What I learned during 6 years at Microsoft was how to operationalize and scale marketing engines.

We said "engines" as in a series of processes that were built and orchestrated in such a way that a little bit of "fuel," i.e. time/money would generate an outsized result (sales).

We did a pretty good job of this, imho.

Now, I like to think that I help clients build Community Driven Marketing engines. 

A few weeks ago, I organized a conference call for a number of my clients, where they discussed with each other the ideas behind Community Driven Marketing.

In the discussion around community building and what motivates Raving Fans, Gretchen Rubin said that perhaps the more appropriate term for my specialty was "Passion Driven Marketing" as in, we are looking for people whose passions align with our marketing activities.

I think she's on to something (though I am sticking with CDM for now!), but in reality, I think the "fuel" of CDM is exactly that-The Passion of Your Raving Fans.

So, if we can extend the metaphor a bit (and, I suppose de-humanize it--but only for illustrative purposes), we have the following.

A CDM Engine that comprises

• Identification
• Cultivation
• Activation

of the Raving Fans.

And the passion of those Raving Fans to fuel it.

What that gives us, however, is two levers that can affect the outcome of the engine's input.

1. We can have more Raving Fans.
2. We can have a higher octane Raving Fan (i.e. greater passion)

So, cultivation is actually more than just building a relationship with Raving Fans so they want to execute marketing activities, it's what you do to turn up the passion-o-meter and ultimately increase results.

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