Brains on Fire Word of Mouth

8/3/2019 Brains on Fire Word of Mouth

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BOOK SUMMARY


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here has been more than enough written

on the transformation that the digital age

has brought with it. But as the authors of

Brains on Fire tell us, perhaps weve missed the

point. Because its no longer a B2C and B2Bworld, its a P2P world. The Internet revolution,

as it turns out, is not about technology and

social networks, its about people. And while

technology has changed dramatically over the

past 20 years, people havent. They still rely on

the guy down the street to recommend a good

gardner. Or depend on the lady next door to

recommend a nice restaurant downtown. You

see, as our world has gotten a whole lot larger,

it has also gotten a whole lot smaller at the

same time. This is a book about what to do

when the people have all the power. Again...

T


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Inaworldwherethepeopleholdallthe

power,movementsaremuchmore

powerfulthancampaigns.Hereshowth

eauthorsdefineamovement:

Amovementelevatesandempowerspeo

pletouniteacommunityarounda

commoncause,passion,company,brand

ororganization.

However,withmanymarketersthrowing

thiswordaroundthesedays,its

easytogetconfused.Sohe

reisyourfieldguideabouthowtospott

he

differencebetweenamovementandacampaign:

Ifithasabeginningandanend,itsacam

paign,notamovement.

Movementscontinueonaslongaskindre

dspiritsarearoundtoparticipate.

Ifyouaresittinginameetingandthevo

cabularysoundslikeyouhave

landedinthemiddleofastrategysession

duringWorldWarII,youareina

campaignmeeting.Movementsfeelmore

likeyoulandedinthemiddleofan

evangelicalsermon.Wordslikepassion,loveandinspirationgetused.

Iflanguageyouhearisdryanddetached

,youarelisteningtosomebodytalk

aboutacampaign.Inmovements,people

haveahardtimeseparatingthe

mefromtheequation.Ifyouveeverbee

ntoToronto,youvelikelyheard

somebodysaythisistheyearwearegoi

ngtomaketheplayoffs,even

thoughtheyclearlyneverhave,ornever

will,playprofessionalhockey.

1:

2:

3:

BELEAF


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Movements arent about the product,

they are about passion.

Movements start with the first conversation.Movements have inspirational leadership

At first, you are going to have a lot of trouble

accepting that you cant create a movement

around a product or a service. You need to create

a movement around something people are

passionate about. And that passion has to be bothinternal and external, not just external.

Heres why: Passion is contagious.

If your entire company wakes up every morning

with a fire under their **** because they are

passionate about what they do, you literally cant

prevent it from spreading outside of your

proverbial four walls.

So how do you create that passion?

MOVEMENTS

ARE ABOUT

PASSION!


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First, you dont create it, you find it. You cant just sit in a boardroom with

your top executives and decide that your company is now going to be

passionate about something. You need to go out, talk to your employees

and customers and find out what they are already passionate about. At

this point, its quality insight that you are after, not quantity. Resist the

urge to have focus groups and marketplace studies youll rarely uncover

passion in those settings. Instead, consider grabbing a cup of coffee with

an employee. Find out what keeps them up at night, and what gets them

out of bed in the morning. Over time it will become crystal clear what

connects what your company does to the lives of the people you serve.

Second, this passion isnt something that magically appears out of thin air

movements start with the very first conversation. These first

conversations create your first passionate advocates, and they are critical

to your success. Listen to them very closely, and then give them whatever

they need in order to help spread the word about your organization.

Third, movements have inspirational leadership. However, the leadership

doesnt come from within your organization it comes from your

community. These can be paid or non-paid positions, and the people you

choose should be knowledgable about your space and your organization.

But most importantly, to steal a turn of phrase from Spinal Tap, they need

to have a passion dial that goes to 11. Rock on.

s


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In order to

create a movement

where the leaders take

wnership, you need to create

barrier to entry. Surprisingly,ne of the best ways to grow

our movement is to make a

onscious effort to keep people

ut. Incentivizing people to join

our movement by giving away free stuff is most

kely a recipe for disaster. Its pretty easy to fall into

his trap, because we love large numbers. It just feels

etter to have 1,000 people to take our free t-shirt

nd stress ball, than to have 10 people sign up and be

00% committed to the cause. But, if we are to learn

om the movements that Geno and his gang have

een involved in, well take quality over quantity any

ay of the week, and twice on Sunday.in charge of

who gets in, they will treat that responsibility with

reat care. They not only spread the word on yourehalf community, they become stewards of the

ommunity itself.

CREATEAB

ARRIER

TOEN

TRY

Oneofthebe

stways

tocreat

eabarrie

r

toentry

istoonlyallow

aperson

tojoin

through

another

memberofthe

commun

ity.TheJ

ehovah

sWitness

organiza

tionisin

credible

atthis.A

syou

mightkn

ow,whe

nyouar

evisited

by

theirrec

ruiters,th

eyalway

sshowu

pin

pairsof

two.The

second

timeyo

ucome

therewillbe

oneper

sonyou

know,a

nd

another

thatwasntt

herethe

firsttim

e

Theyrep

eatthisp

rocess4tim

essoth

bythetim

eyouare

officially

inthe

community

,youknow

atleast4p

e

Areyoulikely

tocomeback

ifyou

alreadyknowsom

epeopleinthe

movement?Ofcourseyouare.

Thisalsocreatesasenseo

f

ownership in the group. When

you put your community

members in charge of who g

in, they will treat that

responsibility with great care.

They not only spread the woron your behalf community, th

become stewards of the

community itself.

(MAYBE)

WELCOME!


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None of this would mean anything unless it it made a difference to the

bottom line whether that bottom line is profits, saving the whales or

whatever your cause may be. Fortunately, movements get results. Results

that you couldnt even imagine when you first launch a program like this.

Advertising and traditional marketing is a one-way street, with little or no

interaction between the consumer and the company. That is a shame,

because customers are good for a **** of a lot more than just buying stuff

from you. This is obvious to Hermann Simon, who is the author of Hidden

Champions of the 21st Century, which is considered by many to be the

Good to Great of the mid-market. The companies he profiles in his book are

#1 or #2 in their marketplace (Jack Welch would be proud), have less than

$1 billion in revenues, and are generally not very well known. He found a

couple of very interesting things in his study:

One thing is for sure this isnt an industry like traditional advertising wher

your return on investment lives in a fairly narrow band, 19 times out of 20.

However, for those who are willing to put in the work and reap the benefits,

creating a movement looks like a real opportunity to create some outsized

returns for your company. Making money and making a difference in your

customers lives, it seems, goes hand in hand.

CULTIVATING CLOSENESS FUELS RESULTS

Advertising and

raditional Marketing


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If you are ready to take a good long look at

overturning some of your traditional practices,

and are willing to put in the legwork to create

a movement, this book is for you.

For more information, about this book and our

other great book summaries, please visit:

www.readitfor.me

Documents

Brains on Fire Word of Mouth