BurkhardWorks: The Steam Principle.

Consumer Buying Behavior is predicated on one
fundamental truth: All Men Are Created Wet.

Our bodies are about 76% H₂0.
Naturally, we behave like water.

We are also creatures of Habit.
We keep doing whatever we’ve been doing until things get to be physically, emotionally, or financially insufferable.
Or until we just get Bored.

Slowly our temperatures rise from Room Temperature towards that Emotional Boiling Point.

Then some sort of 100 Calorie Trigger Event occurs.

WHSSSSSS!

We suddenly turn to STEAM.

We rush off Furiously to Find an Answer.
We start Googling relevant Key Words.
We bounce from site to site to site...
We look for the Best Deal This Week Only!
We actually read the fine print.

The Steam Principle: Whoever Cools Us Off Gets Our Cash.

We buy the Thing that will solve our Problem and get us back to
Room Temperature as soon as possible.

Often we end up choosing some Thing that's remarkably similar to what we already had. Just look at all the clothes hanging in your bedroom closet. Or all the ads you've run for the past decade.

MORAL: Get Close to the Steam.

Try to figure out the most common
Trigger Events that push people into
your category.

Dramatize the ways your Features & Benefits can satisfy those transient emotional yearnings.

Target next week's shoppers.
Feed ‘em those final 100 calories, this week. Try to be the first place they go
to Cool Off.

EXAMPLE: For months Pulte Homes had run standard floor plan & price ads in The Washington Post Real Estate section for the Final Phase of their Woodstone Condominiums. No traffic. No sales. Too many other ads offered bigger or cheaper condos.

I thought Pulte might do better in the Friday Events Magazine, Sports or Auto Sections instead. Heat up prospects a week or so before they started to study the fine print.

All 90 condos sold out in a few weeks.

Click to The Reflection Principle to learn why many shoppers see only what they're looking for. It can help you improve the content of your ads and landing pages.

Click to D. R. Radio Flighting to learn how I flight your commercials to match the same speed at which a destination program's Cume Quota of Active Shoppers reach Steam Heat.

Oh, are you Steaming right now?

Are you Actively Shopping for a way to improve your advertising, launch a new brand, or otherwise overcome Consumer Apathy? Quick! Pick up the phone. This Urgent Moment won't last forever. (407) 895-3092.