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New York, NY, May 29, 1996. How do home-based business people make
their buying decisions?
Marketers who seek to reach this burgeoning consumer target group (projected
20 million people in 1996 vs. 5 million in 1984, source: IDG/Link Resources,
January, 1996) might speak with Donald P. Mazzella, Managing Publisher of
Income Opportunities Magazine, which describes itself the "home
office of ideas" for those starting new businesses.
Mazzella commissioned the Renaissance Consortium, a Summit, New Jersey management
consultancy led by Michael Scanlon, to research the category of individuals
who comprise the home-office marketplace. Insights into this target audience
are now available in a special presentation, "The Psychology of
Home-Based Businesses."
Mr. Mazzella said: "We discovered that these business people differ
from others in what might be termed the 'traditional marketplace' because
the environment in which they work makes them more skeptical. However, they
are simultaneously hungrier for information about products and services
that will help them be successful. More than members of other groups, owners
of home-office businesses measure success by lifestyle issues and lack of
constraints than by profitability. Members of this group also crave respectability
in the marketplace and a sense of community with other home-based enterprises."
Top-line marketing recommendations, drawn from the study, "The Psychology
of Home Based Businesses," note, that in attempting to reach owners
of home-office businesses, marketers should:
- Appeal to home office business executives approaching them as professionals
and specialists. Frame the message in terms of professional needs via almost
'tribal' language.
- Frame their advertising messages in a manner that demonstrates knowledge
of the special circumstances that surround home-based enterprises. Reinforce
respectability of working at home.
- Build a community of interests with each home office executive.
- Provide expert consultation on the use of offered products. Offer
"third-party" endorsements via the success of other home office
executives who avail themselves of the marketers' products.
- Utilize media delivery systems that appeal to professional interests of home office executives, and not to the technical industry that spawns the products. "How-to" and "where-to-find" data should be included in all promotional efforts.
Mr. Mazzella noted: "This presentation should be considered as a private business briefing by one of America's foremost experts on the home-based business -- and sponsored by the market's two leading magazines -- Income Opportunities magazine and sister publication HomeWorker for interested marketing professionals across the nation."
Among the areas covered in the Income Opportunities deck are:
- Profile of the home-based business people so many of today's marketers
want to reach.
- Rationale for the new "American economic revolution"
- Top 10 home-based business categories.
- How many home-based business people are truly business owners?
- How many of them are telecommuters?
- What are the top telecommuting jobs
- Home workers vs telecommuters: how are the two market segments different,
and how are they growing?
- What are their needs?
- Insights on how members of the marketing community should reach and
sell them.
- Needs and characteristics of the home office business owner.
- Who works at home?
- How do home office executives make their buying decisions?
- What are home office executives likely to buy?
FOR COPIES OF THE STUDY PLEASE FAX REQUESTS TO (212) 768-3769
