Perceptions and brand

The meshing of your brand and how people perceive that brand is not a natural given. LARA SOLOMON

By Lara Solomon

I’ve often wondered what people think of me from how they perceive me. It’s a subjective question to ask people – one of my friends sees me as glamorous and intelligent (and no, I am not bribing them!); another says chaotic and driven.

I agreed with some of the comments, like glamorous (who wouldn’t) but chaotic I found hard to see. But when explained, I realised that to me it was “normal” but to her it was not how she thinks at all – she finds the way my mind buzzes all over the place chaotic.

When I first started in business I never really thought about my personal perception, but just about my brand. Yes, we all know that people will judge you from what you wear, how you look etc in the first few seconds, and it is only if they get past that that they will give themselves the chance to see who you are.

In my business it is really important that the perception of my brand is conveyed properly. Our research shows that consumers see Mocks as funny, funky, exciting and fashionable.

However it has taken a long time to build this perception – four years – and to get consumers seeing Mocks as fashionable has taken the longest of all. And still I am trying to strengthen it. So how can you get your brand/business/you perceived how you want?

What do you want to say? Do you want to be seen as intelligent or a bubble head? Work it out, don’t let it fall to chance, it’s your name/business/brand out there.

Consistency – the key to branding, making sure you deliver the same message each time, whether it is in the logo, what you wear or how you act.

Repetition – keep saying/doing it over and over again. Unfortunately consumers can be slow to catch on, even when you think they have finally got it, they often haven’t. Frustrating yes, but think of the millions of messages that bombard us every day, is it any surprise that it can take a while to get through?

Now I am going to sort out my chaotic mind, but it might take a while to change that, since the bright shiny ideas around me distract me all the time!

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks www.MyMocks.com and author of Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.