Yes, perception , a word that should be embedded on the brain of every advertiser and every advertising & marketing person - and brand perception is virtually a legitimate confidence trick!

The aim of advertising is to persuade our target audience to respond in some way (buy, call, visit etc.) and we have a plethora of skills, tricks and tools at our disposal to help us achieve that.

But the most important factor of all is to create an 'image' of the product, rarely as it actually is, but as we want it to be perceived, because it is this carefully orchestrated brand building that will
attract the prospective customer by producing an often carefully manipulated false view of the product.

Now, you may feel this is very naughty and pure deception, and to an extent you are right. However every product, every company and even individuals have their images 're-produced' in varying degrees and the world is full of clever Public Relations people, Brand Development experts and general image makers whose soul purpose in life is to create that perceived image of a brand.

And before you cry 'fraud' there are very few people who can say that they have personally never 'enhanced' a CV, or perhaps dressed to impress (i.e. for a meeting or interview) or contained one's language in front of the vicar. It's exactly the same, we want to be seen (perceived) at our best and not necessarily as we normally are - and creating a brand image is about perception.

Here's a very simple example of how this can work.

You do have to be of a certain age to remember Steptoe and Son, a pair of extremely grubby, very lovable and sometimes sad West London Rag and Bone men from an old BBC sitcom (and still aired on the odd Sky channel).

They would have been the epitome of disastrous branding and an image makers nightmare. However, with a tweaked name and a newly created persona we can totally change the way they are perceived, as long as you don't see the real thing.

But that, of course, is as far as this deception of perception is allowed to go and we have created the image of the brand as the advertiser would like it to be.

Beyond that the product itself has to deliver and naturally we cannot make claims that are not true. That would certainly be very wrong, but we can create an image of a product that shows it at it's best (and perhaps hides the cracks!).

So there we have it - advertising is all about perception and often has little to do with the truth.

But don't tell the Advertising Standards Authority I said that!