#HouseCleaning #housekeepers #CleaningServices #CleaningYourHouse
Imagine getting your house cleaned for $19.
That’s the pitch Homeaglow offers in its TV ad.
What the ad doesn’t tell you is the $19 price – which sounds too good to be true – is only for the FIRST cleaning. To get your house cleaned regularly, there is an array of other prices offered on its Web site. And, there are a limited number of $19 cleanings in certain areas, and some areas may have none available.
The lesson here is that if something sounds too good to be true, check it out.
The big part of advertising’s job is to get potential clients or customers to find out more.
The $19 price is a good lure. Perhaps Homeaglow figures that it’s a great hook to get people to check out its Web site.
If you Google Homeaglow, you may find an array of reviews for the service.
House cleaning services can be tricky. If you are particular, as many are, about how your house is cleaned, you may want the same person doing it every time.
Companies like Homeaglow may send a different cleaner every time. They may do different things. You may want to specify to your house cleaner what you want done, and how you want it done.
If you have the same person, or the same two people, clean your house every time, you can build up enough trust with them that you can leave your house while it is being cleaned. If you have different people every time, you may not feel comfortable leaving them alone in your house.
Some people are so particular about house cleaning that they HAVE to do it themselves.
Or, it may not be in the budget for some to pay for house cleaning.
But, if you are in the market for someone to clean your house, get references and check them out.
Make sure that what they are charging fits the going market price, and you are comfortable paying it.
Companies like Homeaglow may seem cheaper than private cleaning services, perhaps because they can get multiple houses on the same street. But, if you want to know who is cleaning your house, and you want the same person every time, a private cleaner may be better.
If you are using a cleaner for the first time, and you have left them in your house unsupervised, check around after the cleaner has left to make sure he or she did what he or she said he or she was going to do, and to make sure nothing is out of place.
When deciding whether to have someone else clean your house, determine how particular you are and whether that person, company or anyone can live up to your standards.
Also, presuming you can afford the service, determine how much your time is worth. Could you be doing something more valuable to you than spending time cleaning? Could you be working, and earning money, for example?
Balancing work, leisure and household chores can be a challenge. Remember, if you can afford to do it, your time doing other things can be worth more to you than doing some of the necessary chores of life yourself.
Peter
Tag Archives: TV ads
TODAY’S ADS: DO THEY MAKE YOU WANT TO BUY?
#ads #advertising #marketing #BuyingDecisions #AdsAndTheEconomy
There are some TV ads of the past that were so good, you remember them to this day, but don’t remember what they were advertising.
If you look at today’s insurance ads on TV, for example, you can remember the company name, but do they make you want to buy the insurance?
Insurance is something most people buy based on the best deal, and/or the appropriate coverage. Sometimes, over time, as insurance companies raise premiums, one shops around. If one doesn’t want to bother shopping around, he or she stays with the same company – higher premiums and all.
It’s hard to conceive one choosing an insurance company based on a TV ad. One can pass judgment on the entertainment value of the ads, but they are hardly persuasive in terms of you buying what they are selling.
Cigarette companies, when they were allowed to advertise on TV, also had entertaining ads. So did automakers. But it would be hard to believe that either of those entities could correlate purchases with ads.
Marketing is a tough business. Marketers first aim for name recognition for the client, and cute ads can achieve that.
But just because one knows a company’s name doesn’t mean he or she buys the product(s) they are selling.
Most of us buy based on price and result, which, together, equal value. We learn that one company’s products may not fit everyone.
Most of us do our own research when looking for a car, or insurance policy etc. Sometimes, one goes to a specific agent, or dealer, who help him or her decide which product would best suit him or her. Do the TV ads get people through those agents’ doors? Perhaps some. But most of us, if we go through an agent or dealer, choose that person based on local knowledge, or a friend’s recommendation.
However, advertising is large part of the overall economy. So many businesses depend on companies wanting to advertise.
Yet, in the case of many ads we all see, it’s tough to envision them translating into sales for the company that bought the ad.
Many of us love to buy things. Most of us hate to be sold things.
Some products are bought because people are shown the value, and they see it.
No fancy ad. No big-time pitch. No convincing. No coercion.
Person X has a product, shows it to Person Y. Person X would love Person Y to see the value in the product, then buy. But, Person X doesn’t care if Person Y doesn’t see the value, or doesn’t believe it’s for him or her. Person X knows that if he or she keeps looking, they will find the right people.
So, the next time you watch, or read, an ad, ask yourself: is it making me want to buy what they are selling? Chances are, if you NEED or WANT what they are selling, you’ll not buy based on the ad alone. But if it gets you to do research whether that product or service is right for you, then the ad was a success.
Know, too, that the show or publication that featured that ad is benefiting from that ad being there. If you enjoy the show, or publication, be thankful for those ads.
Peter
TRIPLETS AD A SIGN OF THE TIMES
Adult triplets all coming home to live with Mom and Dad? Really?
Sounds farfetched, but Procter & Gamble, playing off its Tide detergent ad on the amount of laundry three infant triplets generate, has a relatively new Tide ad with the amount of laundry three ADULT triplets, who’ve moved back home with Mom and Dad, generate.
Though the ad may be effective in advertising detergent, it begs the question: what is the likelihood that ALL THREE adult triplets would be so down and out as to move back home? Better yet, what is the likelihood that Mom and Dad would almost playfully work together to wash their adult kids’ clothes? In fairness to Mom and Dad, they want the kids gone – not because they don’t love them, but they NEED to be on their own.
Parents who’ve raised triplets, and perhaps other kids, look forward to that empty nest when the kids are grown. They want to still see them, but they don’t necessarily want them living back home. If you are a parent, would you welcome your, say, 30-year-old still living with you? If you are the 30-year-old, do you want to be living with Mom and Dad?
In recent years, with the number of job losses etc., parents have been a fallback for younger adults whose lives were suddenly changed. The young person can save on rent, perhaps even food and other living expenses, by hanging home. But as much as parents may not want this arrangement, the young person shouldn’t want it either.
For many, getting out of the house to live on one’s own is a goal as a young person. Parents, meanwhile, undoubtedly look forward to lives they’ve never been able to live while raising children. When the economy is going well, everyone should be happy with their own independence.
BAD ECONOMY MEANS UNINTENDED LOSS OF INDEPENDENCE
The unintended consequence of the economic downturn is the number of people who lose their independence. Mom and Dad could disallow their child or children to move back in, but most parents have never gone through what these young people are going through. They’ve never seen so many young careers threatened by forces their children can’t control.
The good news for children is they have time to recover. Presumably, the triplets in the Tide ad are all single. Matters get really complicated if the adult children have spouses and families themselves. It also gets really complicated for the person who is close to retirement, but not quite there yet. Their unexpected lack of work may sentence them to an extension of their work life, in some fashion.
Add to that the trend of companies refusing to hire those who have been unemployed a while, and you have the makings of a very slow recovery. Meanwhile, those who want to be independent – parents and adult children – can’t be in many cases.
What to do? If you are indeed forced to move back home with Mom and Dad, don’t stick them with your laundry or any other life chore. Live as if you were on your own. Sure, you can eat meals together, but if you don’t eat at the appointed family time, make your own meals.
If you are indeed unemployed, and are looking for an income source, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. This is among the better of the many ways out there to earn income, without having a traditional job. If you already have a job, don’t presume it will always be there. Check out other ways to make money – and save money, too.
If you are a parent and have adult kids at home, you, too, can buy into this venture and have your kids work with it. That may hasten their independence, and yours.
Having kids around is great. Many parents whose kids they never see would relish having their children home – for a time. But, after a while, they will want them to go to their own homes. The kids, after a while, should want that, too.
Peter