Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Hi Cartess

The first thing that strikes me is that it’s hard to see how the numbers stack up, but no doubt you’ve gone into the viability of the business model, so we might as well take that as read.

Marketing an In-Home service where your business is not a recognised trade or profession is quite tricky. There’s the security and personal safety aspect of a stranger coming into your house, there’s the reliability aspect and there's the value for money angle.

Being a plumber, an electrician or a painter and decorator doesn’t make you any safer to have wandering around your domain, nor does it guarantee the quality of their work or their reliability, but they do belong to a trade body or federation and may well be accredited, thus enhancing the feelings of security that home owners appear to want.

I feel that any promotion or advertising will need to emphasise both the value for money aspects of doing this frankly disgusting task and the comfort issues.

Let’s look at the disgusting bit first

OK, if you happen to have a HAZOP Chemical Warfare Suit and some chemicals which would have found favour on Saddam’s battlefield, you’re going to be all right. Maybe that’s an angle which could be exploited to the full (Without the witty little asides)

It is a disgusting task

To do it properly involves very hazardous materials (I’ve got a BSc in Chemistry)

Without the right tools, it takes hours

Clearing up afterwards, especially so that you don’t feed your kids caustic chicken, is time consuming

Getting rid of waste cleaning materials without damaging the environment or dissolving your drain is hard.

Then there’s the security / reliability aspect

Join the local chambers of trade (Your client, not every van driver he seeks to employ)

Register in Yellow Pages and all other directories (Yes, this is a promotion aspect but it confers legitimacy for some reason)

Get some decent testimonials from respected members of the community.

Next the marketing:

Fliers are great but have a half life of 10 seconds. Including a 25% off trial discount coupon extends that to 10 days.
Include all the nasty bits from above.

Ensure that he is listed in every local directory (Paper and web – many are free|), and advertises in the US equivalent of Parish Magazines or other not-for-profit information publications. At $99 a client, you are going to have to keep the costs low.

Get some free publicity by cleaning the cookers of a local charity – not one with an industrial sized kitchen, unless your client wants to give up a weekend. I understand that in the States, a lot of business people give up their time to work in a soup kitchen once a month, rather than just donate money. Why not clean the cookers at a soup kitchen – the charity and the press would love it and your client might get a buzz too.

It’s a coincidence but I run a the advertising for our Parish Magazine and we’ve also got a website which I helped to set up and is now maintained by a friend who’s also a volunteer and a top City Marketing Consultant (Here’s a plug – www.rudgwick.net) This kind of domestic service is proving increasingly popular. Wow – we can even get our wheeled garbage bins cleaned and perfumed 12 times a year for a fee!

Hope this helps


Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions