Expectations change how the same experience feels.
More quotesPackaging is the product getting to the customer first and briefing them on what to feel. Calling it decoration is like calling the waiter irrelevant because the chef cooked the food.
Pour ordinary wine from a grand old bottle and expectation starts tasting before the tongue does. Consumers are not gullible fools hypnotised by French lettering; ambiguous experiences simply need interpretation. Weight, price, provenance, language and setting tell us what deserves attention.
The same coffee feels more considered in a heavy ceramic cup than a flimsy one. A familiar medicine box can feel more reassuring than an own-label equivalent with the same active ingredient. Label software “beta” and rough edges become evidence of progress; call it finished and those same edges become broken promises. Context helps construct the experience rather than merely describing it.
There is a nasty invoice attached. A premium cue raises the expectation it creates. Gorgeous packaging around mediocre chocolate makes the disappointment more articulate. A polished showroom cannot permanently rescue a shabby service.
Product people who dismiss perception as fluff are pretending humans shop like laboratory scales. Marketers who think perception can replace substance are planning never to meet the customer twice. Both are wonderfully tidy theories. The second purchase will mug them in the car park.