Marketing, AOL Way!

By Ronin 2010/10/20 Art of Living Corporation getting you ready for the next level by selling sweepstake tickets, online blessings and launching new programs. If you think this new level will help you free yourself from the wheel of samsara, you will be very disappointed. However this will last for only a short time since an online blessing will be mailed to you shortly and you will be taken care of by the Guru’s grace. I wonder if all these new ways of promoting AOL are included in the articles of incorporation of the foundation and it mission to save humanity. But then again a corporation needs to adjust it strategies to the current times and environment in order to capture more market share. I am not sure if a spiritual organizations needs to, but times are hard and there is a lot of competition I am told. Where have the good old days gone where spirituality meant doing ones practices in order to pierce through the veil of ignorance? To take the journey and sit no matter how long or hard it may be, instead of the fast food concept (fake it till you make it) which is being spoon fed in AOL. There are still teachers who are of the old school and who through sincere discernment will lead one to the truth whether you like it or not, cause the TRUTH just IS. But you will not find them in the AOL organization, senior teachers and Ravi himself are too preoccupied with their own self interests. And it is understandable, running a company is never an easy task. The AOL Company is creating various sub programs to its line up. Using its main product the basic part 1 course and making sure it does not fade away, trying to extend its product life cycle. The beauty of the part 1 course is in the way it was designed you can cross sell this product in many ways. By just giving it a different layout you suddenly have an APEX course for companies. Brilliant the core stays the same SK but you pitch it differently. Amazing what you can come up with when you are deep in Samadhi. A new one launched recently was the Art of Health Orientation TTC (see Blog) Can some explain why most programs have to be labeled as ART? I think it has to do with brand awareness very smart indeed. This one is only open to teachers with a medical background and is 4 days long. And is a very important program to help those in need in the medical field. Does anyone recognize it, how they play upon the sense of being special. If you are on this TTC you are one of the special ones. “One can only get invited to it, yet you could recommend people”. Great marketing and easy to sell this to the existing flock of devotees; since I am sure they scanned their data base to see how many have a medical background. I wonder what the doctor’s will answer when they are asked about the origin of SK. The standard answer from the script would probably be; that it was cognized by none other then the super jet set Guru Ravi Shankar during a ten day silent inward journey. I wonder if it actually was in a cave somewhere, or in a plush 5 star spa retreat. But what about the breathing (happy breath) for art excel and those used in YES. Again these are slight adjustments to the main SK pranayama. Were these cognized in just one day or were they suddenly discovered in an ancient scripture. Does anyone really know? Or can the master just simply design and create various programs instantaneously I mean he does have the title GURU on his business card. They say research has been done on the SK, but has any been done on the happy breath, do we know what the effects are on the brain of a child. I don’t think so or never heard of any. Then why should we just blindly trust it. Is it just because the Gifted GURU says so or because as parents we SEEM to have had a favorable experience with the basic part 1 course? Do we know what the long term effect on children is…….. This is what is so brilliant of the AOL program plat form, their marketing strategies are very keenly developed. First hook the parents through a basic part 1 course throw in an advance part 2 course. Then introduce the children’s courses. Market them as the great solution for any kind of problems your child might have. There are various programs Art excel and YES. http://www.artofliving.org/how-do-sudarshan-kriya Recently however a lot of focus was placed on two other programs Know your Child (KYC) and Know your Teen (KYT). Not sure if any of you were able to take the courses or even became teachers. The requirements for the TTC looked not that extensive, no degree in child psychology or such needed. However they do ask how many part 1 and part 2 courses one has taken but at this point one is used to these requirements. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing. During the course one is introduced to the nature of the child and of course things that you can do to improve your relationship with your children, which is very admirable. But as always there is more to these short AOL workshops then is seen at first glance. There is always a hook, so buyers beware. The teacher never goes too deeply into various aspects of behavior and problems kids might have. The teacher told us at the beginning of the workshop that the issues discussed are those one encounters with normal kids. That raised my eyebrow a bit. The problems which are addressed are very superficial. Issue like; a child does not listen, is restless, does not eat well or regular and so on. The answers are pretty standard, just go to your library and pick up any parenting book and you will find them as well. The twist is that other AOL courses are mentioned as ways to address the problems. Very very sneaky but not out of character……..We have seen this before in SSY. But here it is used much more effectively. This is how it works if your child has a fear or phobia then he or she must have gotten it from you (the parent). Now for you to let go of this fear we recommend you take the DSN course which really addresses these fears. DSN lets you dissolve these negative patterns so that you don’t keep repeating this negative cycle from one generation to the other in your family. Absolutely brilliant marketing, one identifies a fear play into it and then present the solution as the DSN course. The part 1 course is also mentioned of course as is the AOL foundation standard script and not to forget the man him self Ravi and his wisdom. You can truly solve the problems with your kids and even spouse by taking one of the AOL courses for adults or enroll you child or teen in a course tailor made for their age. Please see the sign up sheet or a volunteer will come and speak to you if you have any questions. Please make a down payment to secure you space. Sounds very familiar does it not….. And so a KYC workshop is given and out of it a part 1 and a YES course are automatically created, people can immediately be recruited. It is a great way to create a basic Part 1 course, and if one is not able to pull it off the senior teachers will not take kindly to it, you would have failed and let the GURU down. Thus KYC is a front runner and has the opportunity of generating lots revenue for the AOL Company. Very smart indeed….one short workshop can multiply its self into various others. The other workshop being run is the workshop for teachers, the stress free teaching workshop. Really the same thing again, why change some thing that works. A little bit of yoga some breathing and some wisdom. They key is to generate interest for the KYC and KYT courses. You give them a taste once that is there you hit the jackpot because teachers can recommend parents to take KYC and KYT. This will eventually lead to a basic part 1 course. The teachers are asked to evaluate the workshop and in which courses they are interested in, part 1 or YES or KYC ect. The form will also ask for their email addresses. Now we all know that once you have those you are in business….. I wonder if this business strategy was also cognized cause in MY opinion it is fail proof. I have no knowledge on the LIVE ( Lessons in value Education) program maybe someone can fill me and others in on it. Are they being presented in more countries then India? The AOL company is trying to create this awareness to get their programs into schools. To me it seems like they are copying TM organization on this front as well. See the creative drive of Peter Lynch to adopt TM in schools. http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/ Not very original it seems like son (Ravi) still feels like he is standing in the shadows of MMY. But he is making an effort to catch up. With such a wide range of services, programs and new programs making their way to devotees (sorry consumers) through very clever marketing campaigns, the AOL corporation will be able to gain enough market share measured in revenue generated of the spiritual business landscape to sustain its growth. Hopefully not all at the expense of the dear devotees…….although I have my sincere doubts. The little giant has awakened.