War is hell. Is financing it worse?

$156,000,000,000 from selling
the same product to the same customers

How often do you go back to your customers
and sell the same stuff again?

Back in 1943, the US was busy funding its World War II efforts. To help do so, it ran eight marketing campaigns beginning in 1942 to sell savings bonds.

As you read through the list of eight campaigns below, please note:

• the awareness: only those living under rocks didn’t know the US was at war and needed help in financing it.
• the product: they sell the same thing (a savings bond) each time.
• the customers: they sell to the same people each time, many of whom had already bought.
• the duration of each campaign: they run less than a month.
• the frequency: a new campaign starts three to four months after the prior one ends.
• the advertising was donated: they partnered with corporate advertisers and the media.
• the last two campaigns begin after the war ends (there’s no logical reason for people to buy war bonds to support a non-existent war), yet the two campaigns raise 30% of the overall total and surpass their goals by 104%.

Here are the campaigns:

• Campaign #1: lasted 24 days, raised $13 billion (44% more than their goal).
• Campaign #2 (107 days later). Lasting 20 days and backed by $4.7 million in advertising, it raised $18.5 billion (38% more than their goal).

• Campaign #3 (131 days later). Lasting 24 days and backed by 152,000 newspaper advertisements costing $23.4 million, it raised $19 billion (27% more than their goal).
• Campaign #4 (108 days later). Lasting 26 days and backed by $25 million in advertising, it raised $16.7 billion (19% more than their goal).
• Campaign #5 (118 days later). Lasting 27 days and backed by $42.7 million in advertising, it raised $20.6 billion (29% more than their goal).
• Campaign #6 (136 days later). Lasting 25 days and backed by $11 million in advertising, it raised $21.6 billion.
• Campaign #7 (149 days later). Begun just days after the war ended in Europe, lasting 42 days and backed by $42 million in advertising, it raised $26 billion (86% more than their goal).
• Campaign #8 (127 days later). Begun two months after the war ended in the Pacific, lasting 26 days (with advertising dollars unknown), it raised $21 billion (92% more than their goal).

$180 million in donated advertising helped raise $156 billion, with 85 million of the 130 million American citizens (65%) becoming customers.

Just by looking at this, you can get tons of ideas for your own marketing. Ask yourself:

• Am I running campaigns frequently enough?
• Am I fooling myself into thinking I can’t return to the same customers who bought before?
• Am I trying to sell different products (or services) each time, instead of capitalizing on the momentum I build in each subsequent campaign for a single product?
• Am I addressing the emotional need my product or service will satisfy in their lives?

In next week’s post, I’ll tell you about one day in Campaign #3: $39,000,000 raised by one person using 65 two-minute radio messages over 18 hours. The information is based on a 1946 classic, a thorough, 189-page, sociological analysis of the event titled, Mass Persuasion (from my own library of rare first edition books). Then I’ll ask you this, “65 messages in 18 hours. Isn’t that spamming?”

What’s your thoughts about what we talked about today? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this … good or bad. Add your experiences, opinions, questions, requests, and comments below now:

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Tagged as: campaign, marketing, mass persuasion, raising money