“But light, stackable chairs behind a windbreak – now that’s a signal you can trust. In other words, the chairs act as an effective advertisement; **the cost of their purchase and the daily effort entailed in arraying them outside the business and restacking them at the end of the day is a reliable signal of the existence of a functioning coffee shop**, and one that is tacitly understood rather than consciously processed by human reason. Having worked in advertising for over 25 years, usually for large companies with big budgets, it still fascinates me how great an effect unconscious signalling can have on the fortunes of a tiny business. And more than that, it frightens me to think how many perfectly worthwhile businesses have failed that might not have done if they’d implemented a few trivial signals.*” --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[signalling]] , [[trust]] , [[advertising]] , [[marketing]] **Source** -- [[202407221554 - B - Alchemy]]