Han van Meegren failed as an artist in his own right but was astonishingly successful as a forger, and churning out fake Vermeers was his specialty.

He fooled everyone with his perfect forgeries, which soon found their way into notable collections around the world. He even sold one to Hermann Göring, which landed him in hot water when the war was over. He was accused of collaborating with the Nazis and plundering Dutch cultural artifacts — crimes which carried the death penalty — so he had no choice but to come clean.

At first nobody would believe him, so to prove it he got drunk and high — his preferred working conditions — and painted one in the courtroom.

Overnight the Van Meegren / Vermeer paintings became worthless. They were removed from the walls of the finest galleries in the world and tossed in the trash, which brings me onto the point.

Value is not a property of a product, service, experience, or brand. It is nothing more than a belief that exists in the customer’s mind.

This is why stocks can go up and down. Why a vintage Ferrari can go from being junk to carrying a $15,000,000 price tag. And why ingenious adverts can transform pricing power and quality perceptions. Because value is just a belief, and beliefs can change.

With this in mind, while it's useful to ask questions like “What does the customer want and need?” or “What should our positioning be?” when we're trying to create more value, it can also be powerful to think in terms of beliefs:

What does the customer believe, about themselves, our category, our product, our rivals…?
What do we want them to believe?
And what tools do we have at our disposal to build those beliefs?

Perception is reality when it comes to value. Something worth thinking about.

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