Marketing :: Thinking Home Business | Practical Tips For People Who Work From Home

How many times in your life have you seen a sign saying “”Under New Management”?

And what are those signs supposed to convey? Things will be better? In what way, better prices, better service? But they don’t say that, do they? So when you think about it wouldn’t you say we’re really none the wiser?

I mean, maybe the prices are going up rather than down, maybe the range of goods or services is being “streamlined” so you can’t any longer buy your favorite items there, maybe staff numbers have been “rationalized”, so now it will take even longer to get served.

Whereas the sign on a coffee shop at my local mall today says something different. It says “Under New Happy Management”.

And while passing by the other morning I noticed a woman from the coffee shop serving some people. She was bright, cheery, efficient. Of course.

Thinking about writing this post I asked myself, how do I deal with clients and business colleagues? Do I let the challenges of business and the GFC get me down so I act and sound overwhelmed and grumpy? Or is my home based business always (or most of the time) under happy management? It’s been going for 21 years, but I’d like to think so, at least for now and the future.

Is your business under happy management? Any tips? Feel free to share your story here of how you’ve made it so.

strawberries sign at market

This sign at the local Sunday market, for strawberries, is even simpler than the honey sign the other week.

The appeal is direct and the message instantly absorbable: even without words you know it’s a strawberry stand; the words and numbers tell you it’s half a kilo for $5, which is very good value compared to any local supermarket.

We know from previous conversations and from the look of the strawberries on display that they were probably picked the previous day or evening and had not been in a truck or a coolroom since.

But what I really love about the sign is the “Yum Yum”. That’s the emotional appeal and for most people will probably have more impact than the price, which as I say is a very good price anyway. The sign’s real appeal is to the taste buds more than the calculating brain.

As I learnt when I studied the Sandler Sales System at great expense – and this farmer probably knew without having to do a course or pay money – people buy emotionally, they only make decisions intellectually.

The strawberry sign was a good reminder to me to check my marketing and see whether I am trying to first engage people’s intellects or their emotions.

By the way, the strawberries were scrumptious – Yum Yum indeed – and we went back for more the next week.

Do you have a story you would like to share about marketing and emotional appeal or emotional responses?