Tip O'Neill, former Speaker of the House, once famously said "All politics is local." A lesson he learned in his first political loss was this: unless you connect to the needs and desires of the folks near you, you won't be successful.

And, in this emerging era of  "creeping impersonalization", I think any effective marketing will be "local marketing".

As an example, I have a standing appointment every other Saturday morning with my hair stylist, and I never miss! I asked myself, what is it about my hair stylist that she delivers and her competitors don't?

I think she really gets some fundamentals about local marketing  that a lot of other other service providers, including carpet cleaners don't get:

FIRST:
Customer relationship: Pretty hard not to get to know someone when you're sticking your hands on their head every other week. She knows who her customer is and what gets them going - and she remembers my name and a lot about me every time I step in the door.

SECOND:
Making her service "different". Every stylist does mostly the same thing. And there is a low barrier to entry with more ‘stylists' being created daily. So, if they're smart, they're thinking about how to make what they do for each valuable customer different than they get anywhere else.

THIRD:
Customer experience. Good stylists realize that the cutting of the hair is the bare minimum. It's the everything else as a part of the surrounding experience that can make the stylist stand out.

FOURTH:
Repeats, & referrals. Stylists know they live and die on repeat customers and their friends. New customers are a bonus, but when they are converted into regulars, they are golden. So the stylist focuses on what will get folks to come back, and that seems to me to be the three items above.

The really funny part in all this is I don't know if most stylists are that calculating when it comes to marketing. Not even sure they think any of the above IS marketing. They just know what they need to do to keep people happy and coming back.

My opinion on this? I think as this world moves to so-called "gobalization", cleaning professionals need to think and act like my "stylist"!