BOOK SUMMARY
T
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 we’ve missed the point. Because it’s no longer a B2C and B2B world, it’s a P2P world. The Internet revolution, as it turns out, is not about technology and social networks, it’s about people. And while technology has changed dramatically over the past 20 years, people haven’t. 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...
ts are much more en em ov m , er w po e “people” hold all th In a world where the s define a movement: or th au e th w ho s e’ er igns. H powerful than campa a a community around ite un to le op pe s er and empow A movement elevates nization. mpany, brand or orga co n, io ss pa e, us ca common , it’s ord around these days w is th g in w ro th rs te marke e However, with many e about how to spot th id gu ld fie ur yo is re So he easy to get confused. ign: ovement and a campa m a n ee tw be e nc re diffe t. paign, not a movemen m ca a s it’ d, en an d e. If it has a beginning an e around to participat ar ts iri sp d re nd ki as on as long Movements continue ve ry sounds like you ha la bu ca vo e th d an g meetin e in a If you are sitting in a g World War II, you ar rin du n io ss se gy te ra of a st the middle of an landed in the middle in ed nd la u yo e lik e ovements feel mor . campaign meeting. M d inspiration get used an ve lo n, io ss pa e lik ords evangelical sermon. W ning to somebody talk te lis e ar u yo , ed ch ta is dry and de If language you hear time separating the rd ha a ve ha le op pe , movements about a campaign. In o, you’ve likely heard nt ro To to en be er ev n. If you’ve “me” from the equatio the playoffs”, even e ak m to g in go e ar e the year w somebody say “this is ofessional hockey. pr ay pl , ill w r ve ne or ver have, though they clearly ne
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BELEAF
Movements aren’t about the product, they are about passion. Movements start with the first conversation. Movements have inspirational leadership
MOVEMENTS ARE ABOUT PASSION!
At first, you are going to have a lot of trouble accepting that you can’t 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 both internal and external, not just external. Here’s 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 can’t prevent it from spreading outside of your proverbial four walls. So how do you create that passion?
Burn
Baby
Burn
First, you don’t create it, you find it. You can’t 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, it’s quality insight that you are after, not quantity. Resist the urge to have focus groups and marketplace studies – you’ll 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 isn’t 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
s
doesn’t 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.
Y R T EN
r rrie a b a in eate r c to jo o n t s so per way a t s e w e f th he b nly allo t o f r s o o be nes o t m t i u e One s ’s W . As yo rm ry i h t e a n h v t is o to e ano t th Jeh a h e g e h l d by u b T e o i t . r i d y s h t i e n t ni re v incr up i a mu s i w u m o n yo co sh me, tio n s o a e y z c i h a In order to u w an alw e yo , and y org ow, e n m i h k t ,t create a movement ht now ond iters k c mig u e. e u r s o c m i e y e t r h t n where the leaders take r s .T thei erso e fir two p h that t f e o o e n s r s o ownership, you need to create es he e pair tim ill b n’t t s 4 w a e ss w a barrier to entry. Surprisingly, ther oce hat r t p r is e the one of the best ways to grow in th at th y ano l e l a p ci y re re offi your movement is to make a a ople. e The u p o 4 y e st at lea e tim h w conscious effort to keep people t o y n k b y, you t i n u ou out. Incentivizing people to join ack if y b comm e m o c your movement by giving away “free stuff” is most likely to u o y e Ar le in the p o e p e likely a recipe for disaster. It’s pretty easy to fall into now som already k . this trap, because we love large numbers. It just feels urse you are o c f O t? n e movem better to have 1,000 people to take our free t-shirt sense of This also creates a and stress ball, than to have 10 people sign up and be
C
A E T REA
R R A B
O T R IE
100% committed to the cause. But, if we are to learn
ownership in the group. When
from the movements that Geno and his gang have
you put your community
been involved in, we’ll take quality over quantity any
members in charge of “who gets
day of the week, and twice on Sunday.in charge of
in”, they will treat that
“who gets in”, they will treat that responsibility with
responsibility with great care.
great care. They not only spread the word on your
They not only spread the word
behalf community, they become stewards of the
on your behalf community, they
community itself.
become stewards of the community itself.
WELCOME! (MAYBE)
Advertising and Traditional Marketing
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 couldn’t 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:
CULTIVATING CLOSENESS FUELS RESULTS
88%
88% of insanely successful companies have an unusually high percentage of their employees having customer contact. In fact, these companies have about, on average: more customer contact than larger companies do.
5x
Staying close to your most demanding customers compels performance and innovation. This enables you to charge higher prices and earn higher margins. One thing is for sure – this isn’t an industry like traditional advertising where 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.
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.
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