Don Thorson - Marketing 2.0

Perception Is Reality

Brand is often considered to be a "soft science", because it's difficult to directly quantify the effect of brand on a particular business. We all know we make decisions based on brand preference, but even when we do it, it can be difficult to articulate why we do it. At the same time, we all understand that brand drives market behaviors and influences company revenues.

This study, originally published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine , demonstrates how brand perception directly influences customer opinion. It describes how you can take food items and simply by wrapping them in different packaging, you can dramatically change the perception of the taste of the food. This study was conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine and involved testing 63 young children.

The researchers took identical food items and wrapped one in plain wrapping and one in a McDonald's packaging. Alarmingly, the food wrapped in the McDonalds packaging received consistently  higher scores for taste. When the food items were tested while both in plain wrapping, they were rated as tasting the same by the children.

Fries and Chicken Nuggets both rated as 6 times as tasty when wrapped in McDonald's packaging. In addition, the results were not limited to " junk food" items. Foods such as fruit juice and milk were also rated higher by the test subjects.

The study goes on to make a correlation between the degree of brand preference among the children and the numbers of  TV's in the home - suggesting that the brand preference is being driven by McDonald's  commercials. While almost certainly true, I would guess that the brand promise would also need  peer and parental validation to have this effect on the test results.

Virtual World. Real Money

Where the virtual world meets reality. Check out Second Life if you don't know about it.  Another example of social media. It's interesting on several levels. In this RPG (roll playing game), people create virtual "material things" that have value inside the game using something called Linden Dollars ($L). But here's the trick;  You can exchange Linden dollars for real dollars. In this Business Week article (and listen to the podcast), you'll read about a company that has formed in China that makes money creating things and selling them to other players. That's right, creating real world wealth, in a virtual monetary ecosystem - a true economy. People are actually making a living doing this.

Check out this "build" and you will see how it relates to social media. These people built a virtual happening, in which people paid to participate and then the Linden dollars were converted to real dollars to provide Hurricane Katrina Relief.

And, no surprise, where people gather, advertisers will come. Companies like Coke and Disney have already figured how how to participate (have a presence) in this world.