Seth Godin in Utah -Predictions on Marketing and Advertising

Seth Godin. What a thought-provoker! I recently heard him speak in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a group of 400 professional online marketers, bloggers, internet types, etc. I've enjoyed his books for some time now. His latest, The Dip, uses typical Godin edginess to forward the thesis that we should be quitters, way more often, way earlier. (so that we can not quit what it's most important). If you know someone who went, they just may be able to hook you up with one of the 5 books they bought at the door.

The highlight for me was his ability to engage a live audience with his Q&A riffs. For you who attended, the included notes will probably make sense. My apologies in advance if they don't.

-On Marketing and Advertising

• Advertising is dying, but marketing is more important than ever
• Successful marketers will take the BMW “marketing in design” approach
• A high-school marketing teacher's curriculum should be:
1. No-one cares about you, get over it.
2. Learn to ebay
3. Get good at telling stories
• For JetBlue, marketing and training were the same department
• The “anonymity” of Web 2.0 is going to blow up. Because reputation matters, people will circle the wagons, and only trust sources they know.
• Don’t think “how can I take advantage” but “how can I serve”
  

I'd like to expand the last bullet above. Someone in the Q&A session was talking about all of the Internet viewers of a particular Web content, and began to ask “how can I take advantage of those viewers...” Seth cut him off to make a subtle but compelling point. He emphatically said that this was the wrong question- the wrong frame of mind. He said it would be like Tony's Pizza Parlor saying “how can I take advantage of a sunday school class?” The appropriate question is “how can I serve” that group, or what do I have that is relevant to them. There is so much power in basing our marketing strategies on relevant service. In my opinion, that is the reason that advertising is dying and marketing is more important than ever.