Tag Archive for ‘seth Godin’ rss

We Don’t Have an Awareness Problem, We Have a Marketing Problem

August 11, 2011 0 comments

Old school radioA client of mine had a radio sales person stop by the other day, she was polite, left her card and said she’d follow up with an e-mail.  My client has already told her he does not want to use radio.  The following day he receives an e-mail/sales pitch on why radio is the best medium to spread his message to the masses.  Radio?  Really?  REALLY?

This is frustrating for my client because he doesn’t have an awareness problem, he has a marketing problem.  The sales person has never thought to ask “what is the goal of your marketing?”, a simple question that would have helped her immensely at understanding how to make the sale.


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What’s Your Purple Cow?

July 17, 2011 1 comment

Seth Godin's Purple CowThe concept of the Purple Cow was introduced by Seth Godin in his groundbreaking book by the same title.  Recently I read it again because it is full of ideas and case studies on how to make your business remarkable.

When you drive by a heard of cattle they all look like cows and it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary.  But if you drive by a heard and standing in the field is a Purple Cow you have to tell someone because it is so different.  When something forces you to remark on it, by definition it is remarkable.  This is what your new business strategy should be focusing on, finding ways to make your customers talk about your products to their friends.

So the obvious question is, what is a Purple Cow?

Sanpellegrino is different than regular juice.  Well, it’s not really different.  It’s sparkling juice in a can but the secret lies in the can itself.  Every can of Sanpellegrino has a foil lid you must peal off before drinking.  As if your juice is so special that it needs to be covered by an additional seal.  Also, you can’t find this juice at gas stations
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How Do I Get More Exposure?

February 20, 2011 1 comment

How do I get my brand in front of more people? How do I create more awareness for my product? How can I tell more people about my services?

I’ve been hearing these questions more and more as of late and whenever I get asked I always reply the same way.

You don’t.

Trying to put “your brand” in front of more people is a bad business strategy unless you’re Wal-Mart (the proverbial average products for everyone).  It’s a fact, most people don’t care about your brand and by trying to put your product in front of more people you are just going to piss off more people.


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Permission Based Marketing

July 14, 2010 1 comment

A long, long, time ago advertisers would interrupt people to get their message in front of them.  Commercials interrupting your favorite show, coupons in your mailbox, awkwardly placed billboards, branding of anything and everything, commercials interrupting the top 10 countdown on the radio, telemarketers trying to sell you something, sales people showing up at your door, and video billboards promising even more interruptions than static billboards.

There was no permission established so eventually these were bound to fail once the market was saturated with messages competing for the next chance to interrupt you.

Enter the Seth Godin coined term “permission based marketing“.

I need to be friends with you for you to show up in my Facebook newsfeed or to be able to post on my wall.

I need to be following you on Twitter to receive your tweets.

I need to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter to receive it.

I have never been forced to watch a YouTube video, I choose what I want to watch.

I can’t force you to read my blog, it’s your choice.

Notice a trend here?  To communicate with people you must have their permission, no matter what medium you use.  Marketing hasn’t gone
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