Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements [Hardcover]

Robbin Phillips (Author), Greg Cordell (Author), Geno Church (Author), Spike Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2010

Develop and harness a powerful, sustainable word-of-mouth movement

How did the 360-year-old scissor company, Fiskars, double its profit in key markets just by realizing its customers had already formed a community of avid scrapbookers? How is Best Buy planning to dominate the musical instruments market? By understanding the Brains on Fire model of tapping movements and stepping away from the old-school marketing "campaign" mentality.

Brains on Fire offers original, practical and actionable steps for creating a word-of-mouth movement for corporations, products, services, and organizations. It takes you step-by-step through the necessary actions needed to start your own authentic movement.

• Develop and harness a powerful, sustainable, word-of-mouth movement
• Describes 10 lessons to master and create a powerful, sustainable movement
• The Brains on Fire blog is often ranked in the top 100 of AdAge's Power 150 Marketing Blogs

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Are you really surprised when you hear that people don't trust marketers? After all, who wants to be considered a "target," a "demographic," or just a faceless piece of "market share"? Who wants such a relationship? What's in it for them?

Yet even as they resist "marketing," your customers are embracing causes and communities that have meaning for them. Empowered by new technologies, they're speaking out, talking back, and spreading the word on what they're passionate about. Do you want your business to inspire and benefit from that passion? Brains on Fire reveals how to ignite powerful, meaningful, sustainable word of mouth movements that are "win-win" for your customers and your business.

Believing that the focus should be on people and not the shiny new tools and tactics du jour (like Facebook and Twitter), Brains on Fire gives you the keys to building long-term momentum both online and offline for your company, product, service, or organization. Featuring ten lessons you can start building on today, it takes you step by step through lessons the authors have learned on how to inspire excitement and engage the customers and other stakeholders who will advocate for you.

How did a 360-year-old company double its profits in key markets just by tapping into a community its customers had already formed? How does a major retailer plan to win as it moves into an entirely new type of business? Real-life examples show you how today's companies win at word of mouth; all are discussed so you can easily understand and apply the principles in your business.

What if "marketing" is really about connecting—finding the people who are looking for you and bringing greater value to their lives? Brains on Fire gives you the tools to connect with and excite your customers, launch authentic word of mouth movements, and produce exponential returns over the long term.

From the Back Cover

PRAISE FOR BRAINS ON FIRE

"Succeeds at doing what so many other business books attempt: it provides a recipe for how every company can succeed—but the secret isn't in the latest tools, online communities, or campaign tactics. It's about passion, humanization, and common sense."—Scott Monty, Head of Social Media, Ford Motor Company

"Loaded with great advice from a team of people who have repeatedly built successful movements . . . If you want to lead a movement, start with this book."—Dan Heath, coauthor of Switch and Made to Stick

"Enter Brains on Fire. It isn't just a book or a company, it is a collection of real people, with souls and hearts and stories able to offer real advice to anyone who wants to make a movement out of what they do all day."—Ellen McGirt, Senior Writer, Fast Company magazine

"Brains on Fire has the ability to assemble a powerful?team that speaks as one unit. This engaging?book is all about how that team works, including love, hard work, shared passion, with a constant?focus on the goal."—Douglas J.?Greenlaw, former head of sales and promotional marketing, MTV Networks, New York

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 31, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470614188
• ISBN-13: 978-0470614181
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brains & Hearts on Fire September 21, 2010

By A. Taylor

Format:Hardcover

Let me begin this review by saying: if you're looking for a stodgy, traditional take on marketing that comes packaged in a business suit, move along. You're not gonna find it here. If you're looking for a brilliant handbook preaching a better way to build powerful, sustainable word of mouth movements - read on!

It's a shame amazon doesn't allow reviewers to attach photos to their reviews, because the number of dog-eared pages in my copy of Brains on Fire would speak for itself. I can tell you this, however: my copy arrived on a sunny Saturday morning. I opened it to take a peek, fully anticipating I would skim a few chapters and move along with my weekend. A few hours later, I reached the famous chapter eleven. In the process I had highlighted, underlined and dog-eared my way from cover to cover.

A true testament to the content of the Brains on Fire book, and its practical application in everyday life, became apparent in the days after I read the book. I found myself sharing bits and pieces of the book with a variety of friends and family inside AND outside the marketing world. Much to my delight, it sparked dialogue and discovery. The afternoon a friend pulled a pair of scissors out of her kitchen drawer was the same day she learned the word "fiskateer" (and gained a whole new respect for those orange-handled scissors!)

If you're looking for case studies, facts and figures, you'll find them peppering the pages, but it is the shared message of heart, movements and community-building that Brains on Fire is known for where you will discover the most powerful insight. As you read the book, you will be given an opportunity to evaluate what you're doing and how you're doing it. You'll recognize what can be gained when you relinquish sovereign control of a message you never had control of in the first place, and instead foster a sense of shared ownership by placing trust in the hands of the people whose stories and love define your company and what you do. You'll learn what it means to "become famous for the people who love you for the way you love them." And you'll come to understand why all of this really does matter.

The Brains on Fire book reads like a dinner party conversation with a bunch of dear friends crowded around a table exchanging stories, insight and wisdom late into the night. This isn't a book that will teach you the secrets to becoming something you're not. It is a book that reiterates true success stories come from being real and genuine, and that the passion is in the people.

Don't retire this book to the shelf, let it be an inspiration manual for using and sharing.

You may discover it not only sets your brain on fire, but your heart, too.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 10 Elements for Ignitng Powerful 'word-of-mouth' Movements... September 5, 2010

By Yanik Silver

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm not sure where I stumbled onto Brains on Fire blog - but I'm glad I found it. Brains on Fire has some really awesome stuff when it comes to creating movements for your customers, advocates and zealots. I've marked up my copy with action points to take to several of my businesses ranging from publishing to adventure travel. They've done a superb job of breaking down the 10 elements that go into the mix for creating movements and tight communities.

With traditional media having less impact it may be time for marketers to stop defaulting to the yo-yo of advertising campaigns and instead really look to "ignite" a word-of-mouth movement. Some of the advice here really hits home for the conversations that are taking place around your business or brand driven from the bottom-up.

The Brains on Fire crew of Phillips, Cordell, Church and Jones hand you 10 rules for how they've engineered self-sustaining and extremely passionate (and successful) movements like the Fiskateers and Rage against the Haze for anti-smoking in South Carolina. Those are the two you hear the most about in the book and both are worthy of case studies by themselves. Fiskateers took a 360-year old company that makes scissors and helped double their profits by tapping into advocates in key markets. If you read this book with an open mind you might just see some significant changes to make in your marketing and business.

This goes nicely with Primal Branding by Patrick Hanlon and True Believer by Eric Hoffer if you really want to get deep into creating zealots around your movement.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Shhh! This book contains secrets for sustainable word of mouth... September 28, 2010

By chris sandoval

Format:Hardcover

If you're tired of flushing 98% of your marketing spend down the mass media toilet, if you're tired of seeing response rates drop the second you turn off the money spigot, if you're well, just TIRED, this book is for you.

The book is full of inspirational examples for identifying and activating your fans and then empowering them to tell your story for you.

My favorite chapter is "Movements Make Advocates Feel Like Rock Stars". By reminding us that people have esteem and actualization needs it draws a sharp contrast to old and tired marketing mind-sets that view customers as targets to be hunted and adversaries. The reward for a change in mind-set? Extreme loyalty from your customers and all the benefits of their positive word of mouth.

It's an inexpensive and quick read - go for it.

Full disclosure - I was quoted in the book, but not compensated in any way for that quotation or this review. I'm posting this review because I genuinely like this book and the folks that wrote it. If you ever met the authors, you'd understand...