Importance Of Perception Management

By Author: Sushant Sharma
Total Articles: 8
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Since truth is always debatable as it has several versions, humans settle for perception to form their reality. Perceptions form human realities and are vital to how individuals react to situations. In the corporate world, perception management is about forming and maintaining a favourable stakeholder/customer reality.

The business environment is now highly competitive globally with several corporations in the fray for most services and products. So, how do some companies manage to enjoy a lion’s share of the business pie in a particular sector? Are their products or services really better? Do they always know the market trends and are able to stay above the innovations by competitors? Do they have a magic mantra for predicting consumer preferences?

No, not really! Even the most successful corporation has its insecurities because past trends cannot guarantee future successes. A giant corporation today can fail miserably in a constantly changing consumer driven market. What distinguishes a successful enterprise from a company that sinks in this corporate environment is the aggressive managing of perceptions ...
... which makes the crucial difference.

Perception management is a strategic communication support tool in the corporate world for businesses to deliver the correct messages to the right people. This is always an on-going process if there is a long-term vision driving an enterprise. Through perception management a company can formulate and project the best perspective to all stakeholders.

In the age of the internet, social networking, blogging sites and super-smart phones managing perceptions is indeed a challenging task. There are so many new media platforms that have made communication faster, easier, more detailed and far-reaching. The smallest bit of information flows rapidly from a small community of people to the larger global audience. The more significant the information, the greater the challenge is to manage its reception.

Sometimes though, perception management functions in a crisis situation and at that point it really becomes apparent how well-prepared a corporate is in its communication strategy department. Biased, ill-intentioned, ill-managed or false information however small, can irrevocably damage a company’s brand value and market reputation. It is important to manage how a company’s stakeholders and targeted customers perceive such information.

Perception management does not come into play only in controlling negative material, it is an important management tool to spread and maintain a constant flow of positive information to ensure a favourable perception of the company. Perception management is very much a brand building exercise involving intangible factors like stakeholder values, feelings and interpretations.

The pricing and packaging of a product or service is a tangible factor in creating brand value. These can be easily implemented and monitored. Perception management however is an intangible factor needing a well-thought out, multi-pronged strategy. There are tools that help implement perception management strategies.

There is a need to mould opinion that stakeholders may make on the basis of news reports, blog posts, social networking sites and information about a company’s actions or the behaviour of its staff. All such information that will make a stakeholder’s reality may be intentioned or unintentional on a company’s part, but its perception will have to be managed in either case.

Perception management is needed to ensure that a stakeholder’s reality is a good experience. This is the only way to maintain loyalty, love and investments for a business. Needless to say, bad perception will lead to loss of revenue and damaged brand value.

The author of this article is associated with India InfoMedia reputed for providing strategic communication support to clients for brand building India InfoMedia has been consistently assisting its clients reach out to their stakeholders through focused communication strategies.