Book Review: This Is Marketing
This Is Marketing
Seth Godin
Three-Sentence Summary
It’s a collected essay type of book and talks mainly about the Mindset of being a marketer. The core idea is to pass the message “People like us to things like this.” If you can get used to the way of the author's writing, then it can be inspirational.
Who Is This Book For?
Newbies to marketing can benefit a lot by adapting to the mindset. Management team members can read this book for general guidance or strategy.
This book surprises me in a lot of ways. It broadens my view about marketing in general, especially the concept of selecting the market and people. The section about status is a bit difficult to consume, and finding examples to support understanding needs some effort.
Note: The following summary of the major concepts is based on my understanding of the book. It might not necessarily correspond to the logical sequence of the author’s tell.
Major Concepts
There are some common perceptions when people think about marketing. The first thing that comes to mind is all the tactics marketers use to manipulate consumers. No matter how bad or good such tactics are, they are not the core of marketing. We should adopt the mindset of being a marketer instead of focusing on those tactics of spreading the word first.
#1. Marketing changes people through stories, connections, and experience.
As the product's creator, we talk a lot about the specs. How great is the resolution? How fast is the speed? How small is the form factor, even though it packs so many features? We lose ourselves in our shoes, but we seldom talk about the product from the customer's point of view. A mistake that we typically make is that we assume that the people that we seek to serve are well-informed, rational, independent, long-term choice-makers. If we put people in an exam or experiment, they will behave like that. However, in our current world, there's so much information, half true and half false, rushing toward everyone. We are making decisions at a very high speed without thoroughly examining all the bits and bytes. Therefore, we need to find effective ways to connect to our customers.
There are two types of people we are reaching out to.
For the early adopters, you cannot be perfect. They are seeking for the new interesting things all the time. The best thing you can do is to be interesting. Creators of the products are, most of the time, like the early adopters. We know all the specs. We know the features down to the last bit. We are at the edge of the technology. We can connect quickly to the early adopters. The experience of seeking new things is very important, but it's not the only experience a marketer should consider.
There is the second type of customer, the mass market. They're in the middle of the curve. They are not eagerly adapting, and often, they are barely adopting. Their experience of connection to the product is different than the early adopter.
Don’t assume that everyone is like you, knows what you know, and wants what you want. Be aware of the market distribution and create meaningful connections. Tell a story about “People like us do things like this.”
#2. How do you choose the market and people?
The marketer starts by choosing people based on what they dream of, believe, and what, not what they look like. We choose “people like us.” This separates the market using psychographics instead of demographics. As we mentioned earlier, there are early adopters and mass market. And the most important thing we must remember is that our work is not for everyone. It's only for those who signed up for the journey.
Serving to everyone is serving to no one. A product or service for everyone will meet spec, but it is beyond criticism. It causes no tension. It is boring.
#3. Connections through desire
People tend to confuse wants and needs. We only need a few things, such as air, water, and health. If we are privileged enough, we decide the other things we want are actually needs. People are intimately aware of their wants (which they consider needs) but are terrible at inventing new ways to address them. They often prefer using a familiar solution to satisfy their wants, even if it’s not working well. When it comes time to innovate, they get stuck.
Innovative marketers invent new solutions that work with old emotions.
A good story can connect us to our purpose and vision. A good story can reinforce our core values. A good story builds brand loyalty and gives customers a story to tell and spread. A good story attracts the kind of like-minded employees we want. A good story helps us stay motivated and continue to do work we are proud of.
And lastly, that good story only talks to a group of people. The group should be big enough to support the finances. The group should be small enough so that they are listening. They will listen through their love, fear, and desires.
#4. From status to culture
There are two different ways to measure status: one called affiliation and the other one called domination.
Someone who cares about affiliations asks, “Who knows you? Who trusts you? Have you made things better? What is your circle like? Where do you stand within the tribe? Can’t we all get along?”
Someone who cares about domination says, “This is mine, not yours. Who has more power? I did this myself. My family needs more of what we already have. My side dominating your side means I don't have to be in charge as long as my leader wins. “
Whether the market you seek to serve focuses more on affiliation or dominance is up to your customer.
Do you see the world in terms of winners and losers? Up and downs? Or is it more about insiders and outsiders, being in sync, being part of a movement? The way you see the world isn’t nearly as important as the worldview of those you seek to serve. As we’ve seen, their worldview is always stronger than the story you choose to tell. The people we seek to serve have a noise in their heads that’s different than your noise.
The ultimate goal of a marketer is to plant and foster a culture. “And the engine of culture is status.”