I recently went to an Omniture Summit in Salt Lake City Utah. For you web analyst people out there, you know what Omniture can do, SiteCatalyst is awesome, and it’s potential is even more awesome. While I enjoyed the learning tracks at the summit, the Omniture strategic partnership upsells sprinkled throughout, I have to say I most enjoyed listening to Seth Godin speak.
He gave away free copies of his book Meatball Sundae. I’m not easily impressed and I’ve considered myself ahead of the curve when it came to the new way of marketing to people on the web and beyond via web 2.0, blogs, social tech, etc. What Seth did for me was not only augment conclusions I came to on my own a year or so ago, but he pulled all my scattered marketing thoughts together and put them in a relevant context, packaging it all up together in one tight little bundle that made sense.
I’ve just finished part one of his Meatball Sundae book and am getting into part two where he talks about the 14 new marketing trends. I think one of the biggest things I got out of this was realizing not only how clueless most companies are nowadays, but more importantly the new way of looking at your company.
Most companies that have been around for awhile, are trying to use the new marketing methods and mold them to their old school status quo way of doing business. Seth’s approach in this book is to make your company a more fast moving, dynamic company but altering your way of doing business BASED on what new marketing methods are out there as well as making sure that you are ready to change and morph when new ideas come out.
It’s an excellent (and I believe a required) read for any marketers, online or offline. The concepts are the same for both. The information age has started to render the ‘big and slow’ companies obsolete in the way they do consumer business and marketing.
4 responses so far ↓
Benny Greenberg // March 20, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Two schools of thought here. I happen to agree with Seth Godin and David Meerman Scott when they talk about how the new methods of marketing have basically killed the old. Didn’t video kill the radio star? Or did those with “radio-faces” just stay on radio – maybe greatly reducing their profits – maybe not. Howard Stern has a radio face….
In all phases of business and since the beginning of time companies and individuals who were able to adapt/adopt are those companies that are around for the long haul. Yes, there are many who have been ahead of the curve and in some cases made out like bandits and in others – not so good. IBM – getting too big for its britches is a great example – of just not staying with the curve, much less ahead of it – and having little clue of your buyer personas; Whereas Apple – just keeps on rolling with one new idea after another. But – realize – they are both still here.
Now after all that babble – I can tell you this – if you ignore the power of the blog and the power of pod casts and what your customers are saying on line and to each other – you are doomed for failure – but – how you react to that failure and how you move forward from it – much more important! Your/their ability to take failure for what is it worth – the ingredients of a success recipe – is the key to continued growth and success…
Benny
Make a decision – do not procrastinate!
http://yattitude.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/ya-ttitude-procrasti-nation/
47project // March 22, 2008 at 2:36 am
Benny – Thanks for the response. I currently work for a HUGE company that has never had to care about the consumer until now. Trying to convince these operational thinkers at the top to start embracing the fact that we need to think less B2B and more B2C, but more importantly C2C.
Companies nowadays needs to provide better products/services and work on ways to faciliate relationships between their own consumers/customers. This is the new way to invest in customer retention. Every customer wants to feel important and validated but the nature of that is changing. It’s no longer based on a great customer service experience when they call in to talk to the company. It’s now based on the fact that many other are using your product/service, are sharing their good and bad experience with your other customers, and then most importantly seeing that your company is out there taking tabs on what they say. They need to see that you care about the good the bad and the ugly and that if there is a problem, you’re out there to take it in and fix it and listen to them.
Removing the corporate wedge between consumers and businesses by appointing people in the company to be out there blogging, mixing it up, engaging forums/communities/bloggers to compliment and criticize what your business is doing so that they feel like their hard earned money and time is well spent and valued by you. Customers need to feel like your reasons for investing in your own company exist for the sole purpose of investing in them.
Folding up soap box now.
-Rich
Manchild // March 22, 2008 at 2:41 am
I’m not entirely convinced that the internet provides anything special; it seems like all of the “new businesses” are providing old services with internet components, or moving their old businesses onto the web. Few online businesses have the cash to hire a big staff, so they take they basically produce content that will get ad revenue and do the internet equivalent of direct marketing.
Has anything really changed?
I’m still fleshing out some ideas:
http://manchildchronicles.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/web-20-marketing-web-20-business/
Web 2.0 marketing, Web 2.0 Business « The Manchild Chronicles // March 22, 2008 at 2:42 am
[...] 2.0 marketing, Web 2.0 Business Posted in Uncategorized by Manchild on March 21st, 2008 Web 2.0 Marketing (Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae): It’s an excellent (and I believe a required) read for any marketers, online or offline. The [...]