Introducing Business Matters, a new feature from the Source staff specifically for local business. Our goal is discuss issues affecting business, from branding to marketing, by addressing topics in the world of brick-and-mortar and online commerce.
AI Slop. It’s everywhere.
If you’re sick of it, as a small business owner, just think how your customers are reacting!
If it feels like a tsunami, with the prospect of ever high waves coming, take heart! Small businesses are not helpless. And if you’re a customer or client (and aren’t we all?), there is hope that the future won’t be wave after wave of slick slop drowning us!
Creativity can win out.
In a recent article in Forbes, Sabine Leveiller stated flat out, “Consumers are tired of overproduced campaigns and curated perfection—unattainable ideals no longer feel inspiring.”
In using the term “overproduced,” Leveiller succinctly identifies the hallmark of AI-generated content and images.
However professional the content may feel, it remains superficial – mostly a highly polished surface imitating boilerplate content.
If, as Leveiller notes, consumers yearn for brands to talk to them honestly and even to “own up to their mistakes,” AI-generated content instead doubles down when it errs, hallucinating non-existent sources to back up its dubious claims.
Showing your customers, “Yes, We’re Human. And We Care”
Leveiller offers a number of creative strategies to enable businesses to “display honesty” to their customers more effectively.
“[P]eople want to know who they can really trust,” she argues.
And that craving for trust presents an opportunity for a small business that will share its story, its challenges, the mechanics of its operation “and the people behind it all.”
The keyword here is “people,” as it’s people who build relationships with other people, after all.
Relationships and Respect, Not Simply Transactions
The key to building a solid relationship – and building trust – is a two step process.
First, there’s consistency. If the world is becoming, in Leveiller’s words, “chaotic and unpredictable” there’s a premium on reliably interacting with customers.
Customers place a value on knowing that a business delivers on its promises and that it takes pains to conduct business according to recognizable standards on a daily basis.
Quite simply, customers want to know that they’ll receive the same quality in products and services every time with every interaction.
No surprises – or at least no BAD surprises!
The Power of “Little Surprises”
Here’s where Leveiller’s second point, creativity, comes into play.
It is one of small business’s greatest advantage,” she asserts, to be “reliably authentic, yet occasionally surprising enough to spark curiosity.”
As examples she mentions:
— “a candid behind-the-scenes” look at your place of business
— partnering with local musicians and artists
— stunts, such as dressing in costume to walk around town promoting an “alternate” event of some kind, a “Pink Friday” rather “Black Friday” or an Un-Valentine’s Day, etc.
The key is to find “surprises” true to your brand’s personality – and ideally tied into your customer base and your community.
These moments don’t require big budgets, “Leveiller states, “but they do call for boldness, timing and a readiness to show character.”
Locally, that means island-specific, or perhaps tourist-specific if that’s your clientele.
The only limit is your imagination.
Of course, if you want to brainstorm idea, you can talk to a Source sales representative by emailing us at advertising@visource.com or calling (340) 244-6631.
Read the full article: “Small-Business Marketing in 2026: Trends Worth Exploring” by Sabine Leveiller.
