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Does your business pass the coffee shop test?

By Jim Connolly | April 6, 2025

marketing tip, coffee shop marketing, feelings over logic

Almost all small business marketing relies too much on logic. If your business is one of them, that logic is already hurting your sales results. Let’s fix that right now!

Here’s an example of how to get it right, which you already know extremely well. I’m talking about coffee shops. Consider the following.

  • People don’t visit coffee shops for the coffee.
  • They already have their favourite coffee at home.
  • They pay between 300% and 750% more for coffee at the coffee shop, because of how the experience makes them feel.

Logically, they’d save a ton of money by drinking their coffee at home, sitting in their own super-comfortable chair.

But people, including your prospective clients or customers, don’t make purchasing decisions based on logic. We largely make them based on feelings. I explain how emotions drive decisions, here.

If your marketing message is based around facts, numbers, graphs, percentages… that’s way too logical. And it’s losing you sales. Your service or product may be less expensive, more premium, faster, or better designed. All those things are valid reasons why you should gain a huge chunk of your marketplace.

However, unless you’re also, clearly explaining how your service or product will make them feel you’re leaving money on the table!

Think of it like this: logic tells. Feeling sells.

In his book “How Customers Think“, Harvard Business School professor, Gerald Zaltman, confirms that emotions/feelings contribute far more to decision making than conscious, rational thought.

The switch from logic-based marketing to feelings-based marketing can be a massive win for you and your business. Here’s a suggestion: give it a try. Then, measure your results and see for yourself.

Photo by Jon Tyson

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Hi! I'm Jim Connolly and I help small business owners to increase sales, boost their profits and build amazing businesses. Read more here.

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