Over various social media platforms, thousands of discussions are heating up about what the “hot person” vaccine is – and so far Pfizer appears to be winning out, with statements like “only hot people get the Pfizer vaccine” and even a clip of a young pharmacy technician telling viewers that one of the side effects of the Pfizer shot is “feeling like a bad bitch”.

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According to the TikTokverse, anyone who gets that other mRNA vaccine (which, for the record, is comparable in almost every way), is a “peasant”. Nevertheless, fans of Dolly Parton have claimed to follow her preference for Moderna. But in general, according to The Atlantic article, the other vaccines trend behind in their preference by the social media crowd.

Of course, whether a vaccine is seen as the one favoured by the rich and beautiful is neither here nor there – it bears no relation to its performance.

And this is where things get interesting when it comes to luxury. In luxury, the value a brand creates is strongly correlated to the value consumers perceive it to have.

In my experience, value is driven only to a lesser extent by the features a product boasts – its performance – but much more by the story the brand tells.

The Atlantic article asks experts to weigh in, with one argument that presents itself being that the name Pfizer sounds more luxurious, with a hardly pronounced “P,” similar to the “H” in Hermès. The expert interviewed adds that the name Moderna may be too descriptive to trigger the perception of luxury and value. Factors like these may play a role in forming the perception, however this would be too easy to describe the phenomenon.

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What can luxury brands learn from this? The value of a brand is defined by the perception of consumers and nothing else. Whatever the brand story is that a brand intends to convey, the only thing that matters is what consumers perceive.

While this may sound like stating the obvious, it is fascinating to observe how many brands don’t act accordingly. As an example, very few brands monitor the real-time development of their social media sentiment in core countries. And if they do, the results are often not granular enough, come too late, are interpreted on the wrong level or they don’t trigger critical decisions early enough.

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Whenever I tell a brand to upgrade its digital marketing capabilities, including artificial intelligence-supported data analytics tools, the first push back is on cost. However, even examples like online chatter about the vaccine shows how fast brand perception can be influenced by people independent of the brand.

Without real-time knowledge, brands regularly weaken their market position. What is often seen as an unnecessary cost is in fact the best investment a brand can make, especially since online sentiment is not always as positive as Pfizer’s in this case. And when brands get out of sync with their audiences, every moment counts.

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The more fundamental learning is that extreme value is created through stories: stories brands tell or stories people tell. Brand positioning and storytelling are closely related but a weak point for many brands.

I personally am very grateful that I already got fully vaccinated and that “my” vaccine, the Moderna shot, is not necessarily seen as the “hot people’s vaccine”. With much of the world waiting to get access to Covid-19 vaccines, any vaccine with a solid efficacy and a high safety record is a phenomenal option.