This is Marketing

I quite like Godin; he writes in an engaging way. Low expectations for this, but I knew it would be a pleasant read.

I have to say his style did not grab me much this time. It felt too forced. He tries to keep you on edge, but the book is so full of snippets and banalities that it reads like a collection of flashy marketing blog posts. A lot of filler; at times it feels generic. I did not particularly like it; a light read with little substance, though it has a few interesting points.

Notes

• Marketing wants more, wants better, aims to empathize with customers. People want to feel loved and to have status.
• Story of how he doubled the number of eyeglasses sold: he created scarcity.
• Be very humble about what others think. We are all different, so my narrative may not work for you, for example. We have to share our stories and listen.
• Think of the smallest audience you can survive on. If you have loyal fans who buy your stuff, you do not need millions. You need a core. Find the extremes.
• Tastes are personal. Example: beers; there are at least 250 in the US that are someone’s favorite. Why? Because everyone has their own tastes!
• A marketer is curious and asks what creates problems for others. What are their dreams?
• (x and y attribute schema for extremes)
• If you do what others do, it becomes a price war. You need something that justifies the experience.
• Also, if you keep prices low you need a lot of volume to reach the level of those with high prices!
• People know what they need; primary needs are what they are, but they are bad at inventing new ways to address them, to satisfy them. This means you can always find strong ideas to use!
• Do not run everything through a spreadsheet. Life is not rational.
• People have a basic inertia. It is easy to follow the status quo. To change it we must find the innovators and work with them to move the status quo toward us.
• Patterns. This is why it is easier to target people going through a life change; they no longer have established standards (e.g., new parents), so everything is new to them.
• Looking high quality is key. Symbols work.
• You do not have to impress everyone. Example: the 1984 Apple commercial: it impressed mostly geeks. But that is the core to win over. You do not need millions of people to impress.
• The lowest price does not pay. You need a lot of volume to break even!
• In fact, lowering your price often sends the opposite signal!
• It is important to promise and deliver what you promised the customer. Trust is everything.
• Final thought:

Blow it up. Start over. Make something you’re proud of. Market something you’re proud of. But once you’ve done that, once you’ve looked someone in the eye and they have asked, “Will you do that again for me?,” once you have brought value to a student because you taught them and helped them get to the next step, do it again, and then do it again. Because we need your contribution. And if you’re having trouble making your contribution, realize your challenge is a story you are marketing to yourself. It is the marketing we do for ourselves, to ourselves, by ourselves, the story we tell ourselves, that can change everything. It’s what’s going to enable you to create value, to be missed if you were gone. I can’t