I usually have a fire going in the fireplace when we have guests or a party. (I know fireplaces are almost illegal in San Francisco.) Sometimes in the warm weather people open a window. I had one friend who used to ask why I 'had a fire on a warm day?'
The answer comes from an experience I had in an elegant house just off Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. I was doing a focus group to find out why wealthy people weren't buying $100,000 CDs (the lowest type available at the time).
Every
one of the strangers in the room, sitting in a circle, was quiet when I
started the meeting; cold and uncommunicative. Then a Spanish speaking
maid came into the room and lit the pre-laid fire. I tried to tell her it was not necessary but she couldn't understand me.
There we were with a beautiful blazing fire on a hot LA Summer day in an air-conditioned house.
That completely broke the ice. With the glow of the fireplace the group became animated, warm to each other and very open. The fire was pure social lubricant.
PS. I learned that rich people had no understanding of the CDs on the market at the time. So, five months later, I introduced a $1,000 CD on January 1st at the Bank of California that paid the maximum interest rate by compounding interest hourly. We ran full page ads in every urban daily. Before the end of the week my new consumer CD product brought in $60 million, a lot in those days. However we were promptly copied by every major California bank.
Now fires on a warm day are both comforting to the guests and a sentimental reminder for me of my marketing vice-president past.