Knocking on doors.....How successful is it?

by Quirky1 31 Replies latest jw friends

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  parakeet

  Farkel: "They already have the best business model conceivable: a built in and captive market, i.e. dubs who MUST buy their shit and who must buy enough of their shit to look like they are going to be getting rid of their shit in their fake field service. I'm sure the WTS could get along just fine if they received NO new converts and dubs bred fast enough to keep up with the attrition through death and people fleeing away from their cult."

  I remember the stacks and stacks of old WTs and Awakes in our house when I was a kid. There was no way to get rid of them all, no matter how much time one spent in fs. My mother pioneered for a short time years ago, and even she couldn't get rid of them all.

  My only caveat regarding the WTS's successful business model is whether enough children are being born and raised as dubs to take the place of the those lost through death and those who leave. The WTS doesn't encourage having children because the "end" is "so close" (as it has been for more than a century).
• 

  BluesBrother

  My Mother was a doorstep convert , but most of the ones that I know now are either family connections or maybe "informal contacts". I am sure that the main reason for doing is to keep the publishers busy and occupied in "the Work" and to feel important. If they really wanted to reach people they could use some of their millions on Marketing - but they don't.

  In the early days they paid for large adverts (whole pages) in major newspapers. In the twenties and thirties they had radio stations and sound cars . They were innovative with gramophone players on the doorstep. Since the 1950's they have introduced nothing new . The "Ministry has become stale . Most dubs just offer 2 magazines and are happy when the H/H says "no"
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  Alpaca

  Quirks said:

  When I went out in FS we spent more time and money on coffee shops and rummage sales..WTF!! I felt pretty stoopid going to a garagae sale in a suit...LOL

  One time when I was in service 25 years ago I bought a very nice Penn fishing reel for $5 (probably worth $100) at a yard sale. It's probably the most valuable contribution field service ever made to my life. I've caught many fish with it and I still have it to this day.
• 

  Finally-Free

  When I went out in FS we spent more time and money on coffee shops and rummage sales..WTF!! I felt pretty stoopid going to a garagae sale in a suit...LOL

  I hear you. It wasn't easy to plead poverty and negotiate a lower price while standing in someone's driveway wearing a bloody suit.

  W
• 

  trebor

  I once picked up a boxed ColecoVision along with several games for $20.

  It is my best experience ever in the Watchtower Society's ministry!
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  undercover

  I remember the stacks and stacks of old WTs and Awakes in our house when I was a kid. There was no way to get rid of them all, no matter how much time one spent in fs. My mother pioneered for a short time years ago, and even she couldn't get rid of them all.

  hah hah...remember how we wouldn't throw old mags out? Even when they were dog-eared and yellow, it somehow felt wrong to throw away any publication that came through God's Channel.

  I remember an elder friend of mine who was cleaning out his garage and he chunked all the old mags and duplicate books. A couple of us brothers were helping him and I remember the *gasp* when he dumped the whole lot in the back of a truck that was headed to the dump. He saw the reaction and asked what good it was to keep old magazines and books? We've got the bound volumes for the magazines and any duplication of the books was a waste of space. He drove his point home by asking if we really thought that Bethel kept every book and magazine that it didn't ship.

  He doesn't know it, but he opened my eyes just a bit that day. With something as insignificant as him throwing away literature, it made me realize that the publications weren't some holy writ to be revered. They were selling tools used to try to convert the heathens.

  It's amazing how group-think keeps everyone in check. We all were afraid to "throw away" literature but when one free-thinking person did it, it set up a chain reaction of other people to think for themselve instead of following the group.
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  Quirky1

  I couldn't tell you how many mags I've burned. I felt guilty the first time I did it but after that, ahh.
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  passwordprotected

  In my 36 years as a JW, including several years as a pioneer, I only made one convert. It wasn't through door-to-door though. I found the d-t-d work extremely frustrating and ineffective.
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  I quit!

  I think it was pretty successful in the congregation I was in in the early 70's. This was at the time of all the 1975 hype. We had a congregation of unusually likeable people who were sincerely interested in anyone who came to the meetings. At that time a lot of young couples and quite a few single people including myself became J-dubs through the d2d work. But that was the only time and place I ever saw that happen and I don't think it will ever happen again.
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  Quirky1

  I beleive it is only used as a tool to keep them busy and not allowing them time to associate with others or think independently therefore keeping them close to the other cult members only. Completely disassociated from everything else around them.