ESTABLISHED

25
March

If you want consumers to buy, offer them a line of “brand new” products.  And to attract them to your place of business, make sure it’s chic, up-to-date, considered “hot”.   Then, again the opposite approach may work just as well.

Notice the many commercial establishments, businesses of all sorts, that capitalize on their age.  Here we are, they inform the public, a business that’s been in business a long time (and by implication longer than our competitors).  Wherever the company name appears, alongside you’ll find the year of its founding.  Established 1975.  Founded 1930.  In business since 1985.  (Demonstrating, at least that in the United States, it doesn’t take that many years to claim seniority.)

Why announce one’s age in a society that celebrates youthfulness?  Why  hold a succession of “Anniversary Sales” over the years?  Why not avoid any suggestion that you’re stodgy, old fashioned, out of date?  Because they’re capitalizing upon another popular set of beliefs.  What’s old has been time-tested.  (The words “founded” and “established” suggest durability and trust.)  Experience counts.  They’re reliable, solid, probably family-owned (consider how many names end in “and Sons”).  They are survivors, not “fly-by-night” or “Here today.  Gone tomorrow.”  They will be around when you need them.

So, remember that while we’re drawn to the “latest”, we also value that which has lasted.

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