Introduction What's the difference between having four peaches in the morning and three in the evening, versus three in the morning and four in the evening? You might not know it, but you prefer restaurants that leave you slightly hungry. Why does brand master David Aaker believe that perceived quality is the foundation of brand extension and a critical purchase reason? A guy was afraid of flying. On one flight, he was trembling with fear, much worse than usual. It turned out he noticed the tray table in front of his seat was loose and rattled loudly during takeoff. He felt the plane was very unsafe. Seeing him so scared, and with the flight being bumpy, Lao Miao (the author) was also anxious the whole way. We know that airplane safety depends on maintenance, weather, and other factors, and has nothing to do with whether the tray table is loose. But consumers don't actually judge a product or service so rationally. When we eat fast food, besides safety and taste, we often look at portion size. If the portion is generous, we feel the restaurant is honest and good value. But if the restaurant actually gives too much, the effect might backfire. The planning for Kungfu (真功夫) is one of Ye Maozhong's outstanding works. During the project, the team had an insight: eating fast food is different from buying vegetables at the market. At the market, giving extra portions earns customer praise. But with fast food, if you give too much, customers easily get full or even stuffed. With the same food, customers' evaluations differ depending on whether they are full or almost full. If the food portion is too large, customers get stuffed and may think the food tastes bad, so they won't come back. If they are almost full but still want more, they'll crave "Kungfu" next time and dive in (though still not fully satisfied). So Kungfu deliberately reduced the food portion in its set meals, but increased the weight of the tray to make customers feel they got good value. When customers ordered, they carried a heavy tray, and a sense of value arose naturally. Not only Kungfu, but most experienced fast-food chains do the same. The expensive Kangshifu Private Beef Noodles have a large bowl, but it's shallow; lots of soup, but few noodles. The approach is the same as Kungfu's: make it look like a lot, but actually give less. Adding 50g more noodles costs little. The restaurant owner isn't worried about the cost, but about your impression after you're full. If you think the food tastes bad, everything is lost. At this point, you might think Lao Miao is talking about deception. Actually, Lao Miao wants to say that when customers judge a product or service, they have their own thinking path, which sometimes aligns with the actual product quality, the company's own judgment, or the R&D engineer's judgment, and sometimes not. We hope companies, while ensuring product quality, can also stand from the customer's perception and improve the "product quality" in the consumer's mind. This has a professional term: "perceived quality." How to improve perceived quality is a systematic science that Lao Miao intends to study for life. If you still think we marketers are deceivers, then please leave, no farewell. It's not just domestic companies that "fool" consumers; the real pioneers are foreign marketing gurus.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport is one of Houston's three major airports. Years ago, passengers frequently complained about long waits for baggage claim.

To reduce waiting time, the airport added more baggage handlers, cutting the wait to 8 minutes. However, complaints did not decrease, which puzzled them. They held meetings but couldn't explain why or find a solution.

Eventually, management sought help from renowned management expert Robbins. After investigation, Robbins analyzed that the total waiting time consisted of two parts: walking to the baggage area (about 1 minute) and waiting for bags (about 7 minutes).

Robbins proposed a solution: move the exit farther from the baggage area and route the bags via a different path. So passengers still waited 8 minutes, but walked 5 more minutes, meaning they only waited 2 minutes after reaching the carousel. If this plan were made public, many would feel fooled.

But the result was astonishing: the new method worked immediately, and few passengers complained about long waits. For passengers, the service they received didn't improve; they still waited 8 minutes. But 6 minutes of walking plus 2 minutes of waiting feels much better than 1 minute of walking plus 7 minutes of waiting. Having four peaches (acorns) in the morning and three in the evening is certainly better than three in the morning and four in the evening. When we perceive things with instinct, we are not much smarter than the monkeys in the fable of "three in the morning, four in the evening." Car marketers have found that customers care a lot about the sound of closing the door, considering it a key indicator of build quality. So car brands have worked hard on door-closing sounds, some even with a "subwoofer" effect. But these sounds have little to do with basic performance or craftsmanship; they are just perceived quality signals. Perceived quality differs from product quality, which refers to the nature and quantity of ingredients, functions, or services; the degree of excellence and parameter levels. Perceived quality also differs from production quality, which refers to compliance with specifications, defect rates, etc. Perceived quality is entirely the consumer's subjective feeling. It seems hard to quantify and appears "unreliable." Actually, for different product categories, consumers have high-quality signals they use to judge. For example, consumers think laundry detergent with more foam cleans better, a pleasant door-closing sound indicates better car craftsmanship, thicker milk has higher nutritional value, imported milk powder is safer, heavier furniture is more solid, and free-range eggs are more nutritious. Every product has corresponding high-quality signals that influence perceived quality. To master these high-quality signals, you need to study the characteristics of different industries and products, but more importantly, return to the most fundamental human behavior patterns. The human brain simplifies: we like to categorize complex, professional information, and we use one or two "key pieces of information" we think are important to make broader judgments. So we form many stereotypes: More expensive products are better quality, clean-looking restaurants don't use gutter oil, girls named Elizabeth are more fashionable than those named Wang Erni, and foods labeled "GMO" harm the next generation. Only by deeply understanding the industry and products, and mastering consumer behavior patterns, can we accurately identify the market's "high-quality signals," communicate in consumer language, and avoid falling into the company's own self-indulgence. -END-