Why Brand Quality Counts Judging a Book by Its Cover

The phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover" is so commonly said that people don't even stop to think about it. But the truth is that we all judge books by their covers—we judge almost everything by its covers. Books, dish soap, breakfast cereal, peanut butter. All of those things and more. Related: How creative consistency across touchpoints improves brand perception In the book industry, this is well-known, which is why they'll plunk down thousands of dollars for photo shoots, designers and rights-holders. When my first national novel was published, they hired an awesome photographer who was beloved by critics. And the cover he did was beautiful. But when the publisher (HarperCollins) focus-grouped it, they found that readers thought the cover appealed to an older audience, not to the 12- to 16-year-olds we wanted to target. So, after spending all that money, they scrapped it and hired a new photographer. They hired models, bought costumes, drove out to the forest (that is, Central Park), and took all new photos. Below, you can see the original version, followed by the final version. Why did they change it? Because covers mean everything. Several years ago, Publisher's Weekly printed a study which showed that if you can get someone to stop in front of a bookshelf, and if its cover faces front so they see the cover and not the spine, and if someone looks at the book, a customer will spend an average of nine seconds looking at the book. If they pick it up, they'll spend another twenty seconds looking at the back. And that's it. Nine seconds on the front, twenty seconds on the back. End of pitch. That's why so much thought goes into covers. Granted, modern book-buying is a little different (because buying a book on Amazon is a different experience), but the principle is the same: quality counts, right from the very start. Remember the definition of a brand: the sum total of all impressions a customer has from every interaction you have with them. In a bookstore, the cover is a big deal—it's the first impression of your brand. And first impressions matter. Dan Ariely's coffee experiment Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at the Michigan Institute of Technology ran an experiment, described in his bestselling book Predictably Irrational. He set up an impromptu coffee shop in the business school, offering coffee to MBA students (who should know a lot about branding, right?). He described the experience like this: "We handed our participants their cups of coffee and then pointed them to a table set with coffee additives—milk, cream, half-and-half, white sugar, and brown sugar. We also set out some unusual condiments—cloves, nutmeg, orange peel, anise, sweet paprika, and cardamom—for our coffee drinkers to add to their cups as they pleased." And the first time he ran the experiment, he had fancy dishes like you might find in an upscale coffee shop: "Sometimes we placed them in beautiful glass-and-metal containers, set on a brushed metal tray with small silver spoons and nicely printed labels. At other times we placed the same odd condiments in white Styrofoam cups. The labels were handwritten in a red felt-tip pen. We went further and not only cut the Styrofoam cups shorter, but gave them jagged, hand-cut edges." Once the coffee was poured, sipped and enjoyed, these MBA students were asked to rate the coffee first on quality, then put a price at what they'd pay for it. Even though they were drinking the exact same coffee with the exact same mix-ins. And what did they find? Well, people who drank from fancy cups loved the coffee, and they offered to pay a high price for it. People who drank out of torn Styrofoam cups didn't love it as much, didn't want to pay much for it and didn't use the add-ins. Even though the coffee and mix-ins were exactly the same in both scenarios. The lesson? We do judge a book (or a coffee) by its cover. Remember, a brand is the sum total of all interactions a customer has with you, and when a first impression—like a glance at the product packaging—is good, your customer will have a better opinion of it. Bringing it all back home Here at Lucidpress, we're selling 'covers.' From glossy brochures to email newsletters, our platform helps you to build your brand better. Whether you're picking from one of our beautifully crafted templates, or whether your graphic designers use our tool to create their own, you end up with a finely-honed and vetted piece of content. With that, you're literally making a first impression that will alter the brand for some customers. And when you are sharing that content across many departments and franchises, you know you can retain the well-designed look-and-feel by use of our template locking. Create something great, then wow your customers. It's basic branding made simple with Lucidpress. Learn more about how Lucidpress can help you protect your brand's quality and consistency.