Chapter 3: Gathering the Driest Tinder

Flashpoints

1. Challenge assumptions. Why do your customers really buy your products? The people with a passion for The Passion weren’t moviegoers at all; they were Christians interested in seeing a story of their faith told in film. Who are your best prospects really? What passion defines them? Why not ask them?
2. Dig deeper. Profile likely prospects and then look for subsets of that group that are even more passionate. Is the driest tinder for a dating book simply “singles” or even “single women”? What about single women whose friends recently set them up on a blind date? What about single women whose mothers called them every other day to ask if they had met anyone yet. Just when you think you’ve defined your market, go down a level or two farther to find the really dry tinder. You may not always be able to reach the groups you identify and very few traditional advertisers will have blazed a trail to their doors. But, by applying some creativity, you can often find a way to talk with the most valuable groups. What’s more, the trail you blaze will be your own – often inaccessible to your competitors.
3. Identify where the driest tinder gather. The Gale Group offers an online directory of associations that makes it easy (www.galegroup.com). A quick search will reveal three pages of organizations devoted to knitting, or dozens committed to funeral homes. Learn how many members they have, when they meet, their Web address, and the other communications vehicles that support their organizations by serving its members. No matter how seemingly obscure the interest, there are organizations that support it.
4. Search the web looking for blogs, chat rooms, news groups, and Web sites devoted to the passions associated with your product or service. Start dialogue with the people you find there. If you pledge to serve rather than sell, they will gladly tell you about the ways they gather with their like-minded friends and how you can tap into that network.
5. Past behavior is the greatest predictor of future behavior. The people most likely to buy your product are those who already have, so the first place to look for the driest tinder is among your existing customers. Locate them and begin touching them with the match and fanning the flames.
6. Take a moment to analyze your current advertising. Where is your emphasis? Is it on externals, or on the consumer’s unique internal traits? Are you reaching the driest tinder or large piles of wet leaves?