heartharmony.com.au

When you buy a house, you want one that is safe and in a good neighbourhood.  But what about one that is safe from the risk of strokes?

A recent study reported in Scientific American used some pretty funky maths to show that your risk of having a stroke is correlated with how many fast food restaurants are in your area.

If you have more than 33 fast food restaurants in your area, you are 13% more likely to have a stroke than those with just 12 fast food restaurants. The risk increases by 1% for every single additional fast food restaurant in your area. Fast food restaurants in this study are defined as selling pre-packaged food, offer take away service, have limited or no waiting staff and require people to pay before giving them food.

Of course some of the big fast food chains are not happy with the findings and have resorted to Yes Minister style rebuttals:

• discrediting the evidence
• undermining the recommendations
• discrediting the person producing the report

Reading Yes Minister “The Greasy Pole” episode should be mandatory for all people in marketing, government and business to learn how to deal with negative press.

What does this have to do with marketing? Well – for real estates think of how you could use this study to your benefit in your listings (13% less chance of strokes if you live here!  People would contact you if nothing else to ask you about the stats and then you could have a brilliant chance to pre-screen them for your properties). For personal trainers – how can you use the negative stats in your area to boost your business (If you live in the x district you have a 13% increased chance of stroke. Want to reduce your risk?)

The point is any statistical report is a marketing gold mine. You just need to find a way to link the report to what you are selling.  Keep an eye out for any great surveys or reports and then get creative with your marketing.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter