This is marketing seth godin review năm 2024

First of all a disclaimer: I’m a Seth Godin fan. I approached his new book in roughly the same frame of mind in which I greet the first taste of chocolate after Lent — and just like the chocolate, it didn’t let me down.

Much of what’s here will be familiar if you’re a fan of Seth’s, of course — but if you haven’t read him before, this will feel like a seismic strategic shift. He talks counter-intuitively about the ‘smallest viable audience’, for example: the digital revolution has so fragmented and personalised consumers’ experience that to make an impact, you must focus relentlessly and exclusively on those who will love what you do for them.

His concept of the ‘chasm’ is particularly interesting: early adopters might love you if you’re doing something new — that’s what early adopters are all about, after all. So you need consciously to start with them. They are the ones most likely to try out what you’re offering, the ones prepared to change what they’re doing, the ones actively seeking the solution or system nobody else is using yet. The challenge is to make the leap from those enthusiastic ‘neophiliacs’ — who will quickly move onto the next thing — to the rest of the population, who are less interested in whether something is new and cool and much more interested in whether it works (‘The middle of the curve isn’t eagerly adopting. They’re barely adapting.’). This demands the network effect, and the network effect demands that you create not just customers but a connected tribe.

What’s so glorious about Seth is that he lives in the real world with unselfconscious profundity and makes you feel the significance and potentiality of what you’re doing when you send an email or write sales copy. It’s like taking business advice from Yoda, with more straightforward syntax.

It’s hard to find one single quote to share — I highlighted more than 50 separate passages, a personal best. But if I were going to pick one quote to give you a flavour — and obviously I am — this would be it:

‘This is a book about roots. About anchoring your work deeply in the dreams, desires and communities of those you seek to serve. It’s about changing people for the better, creating work you can be proud of. And it’s about being a driver of the market, not simply being market-driven.’

And since Seth is also a master of book marketing (naturally), it’s worth looking at his website for tips on how to do this if you’re a publisher or business author — there’s a neat tool allowing readers to submit their own video reviews of this book, for example.

Perhaps that’s what it comes down to, in the end: when Seth says ‘This is Marketing’, he’s showing us, not telling us.

This is Marketing is available from Blackwell’s here.

Alison Jones (@bookstothesky) is a publishing partner for businesses and organizations with something to say. Formerly Director of Innovation Strategy with Palgrave Macmillan, she hosts The Extraordinary Business Book Clubpodcast, regularly speaks and blogs on publishing, business and writing, sits on the board of the IPG, and is the author of This Book Means Business (2018).

This is Marketing by Seth Godin provides bite-sized chunks of useful marketing insights. It breaks myths about marketing. Marketing is not about pushy sales. Marketing is not advertising. Marketing is about empathy and service, understanding your customers and building a tribe.

The author’s narrative style makes it easy to comprehend. Lined with case studies and short stories to illustrate learning points. However, if you are looking for in-depth research with footnotes, you might not find the examples impactful. The book could also have a stronger, more coherent narrative structure.

Overall, This is Marketing provides actionable advice on how to improve your marketing and build ideas that spread. Here are key takeaways from the book “This is Marketing”:

A Simple Promise

Marketing is not sales. Marketing is not advertising. What exactly is marketing? In one word, marketing is a promise.

To develop a marketing promise, Seth Godin asks us to fill in these blanks:

• “My product is for people who believe __________.”
• “I will focus on people who want __________.”
• I promise that engaging with what I make will help you get __________.”

What promises are you making? Are you living up to these promises?

Build something worth it

Contrary to what most might think, inventing a good product is not simply up to the job of the design or manufacturing team. Marketing begins right at the start, from the stage of coming up with the product itself.

Marketing in 5 Steps:

1. Invent something worth it
2. Design and build it such that few people will particularly benefit and care about
3. Tell a story to the smallest viable market
4. Spread the word
5. Show up regularly

To build something worth it, you have to dig deeper and understand people’s underlying needs. Is your product or service fulfilling some fundamental needs?

As Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously pointed out, nobody wants a quarter-inch drill bit for its own sake; they want it for the quarter-inch hole it makes.

But no one wants a hole for its own sake, either. It’s just a way to achieve something else, such as installing a shelf in the living room. And that shelf is just for storage purposes, a way to make your house look neat and tidy.

And why do you want a tidy living room? Well, perhaps it makes you feel that you have control of your environment. Or maybe when visitors come over, they would admire you for keeping your house tidy.

In other words, you don’t really want a drill bit. You want safety and respect – two of the most fundamental human needs. The drill bit is just a tool for fulfilling your core needs.

Key learning point: Find out your audience’s aspirations and deep-seated needs. Build a product/service which matches their underlying needs and desires.

Find the Smallest Viable Market

Don’t go after everyone. Mass market pleases everyone, which leads to average and mediocrity.

Focus on finding your smallest viable audience, which you can serve the best.

Value Positioning

How to find your product’s positioning:

• Identify 2 common attributes your customers care about the most
• Position these attributes each on the X-axis and Y-axis
• Find out where competitors lie, and where you lie in the quadrant

  Key Learning point: Don’t stay in the middle. Go to the extremes. Find an edge. Find the unique positioning for your product.

Status, dominion and affiliation

We spend a lot of time paying attention to status. It affects our everyday decisions, such as, which restaurant to dine at? Why drive this car and not the other?

Broadly, when it comes to status, there are 2 types of people. Those who care about dominating the rest, “I’m better”, vs those who seek affiliation, “I’m part of your family”.

• Dominion: Status that comes from being at the top of the hierarchy
• Affiliation: Status that comes from the community

To better serve your customers, you have to find out which narrative they resonate with.

Dominance is vertical. It is about where you stand in the pecking order, who is above/below me?

Affiliation is horizontal. It is about connecting with others, who is standing next to me?

Affiliation is not as focused on scarcity, compared to dominion. Affiliation admires the network effect. For instance, the fashion industry is usually about affiliation. What is everyone else wearing? Is this in the season? Customers want to be affiliated with one another. The goal is to be part of the group, not to win.

Key Learning point: Affiliation or dominance is up to the customer not you. Understand the worldview of those you seek to serve, and send the right signals to your audience.

The Funnel

Imagine you are running a marketing campaign for your business to increase awareness of your brand. You decided to buy Facebook ads which costs $1,000. It reaches 1 million people and you’ve received 20 clicks.

Do some simple math, and find out that Cost per Click (CPC) = $50.

Assuming 1 out of 10 people buy your product, 1 order is going to cost you $500.

If your customer LTV is >$500, you can afford to buy more ads to get more customers at the same cost.

If your customer LTV is <$500, you need better ads or a better business.

Focus on the TOP of the funnel. Improve the quality of your leads and the efficiency of the process.

Key Learning point: If you can’t see the funnel, don’t buy the ads. If you can’t measure the funnel, and it costs too much to afford the ads, don’t buy the ads first. Fix the funnel first.

Summary of Key Points:

Marketing has changed, and our understanding of what to do has to keep up. With the rise of the internet and the fall of traditional mass media, marketers can no longer rely on advertising alone. Instead, effective marketing depends on empathy and service.

This means developing a product that fulfils people’s underlying needs and desires. Finding a unique value-positioning for your product, and telling stories to the smallest viable market which you can serve best. Marketers should create and relieve tension by challenging their statuses and focus on improving the top of the funnel.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

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Is it worth reading This Is Marketing?

Top reviews from IndiaThis is The Book for building your Business. If there is one book you need to read, this is it. It is devoid of all jargons that you typically hear or read about marketing.

What does Seth Godin say about marketing?

“Marketing is everything – it's how you answer the phone, the prices you charge, what you do for your employees, your ability to exceed expectations, and much more. The marketers job in the new normal is to make the organisation work for its customers. That requires you to have a say and a critical input,” says Godin.

What is the summary of This Is Marketing by Seth Godin?

Brief summary This Is Marketing by Seth Godin is a marketing guide that challenges traditional advertising and offers a new approach to marketing that prioritizes empathy, connection, and emotional resonance with customers, rather than merely promoting products.

What is Seth Godin's overall message to marketers?

He believes that marketers don't just make noise; they make the world better and that truly powerful marketing is grounded in generosity, empathy, and emotional labor.