"A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts." - Richard Branson

Unfortunately, many small businesses brainlessly ape big corporations with their marketing, by (wrongly) believing that "if these huge companies built their businesses by that kind of marketing, then it surely should work for us." Build the brand,” they say.

The thinking behind that kind of marketing is that you "get your name out there," and the clients and customers will pour in. "It's all about word of mouth," they say.

Well, if you choose to go down this road, far better is real word-of-mouth advertising.

And that is something that can actually be stimulated and stewarded. And one of the best companies to learn from about this is Disney, specifically about their parks.

(And this is still true in 2021, btw, with all of the health restrictions taken into account.)

Word-of-mouth marketing is taught there as "find ways to do what you do so well and so uniquely that your customers cannot resist telling lots of other people about you." At the Disney Parks, this principle is implemented in the forms of cleanliness and authenticity.

When first-time visitors to Disneyland and Disney World are surveyed and asked what sticks in their mind most about their visit, the overwhelming, number-one answer is the cleanliness of the parks. The number two answer is the authenticity of the environments.

Disney marketing pros understand how this translates into real life. Tom and Sally go back to Peoria and tell their friends, "You can't believe how clean the parks were!"

Then four more families from Peoria pile into motor homes and bring their family (and their money) to the home of the Mouse.

Because they understand this: the Disney people think of park cleanliness as marketing, not just maintenance. They use this to stimulate referrals.

And any business can also find ways to stimulate referrals, to stimulate word-of-mouth advertising, often by doing things that should be done anyway.

You probably remember my now famous quote, "Be WORLD CLASS at one thing, rather than mediocre at everything."

In a retail business, excellence and creativity in the store environment and in customer service are most likely to stimulate referrals. You can identify hundreds of different things to change in the office or store environment, as well as customer communications, which can be directly responsible for developing a very high level of word-of-mouth advertising.

As a landlord, I pay vendors as soon as they bill me. They love me and word gets around. And of course, I want my vendors to stay in business.

And that will beat "brand-building" every time.

I'm grateful for this blog and the opportunity to serve you. Information is POWER.

BE THE ROAR not the echo®

Warmly,

Janet Behm
Utah Real Estate Accountants
(801) 278-2700