Humor as a Marketing Tool
I think we would all agree that humor sells. Just look at
television commercials as an example. The ones we remember and
don't mind seeing over and over again are the funny ones. There
was a study done a few years ago which looked at the attention
and retention of academic content by university students. The
results indicated that both retention and attention increased
significantly if the professors used humor in their lectures. If
these results are accurate, and I believe them to be, they
validate my long held belief that if you want to make people
listen to you and remember what you said make them laugh.
When you apply this to marketing and sales you realize that the
use of humor not only gets your customer's attention, but also
helps them recall you and your message long after you have left
the scene.
A happy, humorous, smiling company representative is a powerful
promotional and selling agent. So hire people with these
qualities and train those working for you who don't. Remember a
sense of humor is a learned response, it isn't genetic. People
are attracted to those with a great sense of humor and a
cheerful disposition.