In March, Fred Wilson (a must read) posted an essay on companies that are either "we" or "they". You can find it here: A VC: Apple Becomes a "They" Company.
The post created a lot of comments and trackbacks, and it just dawned on me what was missing for me.
I don’t think We and They are absolutes. For example, if there were just one Starbucks in the world, and it was just down the street from you, you’d likely feel differently about "your" Starbucks than you feel about the entire chain. Why? "Your" Starbucks would be identical, but your feelings would change.
Same thing happens when Apple starts litigating against websites or bullying people writing add-ons to iTunes. It doesn’t change your Mac, your user experience.
What changes is the story you tell yourself.
As everyone in the world becomes a marketing expert and a blogger, we’re spending a lot more time thinking about the brands we deal with, the purchases we make and the we and the they. I want to argue that there’s no such thing as we and they. What is really going on is that companies take actions that have nothing to do with the truth of your experience and everything to do with the way you feel about the experience. These actions (like Apple’s suit against thinksecret.com) are the hood ornament, not the car.
And more often than not, those actions are somewhat trivial and very inexpensive. Once companies (and non-profits, for that matter, like churches or government agencies) become more aware of how important these hood ornaments are, I’m betting they’ll get better at telling the story.
May 12, 2005
Hugh Macleod posted gapingvoid: how to be creative (long version). It’s worth reading again, especially if you missed it the first time.
The other day, I found myself sitting next to Robert Klein at Spamalot. When I was a forlorn teenager, I would spend hours listening to his comedy albums. I memorized his ad for "every record ever recorded… we drive a truck to your house." I resisted temptation and did not recite it for him on Saturday (though I still know it by heart. "Lithuanian Language Records!")
For a long time, I figured that the inevitable was just about to happen. That every record ever recorded would find its way online and if you had a big enough hard drive, you could have them all.
Mark Fraunfelder at Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things points us to THE TOFU HUT where you can find a painstakingly created directory of hundreds of sites pointing to almost a million mp3s. All free.
I no longer believe you can have every record ever recorded. I now know for certain that by the time they drive a truck to your house, a thousand new records will be made.
When everybody can make everything, the amount of clutter reaches a whole new level. When everybody can make everything (Handmade custom Pez dispensers) then the whole idea of clutter at this level changes the way you need to think about supply and demand.
Warner Records is such an anachronism in a world with too much music.
May 11, 2005
My friend Tim dropped me a note, asking me if I had any tips as to where he might go to improve his public speaking. I was flattered that he asked, and then took a minute to think about where I learned how to speak in public.
Answer? Camp Arowhon.
Wait, there's more. I also learned marketing there.
My summer camp was a marketplace (a loud one). Everyone had to do something, but what you did was up to you. So the canoeing instructor (that was me) was always struggling with the sailing instructor (that was Mike) and the others to get people to come to our dock. If no one came, you were a failure and you didn't get asked back.
I discovered that:
1. No one cared about me. They didn't care about how hard I'd trained, how little I'd slept or how much effort I was putting into my job.
2. People were rarely willing to try something new. If they'd never done it, they didn't want to start any time soon.
3. Word of mouth was electric.
4. You get more chances to screw up than you imagine.
The biggest and best discovery, though, was how willing people (even sullen teenagers, which if you think selling to cranky purchasing agents is hard…) are to suspend disbelief. One week, I persuaded 300 people that Paul McCartney was coming to visit, checking the place out for his daughter. It was only at the last minute, when a friend of mine, impersonating Sir Paul, fell out of the approaching motorboat and was (allegedly) mangled by the spinning rotor that people figured out that it wasn't really him.
My point, and I do have one, is that marketing is a show, a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney entertainment designed to satisfy wants, not needs. We need to take it a lot less seriously (even if we're marketing Social Security fixes or a world religion) at the same time that we take more risks. If you're not growing now, playing it safe isn't going to help you grow tomorrow.
My advice was Tim is the same advice I've got for you, whether you're speaking or running ads. Be fearless. (but wear a lifejacket.)
[Update: I wrote this post in 2005. I have no idea what the company is like today, and wouldn’t presume to tell you one way or the other. You should consult more current sources. The interesting thing is that three years later, this post is the #2 match in Google for the term Skycasters. That means that the way you and your company act today is going to be around for a long, long time. Makes you think about the long term a bit more…]
One day, you might be considering installing Skycasters satellite internet access. (Satellite Internet DiRECWAY broadband satellite internet access satellite ISP by Skycasters.) It’s possible that a google search as part of your due diligence would bring you to this posting.
If so, then it’s worth the space it is taking up.
Don’t.
They provide a frustratingly slow connection. Far slower than their web page implies. They are no fun to work with. Installation can be a hassle as well. Unless you live far away from any other alternative, you can do better. I just had them rip our service out.
This post not only shares my humble opinion with potential customers, but is a living example of how your customers can spread the word about your products in a way that they never could before.
That’s what the sign said at the fancy fish market in Manhattan. It was more than $10 a pound, and it sure sounded exotic.
It turns out that Costa Rican tilapia is grown in backyard ponds by women just like this one. Here’s’s a picture I took of her, kissing our fish before cleaning it on the open-air table in her backyard. She grows 500 at a time, has a dozen or so chickens for eggs, and she’s a lot better off (and doing a lot more long term good) than the rancher next door.
A tilapia from this wonderful person costs about seventy-five cents.
When you see the sign in New York, though, you imagine spear fisherman or spring-fed crystal clear rivers. You certainly don’t think you’re buying a home-farmed commodity.
Somewhere between cheap protein near the equator and my home in New York, the price and the value of the fish skyrocketed.
Not because of the cost of shipping. Because of the story. Tilapia sounds exotic. Costa Rica is exotic. Put them together and amateur chefs are ready to line up and pay a premium.
Is someone getting ripped off here? Of course not. Chowhounds like me want to buy something that sounds exotic. Fish mongers want to find new supplies of fish and also want to charge enough to cover their risk. And my friend in Costa Rica certainly deserves the higher prices she’ll get if her fish becomes popular in the United States. Everybody is telling a story so that I’ll be able to lie to myself when I cook dinner tonight.
May 10, 2005
Everything about this Tiffany’s billboard at Grand Central is perfect.
No URL. No slogan. No USP or benefits or call to action.
Just a story… worth 1,000 words.
Perfect.
May 9, 2005
So, why haven’t you and your team launched as many Purple Cows as you’d like?
Fear.
Not just the fear of failure. Fear of failure is actually overrated as an excuse. Why? Because if you work for someone, then more often than not, the actual cost of the failure is absorbed by the organization, not you. If your product launch fails, they’re not going to fire you. The company will make a bit less money and will move on.
What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism.
We don’t choose to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism. We hesitate to create innovative movies, launch new human resource initiatives, design a menu that makes diners take notice or give an audacious sermon because we’re worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” “What a waste of money.” “Who’s responsible for this?”
Sometimes, the criticism doesn’t even have to be that obvious. The fear of, “I’m surprised you launched this without doing more research…” is enough to get many people to do a lot more research, to study something to death and then kill it. Hey, at least you didn’t get criticized.
Fear of criticism is a powerful deterrent because the criticism doesn’t actually have to occur for the fear to set in. Watch a few people get criticized for being innovative and it’s pretty easy to persuade yourself that the very same thing will happen to you if you’re not careful.
Constructive criticism, of course, is a terrific tool. If a critic tells you that, “I don’t like it,” or “this is disappointing,” he’s done no good at all. In fact, quite the opposite is true. He’s used his power to injure without giving you any information to help you to do better next time. Worse, he hasn’t given those listening any data to make a thoughtful decision on their own. Not only that, but by refusing to reveal the basis for his criticism, he’s being a coward, because there’s no way to challenge his opinion.
I admit it. When I get a bad review, my feelings are hurt. After all, it would be nice if a critic said a title of mine was a breakthrough, an inspirational, thoughtful book that explains how everything, from politics to wine, is marketed through stories.
But sometimes they don’t. Which is just about enough to ruin your day. But this time, it didn’t. It didn’t because I realized what a badge of honor it is get a bit of shallow criticism. It means that I confounded expectations. That I didn’t deliver the sequel or the simple, practical guide that some expected. It means that in fact, I did something worth remarking on.
The lesson here is this: if I had written a boring book, there’d be no criticism. No conversations. The products and services that get talked about are the ones that are worth talking about.
So the challenge, as you contemplate your next opportunity to be boring or remarkable, is to answer these two and a half questions:
1. “If I get criticized for this, will I suffer any measurable impacts? Will I lose my job, get hit upside the head with a softball bat or lose important friendships?” If the only side effect of the criticism is that you will feel bad about the criticism, then you have to compare that bad feeling with the benefits you’ll get from actually doing something worth doing. Being remarkable is exciting, fun, profitable and great for your career. Feeling bad wears off.
And then, once you’ve compared the two, and you’ve sold yourself on taking the remarkable path, answer this one:
2. How can I create something that critics will criticize?
My new book (Seth Godin – Liar’s Blog) comes out next week, and like it or not, it’s getting reviewed.
Here are a few you might want to check out.
800-CEO-READ Blog: BOOK REVIEW: All Marketers Are Liars.
Joi Ito’s Web: All Marketers Are Liars.
Link: 800-CEO-READ Blog: Jack Covert Selects–All Marketers are Liars.
An interview: gapingvoid: e-mail exchange with seth godin
And, as usual, Publishers Weekly weighed in with a review that wasn’t, hmmm, quite as rewarding. Here are quotes from four of PW’s reviews of my books over the years. See if you can match the quote to the book.
"A slapdash mix of insight, jargon, common sense, inspiration and hooey"
"As a result the book is fiery, but not entirely cohesive; at times it resembles a stream-of-consciousness monologue."
"He lays the metaphors on a little thick."
"Readers will likely find the book’s practical advice as rudderless as its ethical principles."
I will try to comfort myself by basking in their bad track record.
“Godin reinforces what good marketers know.” The New York Times
I’m flattered! I wasn’t sure I knew what every good marketer knows. I guess I do now. But, assuming that you’re like me and the rest of the people I know (which means you haven’t figured out everything there is to know about marketing yet), here’s a list to get you started.
I’m confident that the trackbacks below this post will show you what some of the great marketers out there would add to this list.
- 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.
Obviously, knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it.
[irony alert: since the inspiration for this post has been misinterpreted a couple of times, I wanted to clarify: the New York Times wasn’t trying to be nice when they said what they said… even though it seems nice to you and me, they didn’t mean it that way. And this list didn’t appear in the Times, it was inspired by their attempt to be snide. Thank you.]
