Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?'Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords . . . I don't care, as long as it's shiny and new.' Wait. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great. But if you start with a bowl of meatballs . . . yuck! As traditional marketing fades away, the new tools seem irresistible. But they don't work as well for boring brands (?meatballs?) that might still be profitable but don't attract word of mouth, such as Cheerios, Ford trucks, Barbie dolls, or Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch spends $40 million on an online network called BudTV, that's a meatball sundae. It leads to no new Bud drinkers, just a bad case of indigestion. Meatball Sundae is the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don't. The winners aren't just annoying start-ups run by three teenagers who never had a real job. You'll also meet older companies that have adapted brilliantly, such as Blendtec, a thirty-year-old blender maker. It now produces ?Will it blend? videos that demolish golf balls, Coke cans, iPhones, and much more. For a few hundred dollars, Blendtec reached more than ten million eager viewers on YouTube. Godin doesn't pretend that it's easy to get your products, marketing messages, and internal systems in sync. But he'll convince you that it's worth the effort. |
Contents
Thinking About the Meatball Sundae | 1 |
The Fourteen Trends | 49 |
DIRECT COMMUNICATION AND COMMERCE BETWEEN PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS | 51 |
AMPLIFICATION OF THE VOICE OF THE CONSUMER AND INDEPENDENT AUTHORITIES | 71 |
NEED FOR AN AUTHENTIC STORY AS THE NUMBER OF SOURCES INCREASES | 87 |
EXTREMELY SHORT ATTENTION SPANS DUE TO CLUTTER | 96 |
THE LONG TAIL | 102 |
OUTSOURCING | 113 |
THE SHIFTS IN SCARCITY AND ABUNDANCE | 139 |
THE TRIUMPH OF BIG IDEAS | 151 |
THE SHIFT FROM HOW MANY TO WHO | 158 |
THE WEALTHY ARE LIKE US | 163 |
NEW GATEKEEPERS NO GATEKEEPERS | 169 |
Putting It Together | 177 |
Case Studies | 195 |
Its Not an Organization Its a Movement | 229 |
GOOGLE AND THE DICING OF EVERYTHING | 119 |
INFINITE CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION | 125 |
DIRECT COMMUNICATION AND COMMERCE BETWEEN CONSUMERS AND CONSUMERS | 133 |
Acknowledgments | 231 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
advertising attention become better big idea blog brand build built changed choice communication consumers cost created critical customers demand designed dollars don't e-mail easy embrace entire expensive fact factory getting Google happens hundred idea increases industry It's keep less leverage living longer look magazine Marketing mass means meatball million month never offer organization percent permission person profit reach result retail sell Short sold someone spend spread story strategy stuff successful sundae tactics there's thing thousand tion traditional TREND turned understand users watch Wedgwood worth YouTube