When Brand Trumps Objective Evidence: Two Lessons for Leaders

An unpublished piece of research by Bharat Anand and Alexsander Rosinski sheds light on the power that brands have to shape consumer perceptions of quality.  Reuters editor Chrystia Freeland summarizes Anand and Rosinski's findings here, and there are at least two take-aways for anyone trying to market independent education.

First, the researchers found that the content of a brand believed to be high-quality (e.g., The Economist Magazine) tends to be rated as of a higher quality itself than content from a brand perceived as lower in quality (e.g., The Huffington Post) even when the content is exactly the same.  The take-away: the product matters, but the brand has a powerful influence over how customers are likely to perceive its quality regardless of objective evidence.  Your math program may be stellar, but if the overall market image of the school is mid-tier vis a vis competitors, then the program will be perceived as lesser in quality than would be supported by the evidence.

Second, guilt-by-association works.  When the product--articles in a magazine in the research case--appears alongside advertisements from prestige firms, that content will be perceived as higher in quality than when the corresponding ads are from less highly regarded companies.  So, the company you keep may further enhance or harm customer perceptions of your school's quality, again regardless of objective evidence.

Arand and Rosinki's findings will no doubt appear in print soon.  In the meantime, school leaders should pay as much attention to the institution's overall brand identity as they do the objective metrics of its quality.  In the irrational world of consumer decision-making, the brand itself may have more to do with the market success or failure of a new program than its objective quality.  And, as more and more schools and associations of schools form joint ventures with other organizations, pay attention to how your partners are perceived, as their image will very likely rub off on you.