When I was in high school I was involved in competitive speech and debate, something I really enjoyed and was fairly good at. I would often joke with my classmates and my coach that “perception is reality.” If you appear confident, you will be perceived as more engaging. If you dressed the part, you’d be taken more seriously. If you walked in with file boxes of literature and research, you had immediate credibility. You could help judges and competitors focus on your strengths by playing them up. I find that this was an important lesson when I was sixteen, and is just as true today.
I recently wrote a post about the relationship between storytelling and branding. In it, I pose the relationship between the reality of the product offering a company brings to market and the perception of the customers about how that product affects their lives. In essence, all great brands leave their customers with a feeling - sense of being part of a larger story, movement, or idea. Just like the file boxes make the debater more “serious” and “prepared,” so all products affect how individuals view themselves. The perception of the brand in the mind of your customers, is in fact, the reality of what your brand stands for.
As we march towards the public release of the web application, Remarkable, I am challenged to define the few things that I want my customers to feel about themselves when they buy, use, and recommend the product to others. Do I want them to feel technologically-saavy (not if that makes that application too difficult to use)? Do I want them to feel thoughtful and connected to people in their lives? Do I want them to feel organized and “with it”? Do I want customers to feel creative (without overwhleming folks with options that detract from simplicity)? How can the service itself make people feel proud to be associated with it? So much so, that they want to use it again and again and recommend it to others.
It is these discussions that help drive the product design to focus on the things that are most important to the customer experience. These decisions help reinforce the feelings of our customers. I can’t wait for you to experience it and give me feedback first-hand.
Sign up for the beta (and encourage others folks you know and want to impress to do the same) and I guarantee you will feel like a part of an elite and exclusive group when this Summer I let you take an early peak at the application.
This cool picture is from Retinal Fetish on flickr.
