X-Message-Number: 28461
From: 
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:04:57 EDT
Subject: marketing

Fraincois writes in part:
 

>Has anyone  ever thought of enlisting the services of a marketing firm to 
solve that   >problem [selling cryonics]?
 
This has often been suggested, and has been tried, especially by Alcor.  Rudy 
Matic, with some professional marketing credentials, worked for CI for a  
while. Trans Time once tried a sales commission system. 

 
The main point is that response has always been so small that paid  

advertising, or paid consultancy, has never come close to being successful, as  
far as 
I know. Our primary success is from the web sites, which cost almost  nothing.
 
Saul Kent once put the problem as "trying to sell something you don't have  
to someone who doesn't want it." We can't demonstrate revival, and few people  
are interested in changing their mind-sets. 
 
Eventually, that will change, and in fact has been changing, although  so far 
only slowly. Our rate of growth at CI, both in members and in patients,  has 
accelerated in recent years, albeit from a very low base. The wind is at our  
backs, since every year the advances in science make our thesis more  credible.
 
Meanwhile, what we need from our constituency is mainly their own  individual 
direct effort, not marketing ideas. Work on your friends and  relatives. This 
isn't easy, or quick, or pleasant, but it is within reach and  known to be 
successful much more often than general sales. Needless to say, you  need tact 
as well as perseverance.
 
R.E.


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