In PyroMarketing the term "touch it with the match" refers to giving people an experience with your product or service. Experience is the shortcut to product understanding and is especially important in our age of mind-boggling choice. The phrase "fanning the flames" refers to equipping your customer evangelists to spread your marketing message to their social network. A new promotion by Skype combines these two PyroMarketing principles masterfully.
Skype is an online phone service. Once you and your friend install the Skype software to your computers and registered as users, you can call each other--even long distance calls--over the Internet at no cost. Skype's popularity has grown largely from word of mouth. One person gets Skype and then convinces their friends to get it so they can all talk for free. The tech savvy do it right away. The Luddites never quite get around to it. And that's the problem. How do you introduce new technology to your friends who still use and love old technology? That, it appears, is the problem Skype faced and solved with a new promotion.
Beginning today Skype users can make free calls to any telephone in the US and Canada through the end of the year. As a result, Skype users all across the country will do something similar to what I will do tonight. I will get on my computer and call my parent's home phone. When they answer I will tell them I called from my computer and that our call from Franklin, Tennessee to Grand Rapids, Michigan isn't costing me a thing. They will ask about Skype and I will explain it. Before the call is over I will probably talk them through the process for downloading and installing it. When I'm done my parent's will be Skype users. What's more, I will probably repeat this process with other friends and relatives.
Not only does this promotion encourage Skype customer evangelists like me to spread their marketing message, I also end up doing their customer service and tech support as well. It's brilliant.
Pat Boone
I'm having dinner with Pat Boone this Sunday night to discuss PyroMarketing. I'll report on that in future posts.
CONnectFUSION
I'm excited about a new theory I am developing. I call it CONectFUSION and I'll write about it in more detail later. That post will be rather long and I want to make sure I've fully developed the idea before sharing it.
Spread the fire. GS
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