that we know about product perception, how can we make it work to our advantage?

The first step is to talk to your marketing department and have them consider product perception in all their research. Through surveys and other polling tools, you can figure out what the average customer is willing to pay for products that use various types of packaging, which is valuable information indeed. With this at your disposal, you can repackage a lower price-point item such as a can of paint and market it as part of a “home renovator’s kit”, making it seem much more valuable.

What was once an ordinary pair of shoes can have their packaging turned around to focus on the health benefits they provide over the competition, thus making them more of a high-cost medical item instead of just your basic pair of shoes. These are just a few of the many possible ways to repackage and redefine a product to make it seem more “high-end” at a glance.

At first, you might feel disappointed or frustrated that the content of your product is being overlooked in favor of its appearance, but it all comes down to the first impression. Once you master the concept of product perception, there’s no need to worry!

With the right approach, you can truly set yourself apart from the competition and control exactly how the customer views your product, as well as how much they’ll be willing to pay for it.

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