One might think that in today’s competitive business landscape, the keys to most success would lie in conquering the market or quickly implementing the latest technologies. While both of these factors are certainly first in most business owners’ minds, there is one other factor that seems to be a huge deal for consumers.

This is a factor that really doesn’t get much attention but, if recent studies are any indication, it will start gaining traction very soon.

These studies suggest very heavily that consumers will almost always choose a family-owned brand over another regardless of the other brand’s success and history.  These same studies indicate that consumers tend to view family-owned companies in a much stronger positive light.

So if you do own and operate a family-owned business, what might be the best way to communicate that fact without coming off as too sappy?  Generally, adding something as simple as “family owned and operated” in taglines and marketing copy does the trick. In smaller cities, this can be highly effective in radio ads.

On the bigger stage, we can see where this has worked recently with cleaning product company Bissell.  The Bissell brand has been run by the Bissell family for 137 years and has recently started including Cathy Bissell, the wife of the current company CEO. The ad also features the family’s two dogs because…well, who doesn’t like dogs?

The advantage here is that Bissell is communicating honesty and a sense of averageness to the consumer.

Another company that has recently caught on to this effective trend is Wendy’s. Wendy Thomas, daughter of Dave Thomas and the individuals the chain was named after, recently started to appear in Wendy’s ads again for the first time in 40 years.

Perhaps consumers tend to lean towards family-owned companies because they prefer to spend their money on companies that have family values rather than larger, faceless businesses. The “Main Street in America” quality is gaining popularity as of late as opposed to larger corporate brands and this preference for family-owned businesses reinforces that.

For those of you that are not a family-owned business, your marketing efforts can still be swerved to meet the needs of families. What can be done to your current efforts to make this change effectively?