What potatoes can teach us about branding

The only things we spend time and money on are things that we believe are worth more than they cost. The key word here is "believe"

To believe in something is to believe in a story. Believe is subjective, it's an emotion, it's the perception of something, it's in the eye of the beholder. 

A change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value and this has interesting consequences for how we look at companies, products, ideas.

My favorite illustration of this dates back to the 1800s. Frederick the Great was very keen for the Germans to adopt the potato.because he realized that having two sources of carbohydrates (wheat and potatoes), would reduce price volatility in bread. The only problem is: potatoes, if you think about it, look pretty disgusting.

So he tried making it compulsory. The Prussian peasantry said, "We can't even get the dogs to eat these damn things. They are absolutely disgusting and they're good for nothing." There are even records of people being executed for refusing to grow potatoes. So he tried plan B, the perception solution, which is he declared the potato to be a royal vegetable; none but the royal family could consume it.

Now, 18th century peasants know that there is one pretty safe rule in life, which is if something is worth guarding, it's worth stealing. Before long, there was a massive underground potato-growing operation in Germany. What he'd effectively done is he'd re-branded the potato. It was an absolute masterpiece.

The point is -there are a lot of problems that can be solved by tinkering with perceived value and messaging without changing the product in the slightest.