Wabi-sabi is a Japanese term for finding beauty in what is imperfect. It’s not unusual to find Japanese crafts, especially pottery, that is left slightly unfinished to demonstrate wabi-sabi.

Marketing your small business may seem galaxies away from Japanese tea cups but it’s actually very relevant.

Research shows that customers actually prefer a little imperfection in marketing. This makes intuitive sense. As human beings we want to be seen and to connect with others in our transactions. As much as we like to say it’s “just business” people don’t make purchase decisions like computers. We need to feel we can trust the seller before we’ll part with our money.

Think of the last time you felt uncomfortable with a sales offer. Not because there wasn’t anything overtly wrong but because it was a little “too slick.”

Still, as sellers we often worry about creating the “perfect” marketing copy or giving the “perfect” sales presentation. Only then will we seem expert enough to be worthy of the sale.

Relax. Customers actually prefer a little roughness around the edges. It helps them relax around their own insecurities (and when someone is buying something from you, what are they doing but buying a solution that they themselves can’t do for themselves).

For more on the psychology of imperfection, see this Marketing Profs article http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/798/so-you-wanna-be-a-swan or check out Vicki Kunkel’s new book, Instant Appeal: 8 Primal Factors that Create Blockbuster Success.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Business Strategy, Customer Experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.