Family-owned businesses face unique marketing challenges and opportunities.



A few years ago, we began to notice that DAYTA was attracting a lot of family-owned businesses as new clients. Most initial meetings went something like this: A younger-generation family member would bring their parents to the table, meeting with us in the hopes of infusing the company with modern marketing tactics.

It turns out that DAYTA is especially well-suited to working with these family-owned businesses, because their unique challenges also bring valuable opportunities for growth on both sides of the table — opportunities about which the DAYTA team, by our nature, are truly passionate.

Here are a few of the challenges that face family-owned businesses when it comes to marketing success, and the ways in which they open up pathways to new, exciting areas of growth:

Work/life boundaries? We don’t know her. 

It’s a little difficult to fire someone that comes to Easter dinner. As a result, successful family-owned businesses communicate more (and often better) than your average business in order to avoid uncomfortable friction. They place importance on preserving relationships, and subsequently treat employees and customers like family—because some of them are!

As you undoubtedly understand as a consumer, customers like being treated warmly and with respect by the brands and businesses they patronize. Family-owned businesses who market themselves as such don’t have to work as hard as big brands to get their neighborly approach to customer service across. As marketing experts, our job is to educate business owners on their built-in value, like their family legacy or reputation, and help them make the most of their competitive advantages. 

In DAYTA’s experience, family-owned businesses are also more likely to embrace a fun, exuberant marketing strategy that balances their professional goals with the realities of working alongside family. For these business owners, their work is their life and vice versa. To keep things in balance, their day-to-day needs to be as fun and engaging as possible while maintaining their high standards of professionalism. 

Take DAYTA client Tom Kraemer Inc., a storage container and dumpster company, for example: They have sponsored both the X-Games and Tough Mudder, extreme sports competitions. We had a blast getting a front-row view to hardcore competitors overcoming obstacles—but it was also a clever way to showcase TKI’s iconic blue dumpsters on social media and build brand recognition with a different audience. 

It’s all in the name—your name. 

The public relations stakes are higher when your name is also the company name. Horror stories abound, from CEOs gone wild to PR nightmares and beyond. It’s important to remember, however, that as a steward for your business, you can control one very important element: Your behavior. According to Family Business Magazine, 60% of consumers say they prefer to buy from family businesses because they know there is an actual person behind the brand. And if they know that person is friendly, down-to-earth and responsible for positive change in their community? Even better.
The single most effective way to guard against bad publicity is to cultivate good publicity—a lot of it. It’s important that you throw your voice, and perhaps your dollar, behind causes that genuinely matter to you.

Put in face time at community events and city council meetings, sponsor youth sports, start a scholarship—whatever you do, do it with graciousness and choose causes that are important to you personally. Share relevant events or posts on your social media, and start painting a fuller portrait of yourself in the minds of potential customers. Remember, good news (and good deeds) travel fast. 

When you can’t see the forest for the trees

The world is constantly changing, so in order to keep up with the times, your marketing tactics must also evolve. In family-owned businesses, we often see a battle of the generations regarding the path forward. Imagine: Junior is fluent in social media and wants to push the company toward the future (even if some of the methods he’s excited about are untested and pricey,) while Senior doesn’t see the need to veer from print ads in newspapers and radio ads. Sure, business has been on the decline in the past ten years or so, but this business has been through a lot in its generations of operation—if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

Both of these business leaders have valuable contributions to make to the marketing conversation. Junior’s excitement about and openness toward new strategies is vital to adapting with the times, while Senior’s experience with their business’s core customer base and understanding of the company history is vital to building a strategy that rings true to both the business and its longtime clients.

But when leadership of any generation or point of view digs their heels in too deeply to make any progress, the issue at hand reveals itself: They’re too close to be objective. When your business is your life, your livelihood and your most prized accomplishment, it’s easy to hold too fiercely to your own POV. As marketers, our role is to clear away distractions and unproductive threads of conversation, focusing instead on guiding the brand toward the perfect balance between new and old, future and legacy. 

Meet the DAYTA family

As with all things in life, marketing a family-owned business is a tightrope act. Expectations and messages come at you from all sides: Be passionate about your business, but don’t blind yourself to new ways of doing things. Stay open to new ideas, but stay true to the brand you’ve built over generations. Blend the personal and professional, but don’t blur the line! 

It’s a lot to take on for any business—or any family!—but at DAYTA, we love a good challenge. We’re passionate about being the net below the tightrope for our clients, offering them the tested-and-true methods and exciting results that allow them to move into the future without fear or trepidation. If you’re interested in what we could offer your family business, take the first step: Contact us today for more information.