I’ve taken a break from the summer trilogy of cougar-porn to read something that actually makes me think. Okay, get your mind out of the gutter. I mean really think. Think differently about products, marketing, customers, engagement, selling, the whole shooting match. The book is called Brains on Fire and it got me thinking.
The authors of the book run an agency of the same name and basically help all types of businesses ignite movements. Not a campaign or an email program or an event or a social media strategy. A movement. A way to connect with the people who use your product by understanding who they are as people, why they love your product, how they use it and why they would tell their friends about it. In my simplified view and to borrow from the great Seth Godin from The Purple Cow, it’s about finding and creating the “sneezers,” or the people who become passionate evangelists for your product and tell the world (aka sneeze it.)
As I was reading Brains on Fire, I started to think about how the passion for a product or service starts and when it starts. I remember shopping with my mom as a little girl and asking her why we bought a certain brand of laundry detergent or shopped at a certain store and she said it was because that’s what her mom bought or where her mom shopped or where she knew the lady who knew exactly what she liked. Okay, so affinity or trust for a brand can be “passed down” – makes sense. But what about passion. That’s a whole other ball of wax. What makes a person so passionate about a product or service that they do your marketing for you? And how to do you tap into that goodness and help it spread?
For inspiration, I turned to my 9 yr old, who happens to have a passion for sassing me, debating me and, when she’s not doing those things, sketching for her budding career as a fashion designer. Getting her to practice her multiplication tables or do her mandatory reading for the day is like pulling teeth. But, when it’s time for her to create her designs, she could work on them all day and all night. For her, it’s not work. She is engaged, animated, full of ideas and…passionate. I saw a spark as she helped me with my style biz as I was working on a bunch of design boards for a presentation to a women’s group. She instantly became my assistant and was actually really good at it. Mixing and matching colors and fabrics and describing what she liked or didn’t about a pattern or an outfit. So I bought her a sketch book with pencils and a few models. She took to it immediately and started sketching and exploring patterns and colors and how they can be pulled together. She showed me inspiration. Watching this little person explore her passion for fashion was exhilarating, even listening to her tell me that, one day, these designs are going to make her money. I believe it, baby.
So she’s got the spark. The right product for her will create the flame. When I tie it back to Brains on Fire, it’s really about igniting and sustaining the inner passion of people who love something related to what you do, tapping into that something, relating it to your product and showing them the connection. For my daughter, a product like Fashion Playtes is the lighter fluid and they are tapping into her creative juices by letting her design her own label and her own clothing line and share with other girls who share her passion for fashion design.
I don’t believe that passion starts with a product. Sure people are passionate about iPhones or the hot new BMW or the latest Chanel ready-to-wear, but that’s because they are passionate about new technology, fast cars and fashion design. I believe passion starts with finding something you love and wanting to do it, share it, build it, buy it and make it part of your life and what you do. The old saying goes: “If you do what you’re passionate about, then it’s really not work.” What have you done to find your inner passion and set it ablaze? And, for all you marketers out there, what have you done to connect with what your customers are passionate about? In the words of the great Bruce Springsteen, “You can’t start a fire without a spark.” Find and follow your passion. Find and follow your customer’s passion. Embrace it. Start a fire. Great things will happen.