Book highlights: This is marketing - Seth Godin
December 16, 2020•2,520 words
Marketing is our quest to make change on behalf of those we serve, and we do it by understanding the irrational forces that drive each of us.
People want what you make will do for them. they want they way it will make them feel.
Belonging, connection, peace of mind, status, fear (fomo)
the thing you sell is simply a road to achieve those emotions
Be part of something bigger than oneself
Hopes and dreams of customers, listen to their frustrations and invest in changing the culture
15-01-2020
In the business of making change happen
What promise are you making?
All effective marketing makes a promise
If this works for you you are going to discover Y
Slogans give you an i nsight into the kind of promise you make
your promise is directly connected to the change you seek to make and it is addressed to the people you seek to change
Whos it for?
Worldviews and personas - chose people based on what they dream of, believe and want, use psychographics instead of demographics
Begin with a worldview and invite people who share that worldview to join us
Begin instead with the smallest viable market - the minimum number of people you would need to influence to make it worth the effort
Who will you seek to serve
Choose the people most open to hearing your message, the smallest viable market
**who we are for: we are skincare for people with problematic skin, who's skin type doesn't fit in with generic "for everyone" skincare brands, who want to reduce fine lines and wrinkles and who's lives have been effected by Cancer and want a chance to do something that feels right to support research into cancer and anti aging (CARF).
**Loving Ellus & Krue is a way of expressing yourself. Becoming part of the movement is an expression of who you are. That love leads to traction, engagement, and to evangelisim. That love becomes part of your identity, a chance to do something that feels right, to express themselves through their contributions, their actions, and the badge they wear.
the change we are looking to make: vision & mission statements insert here
***Customer development: gaining traction with customers, finding product market fit
Customers are our students - "Derek Research teaches them all about his work into Cancer and Aging"
Find the swimming pools instead of the ocean
Its also possible that you failed to be clear about who it was for in the first place
My product is for people who belive XXX
I will focus on people who want XXX
I promise that engaging with what i make will help you get XXX
16-01-2020
joy status and satisfaction from your purchase (support carf)
the people you seek to serve, what do they believe, what do they want
searching for a feeling, not a logical truth
17-01-2020
p57
**choose your axis carefully - you dont compete you are just on the same board
**performance, ingredients, purity, sustainability, safety, professionalism
**put your brand next to an emotion - safe, powerful, beautiful, worthy, responsible, connected
focus the hard work and energy into making change happen
if we can accept that people have embraced who they have become, it gets a lot easier to dance with them, to have a chance to connect with them
19-02-2020
we begin with a group that we seek to serve, a problem we seek to solve with he thing that makes us more clever than everyone else
if we merelt try to fill a hole in the market we are doomed to a cycle of rear view mirror behaviour
page 69 - good stories
**EGPR - mission and vision - core values and core focus pass this not them
****E&K is a cause related company, we cannot pretend to be anything other than this -
**Ellus and Krue is a skincare company for 25-45 year old Educated women who want socially responsible and ethical products made from quality ingredients that work to reduce skin aging /skin inflammation and reduce fine lines and wrinkles **
people want to be understood and served
emotional labour
the door is open to connection and growth
** what do you do is about a task, a measurable, a buyable thing
a description of the dream or desire
money is worthless, it is what you can buy with it that is meaningful
**helping you age well - age gracefully, not getting old before your time, even if Your old you can look, giving you time, - **fine lines and wrinkles - (anti aging skincare)
People confuse wants and needs
we need air and water and roof - everything else is a want
**P79 expressing dreams and fears
Assertions about what our audience, the folks we need to serve, what and need
begin with dreams and fears, with emotional states, and with the change your customers seek (the intro video with Derek speaks to this - aging is treatable)
**identify the feeling before you spend time making the product
20-01-20
people take action that reinforces their internal narrative
21-01-2020
do people like me do things like this?
**Who is the Krue for?
***we buy the serum because we are smart (or not) - simple ingredients tested by time that work. no pseudoscience here.
marketers make change and they do it by normalizing new behaviours
we need to define who "us is"
***people like us donate to charities like this one
map and understand the worldview of the culture we seek to change
22-01-2020
trust and tension create forward motion
new dads, engaged women and people who have recently moved - their pattern has been disrupted so they are easier to market to
***when you market to someone that doesnt have a pattern yet, you dont have to persuade them that their old choices were mistakes
**what pattern are you interrupting?
**get people to reconsider their allegiances - create tension -
**all effective education creates tension - because just before you learn something, you are aware you dont know it yet
**we dont want to feel left out, left behind, uninformed or impotent, we want to get ahead, we want to be in sync
if you arrive on the scene with yout story, with the solution that you have in mind, do you create tension? if you dont, the status quo is likely to survive
23-01-2020
some people are hungry for a shift in status (up or down) while others will fight like crazy to maintain their roles
status takes many forms and is not always followers or $$ in the bank
status is relative
status in the eyes of the beholder
status attended to is the status that matters
status has inertia
status is learned
shame is the killer status
external satus - how they are seen by their chose community
internal status - who they see when they look in the mirror
24-01-2020
how do they maintain or seek to change that status?
***enable people to create their status - open the door for you and others to enable them to increase their status
affiliation: who knows you, who trusts you, have you made things better, what is your circle like, where do you stand within the tribe, cant we all get along?
What is the narrative your audience resonates with ?
The way you see the world isnt't nearly as important as the worldview of those you seek to serve
27-01-2020
business plans with five sections - Truth (market risk competition risk be clear on how you see the world state how things are) Assertions (product risk - how you are going to change things Alternative (execution risk - what will you do if things don’t work out the way you think) People (Execution risk attitudes and abilities and track record of shipping) Money (financial risk - spending, cash flow, P&L exit strategies)
Seth - the purpose of capitalism is to biuld our culture
What change do I seek to make
**purpose: to be respected, seen and appreciated
Describe the tension that you seek to create the status roles your engaging with, and the story that your bringing that will make the change happen - this is simply what we do
ruled out one more route in your quest to matter
Semiotics
** can we make our logo look like an existing “big company”??
the symbol is in the mind of the person looking at It
the logo needs to be a symbol
** a chance to fit in I’m progressive and I respect science and nature
logos are wrapped up in the brand promise (holy grail cup of life)
**get skincare users to care about and support cancer research and to express that care by using ellus and Krue skincare products
dirext marketing is action orientated and it is measured
brand marketing is culturally oriented and it can’t be measured
28-01-2020
begin with the idea of earning this asset, the privelage of talking to people who would miss you if you were gone
every Friday send an email newsletter with Derek and interesting information about skincare research and products. No sales just permission content worthy of our readers.
Ask the readers what format they would prefer their news in, email video or audio or a combo - then give it to thrm
**Invest in the LTV of a customer, Building new things instead of trying to find new customers for your things
** if you can’t see the funnel don’t buy the ads
If you can measure the funnel and it costs too much for you to afford ads, don’t buy the ads. Fix the funnel first
29-01-2020
**build trust with frequency
**instead you will make your impact by uniting those you seek to serve
**in order to satisfy the early adopters, you may need to annoy the masses
connected tribes are more powerful than disconnected ones (communities)
Aha for online community software - prisma log - telegram group
30-01-2020
early adopters
neophiliacs
need stories to match the worldviews
what reason do customers have to return after a single visit? (content/community)
create sufficient incentives
***tell a story about status
**need to be specific enough about who are first customers would be , what they might have wanted. believed and said
**the cost of entry is low and the payoff is quick
31-01-2019
if you choose this, you can tell your board/investors/friend
if your fortunate there is a tribe that will listen to you and consider what you say
the goal is for them to miss you if you went away
**the story of self gives you standing a platform to speak, a chance to explain that you are people like us (active lifestyle, outdoors, skin cancer)
the story of us - why are we alike, why should we care
3-02-2020
P233 and 234 rules for radicals
stick with your tactics long after everyone else is board of them. Only top when they stop working
dont make threats. do or dont do
p 234 and p235 quotes
dont say it all and dont make it obvious
the best marketers are farmers, not hunters. plant, tend, plow, fertalize, weed repeat
the easy sales are not always the important ones
** review card - tell your friends about the change you've noticed
** active, outdoor lifestyle, look after your health and well being, socially responsible
resonate with those that we seek to serve
4-02-2020
trust gives us a chance to see
discover more joy or more productivity
**what are you going to do with that impact?
Its the process that brings joy (not the product)
**develop our point of view
marketing is a process and a craft
**people will only buy or donate because they believe its worth more than the entry price (cost)
what are we really selling?
the willingness to see and be seen
4-02-2020
Branding is familiar - objective point of view
Objective: market position, brand message, core wording
secondary message - discoverable delight than lead message
Bellroy
authentic authenticity
Positioning as face of brand - how to react if scientists
**wrap up information - style kits and brand books to share with Lincoln
**familiarise about market - market research information - Lissy -