Perception is a product

Doing ‘brand work’ can feel incredibly fluffy for highly technical teams of builders. That’s why I like to reframe this work.

The truth is that in addition to the products you build for customers, you also maintain a product that is the perception of your company and products to current and prospective customers. It’s the promise of what unique value you bring. What using your product means for your customer, what it says about them, and how it makes them feel.

So in the case of a software product, the perception of how well it works, how billing should behave, and how it should make the user feel is an unspoken contract between customer and company. And the more the company guides a user’s expectation and then meets/exceeds those expectations, the more that there is ‘brand value’ or ‘brand equity.’

This brand work first and foremost starts with product quality. But then can be extended and enhanced by other parts of the customer experience.

When a customer sees your logo out in the real world, are they excited to share that they’re your customer? Or do they largely ignore it? Does it inspire them to go use your product in some way, or is it irrelevant?