High-Level Thoughts

In his latest book, Seth Godin sets the message straight on what real marketing is. With the advent of the internet came the creation of spam, and many people have confused this with effective marketing. In This is Marketing Godin teaches you how to get your message across to your customer without feeling like a sleaze bag after.

This is Marketing Summary

Not Mass, Not Spam, Not Shameful

• Marketing ≠ Advertising
• Marketing = Serving others

The Marketer Learns To See

Marketing in 5 steps

1. Invent a thing worth making, with a story worth telling, and a contribution worth talking about.
2. Design and build it in a way that ppl will particularly benefit from it.
3. tell a story that matches the built in narrative and dreams of that tiny group of people, the smallest viable market.
4. Spread the word.
5. Show up regularly, consistently and generously for year and years.

Ideas that spread win.

You can't change everyone

Committed, creative people can change the world

Change is best made with intent. "What's it for?"

Human beings tell themselves stories

You can group ppl into sterotyped groups that often tell similar stories.

What you say isn't as nearly as important as what others say about you.

Marketing Changes People through Stories, Connections and Experience.

Every person's narrative is different

Glasses case study went from heres an opportunity to shop, look good, to regain your sight, to feel ownership from beginning to end. "Do you want to take away what you have, or do you want to pay to keep them?"

→ Desire for gain vs avoidance of loss

Humans are irrational beings

Beyond Commodities

Stackoverflow example, previous companies got users to pay with frustration. "Joel discovered that creating a better product meant treating different people differently".

Coffee shop that sells books example sets it apart from its competitors.

You're here to serve.

Tell stories: The story of self: talk about your transition from who you used to be to who you became.

The story of us: why are we alike? Why should we care? Why is your story relevant to “us”.

The story of now: enlists the tribe on your journey; the opportunity/peer pressure to provide the tension for all of us to move forward, together.