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Building the Image of Your Home Business
Introducing a new, home-based
service business into a local competitive market requires a clear understanding
of how the unique characteristics of a home based service business and the
consumer decision making process (buyer-readiness stages) affect the initial
promotion mix decision. This section concludes with a practical discussion of
appropriate promotion ideas for new, home-based service businesses.
INTRODUCTION
Not only can having a home-based business reduce operating expenses,
it also offers one the opportunity to work at his or her own pace and hours.
But despite their growing popularity, home-based business people are, in some
instances, not taken seriously. The impression held is that a home-based
business person is only playing at being in business. This can be especially
true of new, home-based service businesses; their lack of a tangible product
makes them vulnerable to questions concerning their quality. In fact,
competitors can take advantage of this aspect by adopting a competitive strategy
that portrays the home-based business as lacking in experience and stability.
The purpose of this guide is to describe the ways in which a new, home-based
service business is unique and propose ways in which such a business can
effectively position itself among competitors who are serving the same local
market. In particular, this paper deals with home-based businesses in which
there is no face-to-face customer contact within the home. And because
promotional strategies emphasizing purchase are fruitless unless the consumer is
cognizant of the service, this paper will further focus on the initial
buyer-readiness states of awareness and knowledge.
UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF A HOME-BASED SERVICE
BUSINESS
There are typically four characteristics associated with a business that
provides a service: intangibility, inseparability, and variability, and
perishability. Each of these characteristics are also true of a home-
based service business. But the first two traits, intangibility and
inseparability, seem to create particular problems for the home-based service
business.
The characteristic of intangibility implies that it is impossible for a customer
to see or touch what the service business has to offer. Therefore, it is
generally difficult to know prior to purchase the quality of the service. This
difficulty is compounded for the home-based service business if the business
does not offer a physical location in which to interact with a customer. Even
those owners who want to provide space for customer interaction are often
stymied by zoning laws. Yet in non-home- based businesses, aspects of a
company's physical location are often used as substitutes for a tangible
product: The face of the building, the signage, and the interior decor are all
capable of subtly telling a customer that a business is stable, reliable, and
professional. Many home-based businesses do not have this opportunity.
The second difficulty that a home-based service business faces is related to the
trait of inseparability: It is commonly suggested that the service provided by a
business cannot be separated from the person who provides it. (4) This implies
that the visibility of the service provider is key to the success of the
business. So without a physical location within the business community, the
home-based business person even lacks the daily opportunities for personal
interaction--the visibility--that simply going to and leaving from a
non-home-based business would provide.
FOCUSING ON THE PROPER PROMOTION MIX
To overcome the difficulties inherent in being a home-based service business,
one must carefully analyse the opportunities for counteracting these
difficulties in each stage of the consumer decision making process. The
Hierarchy-of-Effects Model suggests that the stages through which a consumer
passes are awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase.
Of particular importance to this discussion are the initial stages of the
process in which the owner of a new, home-based service business must seek a
cognitive response from the potential consumer. In a recent study, it was found that non-users of a service had lower perceptions of
quality than did users. Therefore, image characteristics must be conveyed to the
target market early in the decision process. The business must design a
promotion strategy that creates visibility and communicates clearly the traits
of experience, reliability, and professionalism so as to move the target
audience through those initial buyer-readiness stages of awareness and
knowledge.
Communicating to potential customers can be done through the use of several
promotion tools: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public
relations. Selecting the proper promotion mix--the combination of tools to be
used--requires a matching between the stage of buyer-readiness and the tool or
tools most appropriate for that stage. Advertising and public relations are the tools considered most
effective in the early stages of buyer-readiness. (4)
THE INITIAL PROMOTION STRATEGY FOR THE NEW,
HOME-BASED SERVICE BUSINESS
What does this mean then for the new, home-based service business? Consider, for
example, a carpet cleaning service. A strategy that begins with a sales
promotion tool such as a coupon may have less than the desired results.
Certainly there will be some responses from price sensitive consumers. But the
target market as a whole will not react because they have no knowledge of the
company; the business has no image that will portray to potential customers the
company's experience at carpet cleaning, its reliability, or the quality of its
work.
To demonstrate how the selection of the promotion mix should be applied to
create the appropriate image for a new, home-based business, three home-based
scenarios have been developed--a furniture reupholstered, an accountant, and a
house and pet sitter. Each example will (1) focus on counteracting the
difficulties that stem from the service characteristics, intangibility and
inseparability, and demonstrate the use of advertising and public relations as
methods for moving the target audience through the awareness and knowledge
stages of buyer-readiness.
Furniture Reupholstered
A furniture reupholsterer has the opportunity to create a substitute for a
tangible product in the vehicle he or she drives. While a new vehicle certainly
seems to say "prosperous," every home-based business owner cannot
afford to purchase a new vehicle. A used vehicle can be an effective tool if it
is clean (inside and outside) and if it has professional signage displaying the
company's logo, name, and phone number. In a sense, the vehicle takes the place
of the office and furnishings of a non-home-based business.
In addition, a furniture reupholsterer should pay attention to personal dress
and grooming as the appearance of the reupholsterer conveys a strong message to
the potential buyer. In his Model of Service Perceptions, Gronroos points out
that functional quality (attitudes, behaviours, appearances) has an impact on a
company's image just as technical expertise or quality does. A uniform or
clean work clothes, then, can speak volumes about the care a reupholsterer will
give someone's furniture. Of course we all know someone who is really good at
what he or she does, but the person's grooming and dress habits don't reflect
that expertise. Poor appearance can be overcome, but it takes time; it takes
considerable word of mouth about one's abilities to overcome one's
idiosyncrasies. Why waste that time in getting the business off the ground?
Other ways to generate awareness and knowledge include the following: One
possibility is to rent space at a home and garden show. The business owner could
reupholster an item throughout the duration of the show and give advice freely
to questions asked. The reupholsterer will have gained visibility, created a
substitute tangible product (the item being reupholstered), and promoted his or
her level of expertise.
A second possibility is to offer to teach a continuing education class in
reupholstering at the local community college. In general, "teacher =
expert" in the minds of consumers. Students in the class become potential
customers for more difficult reupholstering jobs they might have; and
word-of-mouth referrals from the students are also likely to occur.
A third idea for establishing the image of a new, home-based reupholsterer would
be to contact an established antique dealer and offer to reupholster something
in return for referrals or the opportunity to display business cards at the
dealer's shop. This possibility is especially important because it puts
knowledge of the reupholsterer's abilities in the hands of an opinion leader,
someone from whom others might seek advice.
Accountant
A new, home-based accountant has even more difficulty demonstrating the quality
of his or her work than does the reupholsterer. A finished chair can always be
shown to a potential customer. But what can an accountant show? Creating
an image of tangible quality is much more difficult.
So the accountant must focus on the things that represent the service provided.
That means a well-designed logo that appears on quality stationery, business
cards, and brochures. (These items are important to all three of the service
businesses discussed herein, but are particularly important to the accountant.)
The accountant must also focus on the characteristic of inseparability and
recognize that his or her every move reflects upon the business.
Potential ideas for creating awareness and knowledge in the target audience are
as follows: The accountant could use the repetition that advertising provides by
placing a multiple-time ad in the newspaper. The ad should announce the opening
of the business and stress the experience, training, and specialty of the owner.
A picture of the accountant will help the target audience attach a visual image
to the company name. The accountant should not expect instant phone calls as
this ad is strictly for building awareness.
To emphasize the experience of the accountant, he or she could undertake a
variety of activities: offer to write a column for the local Chamber of Commerce
newsletter; offer to give free lectures or seminars to Chamber or other civic
organization groups; and submit a news release for the newspaper's Business or
Personnel Update column that indicates recent continuing education course work
or seminars taken.
To initiate word-of-mouth communication about the quality of the his or her
work, the accountant could donate his or her services to a highly visible non-profit
organization.
House Sitter
A firm foundation of trust is required to allow a stranger into one's house when
no one is at home. This trust can be built from two perspectives:
opportunities for personal interaction and comments spread word-of-mouth by
opinion leaders. So a newly established house and pet sitter would want to look
for opportunities to display his or her trustworthiness to potential customers
in whatever arena possible. This might mean doing volunteer work with a non-profit
organization, working on Chamber committees, etc.
Responsibility displayed in one situation leaves the impression that one will be
responsible in other situations.
One way to initiate word-of-mouth communications is for the sitter to donate his
or her services to a fund-raising auction such as one held for a public
television station. This allows not only awareness exposure during the auction
but also a chance to demonstrate the quality of the services provided.
The house and pet sitter might also use the technique Pike calls
"farming." A take-off on segmenting, farming involves concentrating on
a specific
neighbourhood. The sitter could go door-to-door introducing himself or herself
and handing out flyers. In addition, the sitter could stage a cutest and ugliest
dog contest in a nearby park where his or her image as a person who likes and
gets along well with animals is clearly exhibited. Both the door-to-door
activity and the dog contest give the sitter opportunities for personal,
trust-building interaction with the target audience.
CONCLUSION
The foregoing discussion centred upon the initial promotion strategy that is
necessary for a new, home-based service business to undertake to begin building
its image. Obviously, the promotion strategy cannot stop there. Additional uses
of the promotional tools must be added to the promotion mix as some members of
the target audience move past the awareness and knowledge stages. This means
that the promotion mix will then include the use of tools that appeal to
potential customers at all stages of the buyer- readiness process. The key
issue, though, for a new, home based service business is recognizing the
starting point. Creating a promotion mix that has appeal for consumers in all
stages of the buyer-readiness means that money has been wasted on inappropriate
techniques. The message is clear: The consumer goes through successive steps
prior to making the decision to purchase. Focusing on the initial stages of the
consumer decision making process lays the groundwork for the success of future
promotional tools.