Hijacking customer’s perception – who is funding?

Let’s assume that the price of 1 liter vegetable oil is 100 INR in our neighborhood grocery shop.

We think that neighborhood grocery shop is mixing some impurity and selling it loose.

Lets pay 10% more i.e. 110 INR and buy packed oil from that shop only.

After some time our perception gets influenced and we start believing that even if it is packed, it’s not a trusted brand*. Lets pay 10% more i.e. 121 INR and buy a packed oil of a trusted brand from that shop only.

Our analytical brain works after some time again, we apply unitary method and arrive at a decision - we need 2-3 liters oil every month so let’s purchase it from a super market and avail a scheme also (2 K.G. sugar with 5 liters oil and pay 600 INR).

After some time again, from somewhere our neurons receive signals of ‘Go with Nature’ and we take an expensive decision - Even if it is of a trusted brand, the grains from which oil was extracted, were fertilized by inorganic chemicals. Pay 20% more i.e. 720 INR and have a 5 liter pack of organic, packed, trusted brand oil from super market.

Over the period of time our perception has changed drastically. Many know the life cycle of changing perceptions but don’t have any way to avoid.  Some even know that we only are funding it by readily paying more than it actually costs. So far as quality is concerned, there are instances when loose oil sold by neighborhood grocery shop was better than organic, packed, trusted brand oil.

*Trusted Brand has been built by flooding its name in tele and print media and therefore making customer believe that the brand is universally accepted and trusted.

- Amit Roop