X-Message-Number: 29597
From: 
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:01:46 EDT
Subject: Professional Marketing

The notion that "professional marketing" would work magic for cryonics is  
unsupported by relevant evidence, and probably contradicted by some  evidence.
 
As to the latter, my recollection is that Alcor has hired professional PR  
people, spending substantial sums, without observable result.
 
The efficacy of professional market studies and marketing is, so far as  I  

know, unimpressive, with plenty of face-falls. Remember the Edsel? A  perfectly
ordinary product, a major company, a major effort, and flat failure. 
 
Or look at Apple vs. Microsoft. For many years Apple had the clearly better  
product, but was hammered by Microsoft. Was that because Microsoft had a much  
better professional marketer? Much more likely it was because of certain  
business practices that had nothing to do with professional  marketers.
 
I'm sure there have also been apparent successes, but it willl  probably 

seldom be easy to decide how much the professional efforts  contributed to 
success.
 
Another note is that professional marketing has mostly been about  beating 
the competition, close to a zero sum game, or marketing a variation of  an old 
product, not marketing a comletely different product facing  powerful cultural 
resistance. 
 
Saul Kent has characterized the problem as "selling something you don't  have 
to someone who doesn't want it." Of course we do have something and some do  
want it, but that says  nothing positive about the value of professional  
marketers.
 
A point to remember is that marketers never, as far as I know,  put THEIR 

money where their mouths are. They want theirs up front, with the  risk entirely
the customer's. If we can find a reputable marketer willing  to work on spec, 
on some kind of commission basis, that might be a different  story--although, 
as I recall, Trans Time tried this many years ago with no  success. (The 
commission offered would not have to be on an individual  basis--maybe just 

something like a percentage of annual increase in  patients/revenue. But again, 
I 
doubt the chance of this succeeding would be  worth the effort.)
 
The main points I often try to make are: (1) Do what we know works.  (2) YOU 
do it.
 
(1) Despite the disappointments and slow growth, we are growing and the  rate 
of growth is improving. The wind is at out backs--every advance in science  
and technology, even if not directly relevant, tends to strengthen our  case.
 
(2) It is easy, but probably useless, for you to suggest grandiose schemes  
for others to carry out. What you can do personally, right now, may not be 
much,  but it is definitely something, which is somewhat better than nothing. 

Three of  these things are (a) keep working patiently and inoffensively on your
own  relatives and acquaintances; (b) offer to do chores for CI or your 

organization;  (c) give some extra money to CI or your organization on a regular
basis.
 
R.E.



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