I am currently reading a book that Tron recommended called, “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath.  I am only a couple chapters into it but I thought I would share a couple things that jumped right out at me.

The book describes ideas that are sticky are memorable.  Memorable ideas all share these 5 characteristics; 1) Simplicity 2) Unexpectedness 3) Concreteness, 4) Credibility and 5) Emotion.   So how do we in the self storage industry make it sticky? 

Fortunately the Self Storage industry has a couple sticky features built into it.  The first principle of a sticky idea is Simplicity.  The whole concept of Self Storage is simple.  So it is important that as industry insiders we remember this and keep it simple.  Many times because of what we know about the industry as a whole and what we know about property management, we know that the industry is not as simple as a place to store belongings.  However that is the key to keeping it memorable for the public in our marketing plans…

The other piece that the self storage industry has going for it is Concreteness.  The self storage industry has the ability to describe what we do in very tangible language exactly how we serve our customers.  For example we can say just visualize your self driving up to this strong and secure electronic gate.  You look around and the property is clean and well maintained you see video surveillance cameras watching over the property.  You know because you can see these features that you and your belongings are going to be safe while here at our Self Storage Facility. 

Since two of the 5 features of a sticky idea seem to be ripe for the picking.  I will have to read the rest of the book to see how do we talk about the industry in Unexpected ways with credibility and emotions…   

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