BOM - This is Marketing by Seth Godin

On today’s show we we are taking a deep look at the book called “This is Marketing” by Seth Godin

For the longest time there has been confusion between the various words that surround the topic. What is selling? What is advertising? What is marketing?

So many of the manipulations that we have accepted as normal we now almost universally reject as ineffective.

My friend Kyle Wilson says it well when he says

“Don’t use a tactic that violates a principle.”

It doesn’t make any sense to make a key and then run around looking for a lock to open. The only productive solution is to find a lock and then fashion a key. It’s easier to make products and services for the customers you seek to serve than it is to find customers for your products and services.

Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem. It’s a chance to change the culture for the better. Marketing involves very little in the way of shouting, hustling, or coercion. It’s a chance to serve, instead.

So many people think that marketing is about getting the word out. That’s one of the last steps in the process.

It starts with creating change that solves a problem. When that change defines the culture, then you have the ingredients for marketing.

If you want to make change, begin by making culture. Begin by organizing a tightly knit group. Begin by getting people in sync. Culture beats strategy—so much that culture is strategy.

This is marketing by Seth Godin creates a new definition of marketing by turning the industry on its head. You see Seth has tried almost every method known to man. A few have worked, and most have failed. In some cases, the product succeeded despite the money wasted on advertising that nobody saw.

He won’t give you a step-by-step step formula. Instead the book is a compass that keeps you grounded in timeless principles that honour the relationship of trust between you and the people who you seek to serve.