Jewelry 2 Blog
Who else doesn’t know Rick Warren’s best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life”? Since 2002 when it was launched, more than 30 million copies have been sold and still counting. It’s arguably one of the best-selling non-fiction books of all time.
The book caught my curiosity few years ago when it was being discussed in media and social events. I bought a copy and got enthused by Rick Warren. I was so inspired by him that I was willing to commute for five hours in the middle of a typhoon to come to listen his seminar.
Am simply one of the numerous people inspired by the book. Here in the Philippines, for example, the book was used by the national police academy for training of over 10,000 policemen. In a 2005 survey among American pastors and ministers, the book has the most influence. When Ashley Smith was held hostage by Brian Nichols in 2005, she read Chapter 32 to him. He had a conversion of heart and freed her. It was alleged that the Italian edition of the book was found in the bedside of Pope John Paul II when he died.
The worldwide success of The Purpose Driven Life helped Rick Warren gain eminence and wealth. And controversies too from time to time.
I know some of you may not like Rick Warren and his works and that’s OK. What am going to share with you today are some of the insights am acquiring about Christian book marketing and biblical truth on wealth creation in Christian business.
In 2005, Greg Stielstra came up with his book PyroMarketing: The Four Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them for Life. He was once a part of the team in Zondervan who handled the marketing of The Purpose Driven Life. He chronicled and analyzed the process that led to the success of The Purpose Driven Life.
The key to winning PyroMarketing, according to Greg Stielstra, is to appreciate marketing as fire. The strategy has four simple steps which copy the steps of building a fire:
1) Gather the driest tinder.
Concentrate your advertising on those people most likely to buy, benefit from, and then excitedly endorse your product or service.
In the first step, Rick Warren won over 1200 pastors to begin a “40 Days of Purpose” campaign in their churches.
2) Touch it with the match.
Present people an experience with your product or service. Experience is the shortcut to produce understanding.
3) Fan the flames.
Fanning the flames means giving people tools to help them spread your messages throughout their social network.
4) Save the coals.
Saving the coals means keeping a record of the people you run into through your marketing.
This four-part method, which is returning in nature, reveals the “secret” behind the success of The Purpose Driven Life. You may like to know more about Greg Stielstra’s book at http://www.pyromarketing.com.
Previous to the release of Greg Stielstra’s book, there was some delay. Rick Warren requested the latter not to use The Purpose Driven Life as an example of PyroMarketing. He said “the effectiveness of 40 Days of Purpose spread from one pastor to another through word-of-mouth endorsement, not through anyone’s marketing plan. My only concern was that no one, neither Zondervan nor myself, can claim credit for the astounding success of The Purpose Driven Life book. The worldwide spread of the purpose driven message had nothing to do with marketing or merchandising. Instead it was the result of God’s supernatural and sovereign plan, which no one anticipated.”
Greg Stielstra’s book PyroMarketing was eventually released, however, in September 2005.
Rick Warren’s detractors then used the “revelations” from Greg Stielstra’s book against the former. They insinuate that church members were used as unwitting “customer evangelists”. They allege that the success of The Purpose Driven Life is nothing but a result of brilliant, calculating marketing campaign.
In all of their writings, you can see they’re equating “marketing” with “manipulation”. So, where is this kind of mindset coming from?
I can think of two reasons. First, possibly they believe that all marketers are liars. Second, many of these Christians have the unwise religious idea that money is the root of all evil. And marketing is of course linked with money.
As stated, Rick Warren asserted that the good news about his book “spread from one pastor to another through word-of-mouth endorsement, not through anyone’s marketing plan”. But I can’t see any incongruity between “word-of-mouth” and “marketing”. As Greg Stielstra says, “Word-of-mouth isn’t what happens in the absence of marketing, it’s the natural consequence of marketing done right.”
When important Christians take apparently inconsistent positions on issues like this one, how can we keep our balance? What are we to do in practical terms?
We can perhaps learn from St. Teresa of Avila who says, “I pray as if all depends on God; I work as if all depends on me.”
Though it’s true that all at the end of the day comes from God, for it is He who gives us the ability to produce wealth (Deut 8), we are to use that ability!
If you want to learn how to harness your God-given ability to produce wealth in Christian business online, please visit the Christian Business in the Internet Age.
Shortcut to helpful advice about internet marketing – make sure to study the page. The times have come when proper info is really only one click away, use this possibility.
Tags: christian business
Posted in Business · December 20th, 2009 · Comments (0)
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