Did you know that Toronto is the safest big city in North America and that it’s actually gotten safer?

So says Mark Pugash, Director of Corporate Communications for the Toronto Police Services, at the IABC Toronto seminar last week. I even questioned him about it, seeing that I’ve lived here for many years and it seems to have gotten more violent. Not true, Pugash said.

That got me thinking about perception often becoming reality. For example, if people think Toronto is not safe and refuse to walk in their communities, this in turn makes the streets more unsafe. (It also got me thinking about statistics and definitions, but I’ll leave that for another post.)

How are you perceived?

Is there something about your organization or company that people believe is true but is not? If that’s a more positive belief, so for example, if you sell a high-priced veggie burger but everyone thinks yours is the least expensive, you might want to leave that belief alone.

But perhaps, there is a negative perception about your business or charitable work that is actually not true. In that case, you might want to look and see how you can help your stakeholders, who are in charge of your brand these days, to get a more accurate picture.

As for me, I’m going out for a walk, so if you contact us about helping to change some of those perceptions, I’ll get back to you soon!