Mustard’s Gareth Hodgson explores the gap between brand perception and reality, and what brand research can reveal when positioning starts to drift. Drawing on the shifting public perception of English football’s Premier League, he demonstrates why understanding brand perception is critical for building, maintaining and evolving strong brands.
Perception is reality. I find myself saying this a lot. When pitching for brand work. When sharing what we’ve found.
The most successful brands stand for *something*. The best. The original. The most innovative. The alternative. The trendiest. The most premium. Value for Money.
A lot of the work we do involves trying to find out what a brand should be. What territory do they currently own? What is differentiating? Where are the gaps in the market? We help them understand how to best position the brand.
We also spend a lot of time helping brands understand if they are delivering on what they want to be. Measuring alignment with how they are trying to be viewed. Understanding perceptions. Finding out the intricacies of what they need to do to get closer to where they want to be (through product/service, through communications, through experience, through audience etc.).
But, there is rarely perfect alignment between perception and reality. There is always a gap. The best brands have a strong, consistent message of what they want to be, and the delivery beneath this (quality of product/service/experience, pricing, design, packaging etc.) is strong enough to reaffirm this in the minds of consumers.
You can’t just say any old shit and expect people to believe it. Well, you can (politics being a prime example), but it’s never sustainable. Eventually reality bites.
<No, this isn’t a blog about BrewDog>
Brand Claim: “The Premier League is the BEST league in the world!”
A message that football fans have heard for years. Hammered home continuously by key partner Sky Sports and associated media for decades.
Somebody pulls back a two goal deficit to win 3-2?
“That only happens in the Premier League… live and exclusive on Sky Sports!”
A side in the bottom three surprisingly beats the league leaders?
“That only happens in the Premier League… live and exclusive on Sky Sports!”
Three sides in a close title race?
“That only happens in the Premier League… live and exclusive on Sky Sports!”
Brand Damage: “The Premier League gets battered…. everywhere they goooo!”
I write this the day after Newcastle have just lost 8-3 on aggregate to La Liga’s Barcelona. And Spurs have lost 5-7 to La Liga’s Atlético Madrid. And two days after Manchester City have lost 5-1 to La Liga’s Real Madrid. And Chelsea have lost 8-2 to current European Champions Paris St-Germain. Not of La Liga, but from a ‘farmers league’ as we’re often told by the Premier League advocating influencers who have been spawned.
The English media was SHOOK the next morning.
“Premier League teams have played more games.”
“Premier League teams have more injuries.”
“Premier League teams had more difficult draws.”
“The Premier League is more competitive than other leagues so European teams could focus on these games.”
There must be an excuse. The Best League in The World™ couldn’t possibly have been… “Not The Best” could it?
Brand Reality: “It shouldn’t be a surprise.”
I mean, let’s ignore that a broader spread of La Liga teams have been in European semi-finals in the last decade. And that La Liga have generated more winners of both European competitions. And more Golden Boot winners. And more Ballon d’Or winners and top three finishers. And won more head-to-head games with English teams.
Why let the facts get in the way of a lucrative brand narrative.
Brand Environment: “Other cracks appearing?”
A big part of the “Best League in the World” brand position is the “Prem-ium” level of expenditure by clubs. Spending is higher than all the clubs in the top divisions of Spain, France, Italy and Germany combined.
This is propped up by enormous TV deals, questionable owners and ownership models, billions of pounds of debt and superior levels of global commercialisation.
But this is also in a world where Premier League TV ratings are in double-digit decline, illegal streaming is abundant, younger audiences are consuming the product in a more digital short-form way, and core audiences are being priced out of attending games in favour of higher spend-per-visit customers.
But is reality starting to bite?
The “Best League in the World” perception has been able to withstand results based under-performance thanks to those strong perceptions which have been built around quality of entertainment and drama. But the Premier League “product” has been criticised more than ever this year. The entertainment quality is perceived to be lower based on data-driven styles of play and tactics. Rule changes have impacted the time that the ball is in play and inactivity.
The Premier League being “boring” has trended across social media this season. I’d love to get my hands on their brand tracking data, but based on other social content I’d be amazed if “too expensive to watch on TV”, “too expensive to watch live” and “not as good to watch as it used to be” aren’t increasing metrics too.
And that’s before you throw the visual evidence of losing to teams from other leagues into the mix too.
Perception vs. Reality: “Closing The Gap?… or Changing The Position?”
It’s (relatively) easier to reduce the perception-reality gap in other premium consumer industries where you have a physical, controllable “product”. You invest in the quality of your materials. You invest in your service delivery. You invest in the experience. You invest in design. You invest in innovation.
But when your end product is more “uncontrollable”, then you face more challenges. If you’ve told everybody that you’re “The Best”, invested more money than everybody else in your product, experience and delivery to be “The Best”, but people start to perceive that you aren’t, then you’ve got a brand identity crisis.
If the brand promise doesn’t fit any more, maybe it’s time to change it and find a territory which is more relevant and resonates more? The best brands evolve at the right time.
Is it time for the Premier League to try and stand for something else?