X-Message-Number: 4258 Date: Thu, 20 Apr 95 13:24:55 From: Steve Bridge <> Subject: Cryonics Marketing To CryoNet >From Steve Bridge April 20, 1995 In reply to: Message #4252 Date: 20 Apr 95 02:44:08 EDT From: Jim Davidson <> Subject: Marketing statistics Thanks to Jim for this interesting post. I want to add a couple of details to this (and to what Charles Platt previously posted on the subject). >The information posted about actual returns from several _Omni_ >magazine articles on cryonics sent me back to the textbooks to review >some statistics. Obviously, my suppositions about how much response >would come from an article was off by an order of magnitude, which I >found disturbing. One interesting thing about magazine articles as part of "advertising" is that they are INDEXED. Unlike pure ads in magazines or television, the useful life of certain magazine articles can be much longer. For example, back in the February 1992, issue of Omni, Charles wrote a one page article, "Confessions of a Cryonicist." This article did result in about 1,000 requests for information in the first year. However, since it is in the various library indexes, at LEAST that many people have seen it and called Alcor in the following two years. Most of these were students doing reports; but that's not all bad. A large percentage of those reports are given orally to the entire class, and the idea spreads. Also, in the past year or so, I would estimate that Alcor, through interviews in major newspapers (Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, etc.), radio programs, and television and magazine interviews all over the world, has informed at least 10 million people about cryonics. (Maybe many more; I have never seen statistics on how many people read which articles in a newspaper.) I figure most people must read or hear about cryonics several times before it becomes "real" to them; but I'm sure we have raised the numbers of hits in that progression this year. >A product may be said to have "peaked" when it has captured the early >adopters and has moved into the vast majority who may be termed late >adopters. These more conservative folks are waiting for an idea to >catch on, preferably so the cost will come down. And the "cost" is not just the "price." With cryonics, the *emotional* cost of being different from your friends and family is quite high. Remember that fear of speaking in public always ranks higher in polls than fear of death. Literally, many people would rather die than be embarassed. At one time the emotional cost of cremation was too high for most people, even though the price of cremation was 5-10% of that for burial. That has changed today, but it took a century. We all hope it won't take that long for cryonics. But we should all remember that this is not like the growth in sales of VCRs or computers. The emotional content is much different. The first people to adopt VCRs or Laser disks got a lot of new friends, especially on Saturday nights. The first people to adopt cryonics got scorn, including divorce and even jail, in some cases. Steve Bridge Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4258