In Marketing, Perception is Reality and Visualization Helps Perception

NASA was the first organization to use visualization techniques, which led the way to successful missions that brought man to the moon long before anticipated. A NASA psychologist, Dr. Denis Waitley (who endorsed The Credibility Factor) took those visualization techniques, which were then called “visual motor rehearsal,” to the Olympic program. What the research team discovered, using sophisticated electroencephalograms and biofeedback equipment with Olympic athletes, is that when an athlete was visualizing the race, the same muscles fired in the same sequence, exactly as they might during the actual race. In other words, the brain couldn’t tell the difference between the real race and the imagined race.

So what does this have to do with credibility? Well, it is the perception piece, and it is twofold; your perception is as important as the perception of potential of customers. If you don’t believe what you are saying about your product, then your customers won’t either.

So here is a visualization planning strategy that we use in our Credibility Branding program. It is a very powerful tool; oftentimes it provides a much better picture of how the product will be used, and it even reveals how the company might support the development, production, and marketing of that product.

Visualization Planning Strategy

The idea is to create a story about your business in the not-too-distant future, describing in detail the outcome—the final result of how your product or company has impacted multiple layers. Pretend you have a magic wand and you can swish it over your business, products, customers—everything. What does this future business look like? What are you feeling? Where are you physically? What does the office look like? Who is surrounding you (customers, clients, employees, colleagues)? What are they like (describe them in detail—how they act, what they do, how they are feeling, how they respond to you)? How has the company impacted your personal life (remember that this is absolute genie-in-the-bottle wish time—whatever you want, you describe)? What do you or your company stand for? What are you feeling? How are your customers feeling? How do they act? Who are they? What do they do? How are they responding to your products or services?

The exercise entails writing a detailed story outlining the answers to the above questions. Take your time, and write stream-of-consciousness style, meaning don’t stop to correct sentence structure or grammar. Let your thoughts flow on the paper until you feel you’ve said everything you want to say.

In creating your story, follow these rules:

· Throughout your story, describe how you feel. Feeling it makes it more real. Also, when the exercise is complete, it will provide new words, phrasings, and descriptors that could help create the brand persona (the emotional piece) and perhaps help in establishing some messaging.

· When describing the individuals that are part of the business, you don’t have to name names; just describe the qualities of these employees, colleagues, and customers.

· Do not choose a specific time in the future or a timeframe when your vision will come to fruition; don’t put any restrictions on it.

· Do not include “hows.” Do not think about how it will come about; just describe the outcome, the end result.

· Dream big; whish loud.

· Write it in a stream-of-consciousness way. For example, if you can’t think of anything to write to start it, start with: “I can’t think of anything to write. This seems like a dumb exercise, but I will give it a try. What is it that I see as the future description of my company…?” And so on.

· Describe how you feel all the way through the story. (Did I mention that before?)

Why are you doing this? It takes you out of marketing speak. It takes you out of planning and traditional business practices and puts you into a new context of imagining what is possible. It takes your thinking to a new level of creativity. It will truly surprise you when you compare what you wrote with what you thought the company, product, or customers were before you started.

Take this story and read it regularly. If you want, take out excerpts and put them on your bulletin board to remind you of what’s possible. If you have a team, each member should do this exercise, and then share the results in a group meeting. Powerful new understandings can arise out of this exercise, and insights into how your team thinks become crystal clear. You might also become aware of differing visions, which will eventually emerge—better to have them revealed in this forum rather than two days before a launch.

Comments

[Raimo van der Klein]

Thanks for this.

It really fits my Value Creation wheel(Holistic Creation). The first phase is indeed to change perception. A necessary step to create moivation for change..

R.