Seth’s sound marketing advice.

Normally, I don’t like to provide verbatim links or copy from other blogs. It’s seems lazy to me. However, I’ll make an exception for Seth Godin’s new post “What Do You Know?”, on his blog sethgodin.typepad.com. This is some of the simplest, most vital advice I’ve seen summarized anywhere.

Seth Godin is considered our modern age’s marketing genius, and if you are not yet reading his blog, I suggest you do so.

“What Do You Know?”

“Three years ago, I published this list, which was very much a riff, not a carefully planned manifesto. It has held up pretty well. Feel free to reprint or otherwise use, as long as you include a credit line. I’ve added a few at the bottom…

What Every Good Marketer Knows:

• Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
• Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
• Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.
• Marketing begins before the product is created.
• Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
• Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
• Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
• Products that are remarkable get talked about.
• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
• You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
• People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
• You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
• What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
• Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
• Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
• People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
• Good marketers tell a story.
• People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
• Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
• Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.
• Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
• A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
• Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
• Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.
• Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.
• Good marketers measure.
• Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
• One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.

• In the googleworld, the best in the world wins more often, and wins more.
• Most marketers create good enough and then quit. Greatest beats good enough every time.
• There are more rich people than ever before, and they demand to be treated differently.
• Organizations that manage to deal directly with their end users have an asset for the future.
• You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.
• You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support and you market every time you send a memo.
• Blogging makes you a better marketer because it teaches you humility in your writing.

Obviously, knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it.”

Imitation = flattery? Well, it will definitely get you sued.

A Chicago Tribune article discusses how Red Bull is going after bars that sell counterfeit Red Bull. The giveaway? The fact that Red Bull is only sold in a can, and not dispensed out of a pump.

My question is why isn’t Red Bull doing a better job of helping their customers make the mental link of a can with authentic Red Bull? It’s likely that if more customers had this knowledge, they wouldn’t tolerate being sold fake Red Bull, and the questionable bars would end their shinanigans. Also, Red Bull would probably save a ton in legal fees, plus enhance their brand image even more.

If you’ve got a strong brand (or even an average brand), you should educate your customers about all of the authentic pieces of your product. This way, you don’t have to spend (as much of) your time chasing imitators.

Influence the influencers

Today I met with the most influential brand on today’s young trendsetters (I can’t say names, but their name rhymes with Lice). One takeaway is more of a reminder of something I’ve known forever. Start at the top of the pyramid, and let the gravity of culture and marketing take care of the rest. In order to create the maximum impact for your brand, you need to influence the influencers.

So Many Ideas!

There are more ideas than ever in the world. This means there is more opportunity than ever to combine and permute ideas into new ideas. You have more ideas than ever to connect in interesting and creative ways. Just open your eyes and look. Whenever you think you’ve hit a wall and can’t be creative, always remember this.

The Internet will change things during this recession

Forbes featured an article a couple days ago describing how the internet will change consumer behavior during this recession. Here are some choice words to market by, in any economic climate: “Virtually anyone selling anything should be online, with as much sophistication as they can afford or muster.”

UFC and ultimate fighters – excellent example of branding

On Saturday I attended UFC 82 in Columbus, OH. The event was excellent, as they normally are. One thing that stands out is the power of the UFC brand. For the uninitiated, the UFC, or the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is a mixed martial arts event, where athletes combine different fighting styles. Because the UFC was first to market, and branded "ultimate fighting", it has become synonymous with mixed martial arts. The UFC dominates the sport, with competing organizations nipping at its heels.

Lesson of the day? Be first to market and the consumer’s mind. The UFC established a very powerful brand through being first and effective.

Long Copy or Short Copy?

Here’s a good article on the eternal debate of long copy versus short copy. For the record, I’m a long copy fan, as I learn toward old school direct response tactics, as professed by John Caples.

Why don’t design agencies get it?

My day job is in marketing. A few days ago, I met with our web design agency in Las Vegas to review their web mock-ups. I was instantly reminded of why I distrust many design agencies. From what I’ve seen, these agencies can design cutesy graphics, but don’t know the first thing about branding or messaging. I’m talking about a design that won’t sell a dime of product, although it looks awesome. This is what my company is spending good money on?

Design agencies – please at least learn the basics of using your designs to sell the client’s offerings.

Be Selectively Holistic

Your demographic responds to a particular marketing mix. In order to maximize your effectiveness, you must be selectively holistic with this marketing mix. Your efforts must incorporate varying degrees of media types, depending on who you are trying to reach. For example, younger people (18-35) lean more toward using the web, and don’t read as many newspapers. This doesn’t mean that you completely ignore newspapers, although this isn’t as heavy a component in your media mix. By analyzing your demographic with a fine-tooth comb, you will develop the optimum marketing blend. You will be effective in your marketing, and I guarantee you will experience greater profitability.

Back in the 60s and 70s, you could get away with the mass-media approach – shot gunning TV, print, and radio ads to as many people as possible. It’s amazing how many companies still use this approach, with no regard to whether their audience is paying attention. It defies common sense, but it’s also the easy way out for most marketers. There is no one-size-fits all approach that works anymore. Take the time to appreciate how your target demographic consumes media, then tailor your marketing to match that mix.

Cincinnati – An Old Fashioned nexus of marketing is having branding issues

Imagine a city with over 400 product design and branding firms. Not New York, Chicago, or LA…this is Cincinnati. The irony is that with so much marketing muscle, including P&G, the city is having issues with marketing itself to younger workers. How to transform the image of what most people perceive to be a conservative and stodgy Midwest city? It will be tough, for sure…I don’t know of an easy solution off the top of my head. Sometimes you find yourself with a marketing problem which is not immediately solvable.

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