The era of mass marketing is ending—replaced by the power of customer evangelists unleashed through a systematic approach to word-of-mouth called PyroMarketing. Learn how the system that sparked a revolution in the Christian marketplace can fuel the success of your business. Word-of-mouth is the biggest influence on consumer purchases and its influence is growing. How do you tap its power? The key is not some new technology or advertising fad. The best way to understand the marketing process, the way messages are sent, received, acted upon, and spread, is to think of fire. PyroMarketing simplifies word-of-mouth to a four-step system that optimizes your advertising dollars by targeting the right customers and then converting them into unpaid sales and marketing evangelists. Tapping the latest research into the brain and human behavior, Greg Stielstra demonstrates how traditional marketing techniques are expensive, obsolete, and doomed to failure—while PyroMarketing principles deliver powerful results over the long-term and for less money. Illustrated with case studies including The Purpose-Driven Life, one of the bestselling books of all time, and the breakaway phenomenon The Passion of the Christ, PyroMarketing is a comprehensive strategy that can help any business reach and retain new markets.

A new history explores the commercial heart of evangelical Christianity. American evangelicalism is big business. For decades, the world’s largest media conglomerates have sought out evangelical consumers, and evangelical books have regularly become international best sellers. In the early 2000s, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life spent ninety weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than thirty million copies. But why have evangelicals achieved such remarkable commercial success? According to Daniel Vaca, evangelicalism depends upon commercialism. Tracing the once-humble evangelical book industry’s emergence as a lucrative center of the US book trade, Vaca argues that evangelical Christianity became religiously and politically prominent through business activity. Through areas of commerce such as branding, retailing, marketing, and finance, for-profit media companies have capitalized on the expansive potential of evangelicalism for more than a century. Rather than treat evangelicalism as a type of conservative Protestantism that market forces have commodified and corrupted, Vaca argues that evangelicalism is an expressly commercial religion. Although religious traditions seem to incorporate people who embrace distinct theological ideas and beliefs, Vaca shows, members of contemporary consumer society often participate in religious cultures by engaging commercial products and corporations. By examining the history of companies and corporate conglomerates that have produced and distributed best-selling religious books, bibles, and more, Vaca not only illustrates how evangelical ideas, identities, and alliances have developed through commercial activity but also reveals how the production of evangelical identity became a component of modern capitalism.

Radio is on the verge all right, but on the verge of what? Are we on the cusp of a new renaissance, a time of unprecedented excitement and opportunity? Or are we headed, as some naysayers argue, towards an industry-wide twilight? Making Waves argues that it's the former, not the latter. This book can help any broadcaster navigate a digital wonderland of infinite choice and endless competition. Dive in. The water's fine. Let's make some waves. Foreword by Greater Media CEO Peter Smyth.

A landmark examination of the resurgence of faith around the globe The Editor in Chief of The Economist and its Lexington columnist show how the global rise of religion will dramatically impact our century in God Is Back. Contrary to the popular assumption that modernism would lead to the rejection of faith, American-style evangelism has sparked a global revival. On the street and in the corridors of power the authors shine a bright light on a vast yet until now hidden world of religion. Twenty-first-century faith is being fueled by a very American emphasis on competition and a customer-driven attitude toward salvation. Revealing how the religion boom is destabilizing politics and the global economy, God Is Back concludes by showing how the same American ideas that created our unique religious style can be applied to channel the rising tide of faith away from volatility and violence.

A new edition of the definitive handbook on word-of-mouth marketing, completely revised and updated for today’s online world With two-thirds new material and scores of current examples from today’s most successful companies, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited takes readers inside the world of word-of-mouth marketing and explains how and why it works. Based on over one hundred new interviews with thought leaders, marketing executives, researchers, and consumers, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited shows how to: * Generate genuine buzz both online and off. * Encourage people to talk about your products and services—and help spread the word among their friends, colleagues, and communities. * Adapt traditional word-of-mouth strategies in today’s era of Facebook, YouTube, and consumer-generated media. Smart, surprising, and filled with cutting-edge strategies and insights, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited is essential for anyone who wants to get attention for a product, message, or idea in today’s message-cluttered world.