Chaper 7: Afterglow

In A Voice from the Attic, essayist Robertson Davies said, “The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.”  So is your office.  Without knowing it, Davies was describing many of the people you will encounter as you shift your approach from mass marketing to PyroMarketing.  Now that you understand the driest tinder’s susceptibility to your marketing message, the ability of experience to sway people’s choices, the power of personal persuasion to expand the reach of your marketing, and the equity building wisdom of saving the coals, you cannot return to mass marketing. How could you? The future is PyroMarketing and you know it.  It’s the best way to survive on a single match in the frozen wilderness, but it will not be easy.  Most of the people with whom you work will not get it.  They will long for the idealized past and resist your attempts to lead your organization down this new path.  At first they will ignore you, then they will laugh at you (“wait, wait, let me get this straight…you plan to sell more by concentrating on fewer people?...ha, ha, ha!), and as you begin to make progress, they may even fight you.  Don’t despair.  If you persevere then you will win—and so will your company.

Over the last several chapters we have looked closely at the evidence behind PyroMarketing.  We have studied the psychological, physiological, and sociological reasons for each step.  Now it’s time to change our perspective, to step back a bit, and see how the pieces of PyroMarketing fit together into a cohesive, comprehensive, repeatable marketing strategy and how companies are already using and benefiting from its principles.  Some of these examples may help you convince the doubters.

The Purpose Driven Life

Every book aspires to be a bestseller, but very few achieve it.  Not only was The Purpose-Driven Life a bestseller, its success was unprecedented.  Publisher’s Weekly declared it “the bestselling hardback in American history.”  How did this one book accomplish what millions more fail to attain?  It did it by executing the archetypal PyroMarketing campaign.

To launch the 40 Days of Purpose Campaign, Rick Warren began with the driest tinder.  Since the early 1990’s he had been serving thousands of pastors across the country and around the world with his pastors.com website.  Member pastors could download sermons, teaching tools, and other aids that helped them serve their church more easily.  Many of these pastors had read his book The Purpose-Driven Church and successfully applied its principles.  They had experienced success with Warren’s programs before.  He had proven himself to these people; winning their trust and admiration. 

When it was time to launch The 40 Days of Purpose Campaign he sent a message to the pastors on his list and 1200 signed on.

Every aspect of the six-week campaign touched people with the match.  They read the book each day, they listened to sermons each Sunday and they met with friends each week to discuss the books content.  By the campaign’s end, 400,000 people were intimately familiar with the book and its many benefits.  They knew its message, but more importantly, they had first-hand experience with its power to change a life.  They were not just readers, they were an unstoppable army of customer evangelists ready to sing the book’s praises to all who would listen.

The campaign fanned the flames too.  The book explained God’s five purposes for a person’s life and the final purpose was evangelism.  At the end of the forty day campaign, just as they reached the zenith of their experience, they were told to share the good news.  The book, the sermons, and the small groups focused on the same message.  “This is too good to keep to ourselves.  We have got to tell others.”  And so they did.  The campaign did little more than make the suggestion that people spread the word, but that was all it took.  Within four months 400,000 initial sales had quintupled to 2 million.  From the first campaign and for the next couple of years, it seemed that for every book sold at a discount to someone in a church-based campaign, five more books were sold through retail stores.  By focusing on the driest tinder within the church and encouraging them to spread the word, we were rewarded with many more sales to people beyond its walls.  Fanning the flames didn’t just double the campaign’s impact, it multiplied it by a factor of five!

Not only did people tell others to buy the book, pastors told other pastors to try the campaign.  More than half of the 5000+ churches in the fall 2004 campaign signed up at the recommendation of another pastor.

Finally, the 40 Days of Purpose Campaign saved the coals by keeping a record of the churches that participated in the campaign and the people that read the book.  By signing up at www.purposedrivenlife.com individuals could receive a free daily email devotional, and more than 300,000 people have.  Another database records the 20,000+ churches that hosted a campaign.

The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ didn’t stand a chance.  Mel Gibson and his Icon Productions company were ostracized by many of the same Hollywood insiders that most films depend upon for their success.  Reviewers lambasted the film as too violent or anti-Semitic. Distributors avoided it like…like…like a movie about Jesus, and refused to supply the $30 million for marketing that has become the average for a major motion picture.  Without a marketing war chest Gibson couldn’t use the mass advertising tactics available to other films.  It’s no surprise then that his movie made only…no, that can’t be right…over $500 million dollars!  Most films don’t break even with just domestic distribution." according to BoxOfficeMojo.com President Brandon Gray. "Normally they need international box office, and rental and sales income from DVDs and video [to do that]."[1]  Yet by just the fifth day in domestic theaters The Passion of the Christ had earned $125 million in box office receipts against only about $45 million in combined marketing and production costs.

Mel Gibson couldn’t return to the idealized past because he couldn’t afford to.  He had no choice but press ahead with less expensive PyroMarketing and boy did it work.  He began by gathering the driest tinder and touching it with the match.  In private screenings Gibson showed his film to six or eight pastors at a time.  Then he would fan the flames by leveraging their positive experience to woo six or eight more.  As word about his film spread through the affiliation network of pastors, the crowds at his screenings grew until, a couple of months before the film’s release he was screening it for 5,000 pastors in mega-church auditoriums.

He fanned the flames by equipping pastors with tools for spreading word about the movie to the people in their church.  Ordinarily you would see movie trailers on television or before other films in the theater, but millions of people saw the trailer for The Passion of the Christ in their church.  Icon Productions supplied movie trailers to pastors who enthusiastically played them for their congregation on Sunday morning.  An organization called Outreach Marketing set up a website with resources for churches, including 13 ideas on how they can use the film, outlines for complimentary sermons and suggestions for establishing discussion groups. They produced Passion-themed invitation cards, evangelistic booklets, bulletin inserts, and even doorknob hangers that can be personalized to invite the community to specific local churches.[2]

The Mountaintop Church in Vestavia Hills exemplified many churches when it bought all the tickets to two Saturday matinees of The Passion of the Christ and offered free tickets to each parishioner who would bring a non-churchgoer to see the movie.[3]  "A lot of church leaders ... went out and told their congregations to see the film -- they actually booked tickets themselves," said Greg Kilday of The Hollywood Reporter. "Some theaters have ... sold out their opening days to church affiliated groups, so we really haven't seen this kind of grass roots campaign take off like this before."[4]

Astoundingly, more than 400 pastors paid $795 for a television commercial featuring clips from the film before paying even more to place it on their local television station.  They were not merely spreading word-of-mouth, these customer evangelists were spending their money to help market the movie![5]

The website www.storiesofthepassion.com fanned the flames even further by allowing people to reach beyond their social network and tell complete strangers about their experience with the film.  Not only did this site fan the flames, it saved the coals too by collecting each person’s name, address, city, state, zip, email address, web site, and personal testimony regarding the film.  It also respected their privacy and built trust by asking for permission to send additional messages.

The “Student Mobilizer” at www.studentshavepassion.com equipped college students with a variety of tools for spreading word of the film, including: flyers, free ads, bulletins, fax blasts, and html email messages.  It included an area for buying tickets and a group email message featuring the movie trailer you could use to invite all your friends.  Student Mobilizer forums let customer evangelists talk about the film online with other like-minded people.

These PyroMarketing tactics were unusual for a movie and delivered surprising results from unexpected places.  The Passion opened on 4,643 screens in 3,006 theaters, however the top markets were Greenwood, MS; Meridian, MS; Hattiesburg-Laurel, MS; Abilene-Sweetwater, TX; and Jackson, MS. Those markets don’t align with either the top traditional theatrical markets or the top markets for DVD sales.  But they did deliver the top-grossing R-rated movie of all time.

First they ignored Mel Gibson, then they laughed at him, then they fought him, then he won.

Jesus of Nazareth

If the success of The Passion of the Christ seems unlikely, then the growth and endurance of Christianity over the last 2000 years is nothing short of miraculous.  Founded by an itinerant Jewish carpenter before the invention of the word “marketing” or the tools it typically employs, and despite homicidal persecution throughout the centuries, it has prospered to become the world’s largest religion.  Globally, more than two billion people call themselves Christians, but as with all such phenomena, it started small and then it grew.

Though he eventually preached to crowds of 5000, Jesus began his ministry with the driest tinder by calling just twelve disciples.  These men were so inclined toward his message that they left their jobs, families and possessions after a single exposure to his message.  Next he touched them with the match by giving them an experience with his power.  Jesus didn’t boast that he was the son of God, in fact, he admitted it only reluctantly.  Instead, he healed the lame and restored sight to the blind and fed multitudes from a single sack lunch.  Much more than words, these experiences convinced the disciples of his divinity.  “Who do you say that I am” Jesus asked Peter?  “You are the Christ of God” Peter replied.[6]

Though the church found its beginning in Jesus, the disciples were responsible for its growth.  Following his resurrection and before his ascension, Jesus gave his disciples the great commission.  “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Jesus commanded.  But he didn’t just tell the disciples to spread his message, he equipped them for success by fanning the flames.  Spirit.  “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Properly equipped the disciples were an unstoppable force. They walked to the ends of the earth as Jesus commanded and shared the good news despite brutal persecution.  Most died as martyrs spreading a message that was not originally their own.  Their work built the early Christian church; an eager fire that spread throughout the world.

Finally, Jesus saved the coals.  He has a record of every individual and their deeds from all human history called The Book of Life.  Yes, Jesus has a consumer database and no, you can’t rent his list.

OnStar

Some businesses use some PyroMarketing principles successfully, even though they have yet to assemble them all into a comprehensive campaign.  General Motor’s OnStar division touches people with the match with its service and its advertising. 

OnStar isn’t easy to explain and that could make it difficult to advertise.  It is a communications system built into select General Motor’s cars and trucks.  By pressing a button in the roof console you are connected via satellite with an OnStar advisor and can speak with them using a built-in hands-free speaker phone.  The advisor provides a variety of safety and convenience services to people who subscribe and pay a monthly fee.  If your airbag deploys, for example, the vehicle sends a signal to an Onstar advisor who will try calling you in the car.  If you don’t respond, then they assume the worst, call the police and, using tracking data from the satellites, tell them your vehicle’s location.  By communicating with the vehicle’s engine control computer they can remotely diagnose a problem.  Using similar technology they will remotely unlock your doors if you’ve locked the keys inside or track the car if its stolen.  When you are away from your car you can call them from your cell phone and with a signal bounced off orbiting satellites they will flash your car lights and honk its horn if you’ve lost it in the mall parking lot.

Rather than trying to explain such a complicated service, OnStar touches people with match.  When you buy a vehicle equipped with OnStar technology, you get the first year of service free.  Very soon, people who couldn’t imagine how they would use the service, can’t imagine living without it. 

In its radio advertising OnStar touches people with the match by playing clips from real, live interactions between subscribers and OnStar advisors.  When you hear the initial panic of the woman who locked her keys—and her infant son—in the car, you begin to imagine your own anguish in that situation.  When you hear the baby’s burbles and the mothers sobs of joy as the command from the OnStar satellite reunites the family by unlocking the car doors, you imagine yourself experiencing that same joy.

What if OnStar also fanned the flames?  What if they leveraged the influence of their existing subscribers to promote the service to their friends?  How much more successful might they be?  OnStar could award its subscribers points every time they let a friend try the service by pressing the button in their car to get a restaurant recommendation from the OnStar advisor.  Subscribers could save points and exchange them for prizes, or perhaps, discounts on new GM cars.

America Online

America Online is another company that practices an incomplete form of PyroMarketing.  Nevertheless, the portions they use work quite well. 

The other day I received an AOL CD in the mail.  By placing it in my computer I could try many hours of their service at no cost.  This is a great example of touching people with the match and AOL rode this one PyroMarketing principle to dominance as an Internet service provider.  Unlike dozens of AOL CD’s I had received before, this one also fanned the flames.  Instead of a single user name and password, this CD came with two.  After using the first to try the service myself, I was supposed to give the CD to a friend and allowing them to use the other.  AOL was fanning the flames by leveraging each recipient to reach one more and, in the process, doubling the reach of its demo discs.

AOL needs to work on saving the coals, however.  The disc I received was addressed to “resident at XXXXXX” and listed my street address.  If they had checked the mailing list for that promotion against their existing customer database they would have discovered that I already subscribed. 

Amazon.com

Amazon.com employs several PyroMarketing principles in its service.  It’s “Look Inside the Book” feature touches people with the match by letting them explore a book online the way they would in a brick and mortar bookstore. 

They fan the flames in several ways.  By allowing me to post reviews, they give me a chance to influence other people’s book purchases.  Some people post negative reviews, but most of the people who take the time to write, do so because they loved the book. 

By showing me the books purchased by people who also bought the one I’m considering, they use the power of social proof to influence additional purchases.  Their many bestsellers lists and the amazon.com ranking accomplish the same thing.

Amazon’s affiliate program is another example of fanning the flames.  By promoting titles on their own website and linking them back to Amazon, affiliates can earn a small commission whenever a customer referred by their site buys a book.  Amazon.com fans the flames with its affiliate program by enlisting ordinary citizens to, in effect, open Amazon.com branches all over the world wide web.

Amazon.com is also adept at saving the coals. They keep robust customer profiles and know how to use them.  A friend of mine once received an email from amazon.com.  They had analyzed his purchase behavior and, based on their findings, were recommending ten new books they thought he might like.  Amazingly, their profile was so accurate that my friend already owned six of the ten books they recommended.

Volvo

Some companies don’t use PyroMarketing, but they should.  In 1994 Volvo’s advertising agency convinced it to spend $2.65 million—more than a third of its annual budget—to advertise its semi-tractors on television during the Super Bowl.[7]   The ad was designed to appeal to truck drivers and demonstrate the truck’s comfort and luxury.  Volvo hoped truck drivers would influence the executives who decided which trucks to buy for their fleet.  The plan was expensive and hopelessly indirect.  A classic example of trying to sell a niche product with mass marketing methods, it was fraught with problems.

First, by Volvo’s own admission, only about 1 percent of the Super Bowl viewing audience had any affiliation with the trucking industry whatsoever.  Beyond wasting its advertising on over 140 million people who had no interest or need for their product, Volvo had other problems.  Only a small percentage of that one percent would notice its brief ad.  An even smaller group would be influenced by it because truckers can be fiercely brand loyal.  They are “Peterbuilt Guys” or “Mack Men” and often disdain competing brands.  Supposing some tiny percentage was influenced, the strategy assumed that those drivers had access to the executives who specify the fleet, but most often they don’t.  Even if the ad convinced a driver to try a Volvo, there was almost nothing he would do about it since the truck was specified by someone he didn’t know or have any contact with. 

But suppose they did.  Suppose a handful of the drivers who were influenced by the ad actually spoke with the fleet manager and said, “You really ought to think about buying Volvos for the fleet instead of whatever truck you’ve been buying.  I saw their ad in the Super Bowl and they looked pretty nice.”  The plan assumed the driver’s comments would somehow make a difference.  Unfortunately for Volvo, the features that motivate drivers often don’t matter as much to fleet managers.  Drivers care about comfort.  Fleet managers care about costs.  Fleet managers wonder how a Volvo’s maintenance costs compare with other brands?  How much do they cost per mile to operate?  Will I have to retrain my mechanics to understand a new and different kind of truck?  Will I need to invest in a new and expensive parts inventory?  What kind of service and support can I expect from the manufacturer?  How do Volvo’s hold their value compared with other trucks?  Whether the driver feels comfortable in the truck is not as high on their list of priorities. 

Using a mass marketing strategy, Volvo advertised a message that didn’t matter to people who couldn’t buy their product.  PyroMarketing would have approached Volvo’s challenge differently. 

There are two kinds of truckers; private carriers whose fleets haul their own products and common carriers who haul other company’s goods.  Two trade associations organize and support the two groups.  They are the National Private Truck Council and the American Trucking Association.  Their combined membership totals just 2900 and comprises the decision makers for truck purchases.  Volvo didn’t need to reach hundreds of millions of people with its advertising; it needed to reach just 2900—the driest tinder.  By refocusing the $2.65 million it spent on an ad in the Super Bowl on the driest tinder instead, Volvo would have had $913 for each of the 2900 who buy almost every semi-tractor in the United States—enough money to try something very different. 

Instead of trying to indirectly communicate with this group by way of a couple of fleeting television commercials relayed by drivers, Volvo could have touched them directly with the match.  Using the money it spent on the Super Bowl, Volvo could have flown each of the 2900 decision makers to its headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina.  It could have picked them up at the airport in one of the trucks and, because many fleet managers also have their commercial driver’s license, let them drive the truck back to Volvo’s offices.  While in town, each person could take a tour of the facility, meet Volvo employees, go through a series of educational sessions designed to answer their questions about costs and maintenance.  They could take them out for dinner that night (driving the truck, of course), put them up in a hotel, treat them to breakfast and lunch the next day and still have enough left over to give them a Volvo shirt or hat as a parting gift.  Which approach do you think would have the most influence on the people who actually sign purchase orders for new trucks?  Which would sell trucks and create customer evangelists?

Volvo could have fanned the flames by bringing people to its offices in groups of ten or twelve.  By making sure that some of its most loyal customers were mixed into every group, Volvo would create vulnerable clusters and leverage its customer evangelists to influence their peers.  By recording each person’s experience with digital photos sent to them by email when they returned home, Volvo would have fanned the flames even further by helping each visitor tell others about their experience.  And by keeping a database of those who attend, they would save the coals, making it possible to send follow-up correspondence, or invite them to future events.

Alternate Endings

If I asked you to make an inventory of marketing tactics you would probably list things like magazine ads, newspaper ads, television ads, trade show booths, radio advertising, direct mail pieces, brochures, or ink pens with your company name.  You might even list Super Bowl ads.  Those are the tactics people associate with marketing.  They are advertising in name and we often believe that name guarantees results.  It doesn’t. 

I’m quite sure your list would not include airline flights, rides in trucks, or equipment maintenance training sessions as marketing tactics, but for Volvo that is exactly what they could have been. 

For years you have been trained to think like a mass marketer, but that thinking will keep leading you to the same tactics and the same disappointing results.  Volvo thought like a mass marketer and ended up with ads for heavy trucks in the Super Bowl while missing an approach that could have made a significant difference. 

If you want to change how your story ends, you must change the way you think.  Forget what you know about marketing.  Begin each campaign with a blank sheet of paper and four questions: Who is the driest tinder for my product?  How can I touch them with the match?  How can I fan the flames?  What opportunities do I have to save the coals?  If you think hard and answer honestly, then your plans will include marketing tactics you never before considered and deliver results you never dreamt were possible.  By adopting a new approach to starting a fire in the wilderness, your one match has the power to change the way your story ends.

To Build a Fire

The Century Magazine published Jack London’s famous short story, To Build a Fire, in August of 1908.  It is the version people know, if they know the story at all, but it is not the only one London wrote.  He wrote another, juvenile account, first published in Youth’s Companion v. 76, May 29, 1902. [8]  The two stories were similar in many ways except that this first version was shorter and in it The Man had a name. 

Tom Vincent was traveling alone through the wilderness on a bleak January day, following Paul Creek on his way to Calumet Camp in temperatures of sixty degrees below zero and falling.  Halfway to his destination he paused for lunch, but quickly chilled as he stood to eat his biscuits and bacon and returned to jogging up the trail to restore his warmth before finishing his meal.  Chilling so quickly was a new experience for him.  This was, undoubtedly, the coldest snap he had ever experienced.

Despite the cold Tom Vincent was self-assured—even cocky.  London wrote, “He was doing something, achieving something, mastering the elements. Once he laughed aloud in sheer strength of life, and with his clenched fist defied the frost. He was its master. What he did he did in spite of it. It could not stop him. He was going on to the Cherry Creek Divide.

Strong as were the elements, he was stronger. At such times animals crawled away into their holes and remained in hiding. But he did not hide. He was out in it, facing it, fighting it. He was a man, a master of things.”

The wilderness, though, was determined to humble Tom Vincent as it had humbled The Man. Paul Creek was frozen solid but from the mountain’s side ran several springs whose waters would pool atop the frozen creek to a depth of eight to twelve inches before the top would freeze in a thin layer of ice.  The process repeated itself; pooling and freezing, pooling and freezing in layers topped with about an inch of recent snow to “make the trap complete.”

Tom Vincent did not see the danger, but felt it quickly enough as toward the middle of the pool he broke through and the icy waters bit at his feet and ankles.  He lunged toward the bank, reaching it in half a dozen awkward steps.  “He was quite cool and collected. The thing to do, and the only thing to do, was to build a fire,” wrote London. “He knew, further, that great care must be exercised; that with failure at the first attempt, the chance was made greater for failure at the second attempt. In short, he knew that there must be no failure. The moment before a strong, exulting man, boastful of his mastery of the elements, he was now fighting for his life against those same elements” [9]

He scrambled up the bank and gathered material for his fire.  He removed his mittens and reached into his coat, pulling birch bark and a bundle of matches from its inside pocket.  He struck a match and built his fire.  The fire was young but growing and he was adding the first large sticks when the snow from the pine boughs overhead descended upon Tom Vincent and his fire.  Startled and afraid, he stepped back from beneath the pine tree and tried to build another fire.  By now his fingers were stiff and numb from the cold.  With great difficulty he separated a new match from the bundle and tried to light it but dropped it into the snow and could not pick it up again. 

Now he was desperate.  He stood and beat his mittened hands against the tree trunk to restore circulation, warmth, and feeling to his hands.  He recovered enough to light a second match and the remaining piece of birch bark, but he was cold and shivering and quenched the tiny flame as he clumsily tried adding twigs. His fire was out and Tom Vincent sank down into the snow, sobbing, and certain he would die. 

The two versions of Jack London’s story are nearly identical except for their length, the man’s name, and what happens next.  Tom Vincent lives!  I’ll let London tell it from here.

“But the love of life was strong in him, and he sprang again to his feet. He was thinking quickly. What if the matches did burn his hands? Burned hands were better than dead hands. No hands at all were better than death. He floundered along the trail until be came upon another high-water lodgment. There were twigs and branches, leaves and grasses, all dry and waiting the fire. (Dry Tinder!)

Again he sat down and shuffled the bunch of matches on his knees, got it into place on his palm, with the wrist of his other hand forced the nerveless fingers down against the bunch, and with the wrist kept them there. At the second scratch the bunch caught fire, and he knew that if he could stand the pain he was saved. He choked with the sulphur fumes, and the blue flame licked the flesh of his hands.

At first he could not feel it, but it burned quickly in through the frosted surface. The odor of the burning flesh -- his flesh -- was strong in his nostrils. He writhed about in his torment, yet held on. He set his teeth and swayed back and forth, until the clear white flame of the burning match shot up, and he had applied that flame to the leaves and grasses. (Touch it with the Match!)

An anxious five minutes followed, but the fire gained steadily. Then he set to work to save himself. Heroic measures were necessary, such was his extremity, and he took them.

Alternately rubbing his hands with snow and thrusting them into the flames, and now and again beating them against the hard trees, he restored their circulation sufficiently for them to be of use to him. With his hunting-knife he slashed the straps from his pack, unrolled his blanket, and got out dry socks and footgear.

Then be cut away his moccasins and bared his feet. But while he had taken liberties with his hands, he kept his feet fairly away from the fire and rubbed them with snow. He rubbed till his hands grew numb, when he would cover his feet with the blanket, warm his hands by the fire, and return to the rubbing.

For three hours he worked, till the worst effects of the freezing had been counteracted. All that night he stayed by the fire, and it was late the next day when be limped pitifully into the camp on the Cherry Creek Divide.

In a month's time he was able to be about on his feet, although the toes were destined always after that to be very sensitive to frost. But the scars on his hands he knows he will carry to the grave. And -- "Never travel alone!" he now lays down the precept of the North.”

For PyroMarketers there is an alternate fate.  You may be alone in the freezing wilderness with only one match, but it will not stop you.  Though the elements are strong, you can be stronger.  By gathering the driest tinder, touching it with the match, fanning the flames and saving the coals; you can master the wilderness—defy the frost—and build a life-saving fire.

 

 

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