After I finished talking with Nicole Garner, I rushed to the next session. While I originally planned on attending a different session, I’d like to think fate brought me to this one. Yves Saint Laurent once said that the most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion, but cosmetics are simply easier to buy. Geno Church proved how true this statement was in his session, Explorer of Your Passions. Author and owner of Brains on Fire, a word of mouth marketing firm, explained how vital passion is.  Without passion, there is no conversation. Without conversation, word of mouth marketing is unable to happen, and without word of mouth marketing, successful business is impossible.

Church talked about the 3 motivators of a conversation: functional, social, and emotional. All of these motivators spark word of mouth marketing. He defined this as a business action that earns recommendation from another person. Essentially, it is all about building a relationship and impacting the financial success of a business. As an advertising student, I know that the most important form of advertising is word of mouth. Word of mouth is responsible for as much as half of all purchase decisions.  Church shared that 90% of word of mouth marketing happens offline. For offline motivation, social is good, functional is better but the emotional trigger is the best trigger for offline conversations.

Passion isn’t something for just you to enjoy, it is meant to be shared. Church stated that influencing something is passing on the unique passion we have to others. Marketing is based off of influence. As marketers, we need to play “match maker” and match our passions. Passion is what your brand is built on. He compared a brand to a camera lens, he said people want to see what the company stands for, which is behind the lens. He stated that the best way for a brand to inspire passion is to bring people along for the journey. If a brand has an opportunity to make personal connections with their consumers, they should grab that opportunity. To make personal connections, brands need to maintain constant conversations with people across all of their channels.

Even though I wasn’t planning on attending this session, I’m sure glad I did. Geno Church was engaging and interesting to listen to. I’m looking forward to purchasing his book, Brains on Fire.