Marketing Wisdom from Seth Godin: 10 Things You’ll Learn from Book ‘This is Marketing’

Seth Godin is a well-known marketing expert and author whose work has influenced the way businesses think about marketing and branding. His book “This is Marketing” is a practical guide to understanding the principles of modern marketing and using them to reach and engage with customers.

In this book, Godin explores the changing landscape of marketing and how businesses can adapt to the needs of today’s consumers. Here are the top 10 lessons from the book.

1. Ideas that spread: win
2. Culture beats strategy- so much that culture is the strategy
3. People don’t want what you make, They want what it will do for them. They want the way it will make them feel and there aren’t many feelings to choose from.
4. The small viable market is the focus that ironically and delightfully leads to your growth. The goal of the smallest viable audience is to find people who will understand you and fall in love with where you hope to take them. When you show up with a message, it always takes the form of a promise. The promise is not a guarantee. It’s more like, “ If this works for you, you are going to discover ….”
5. What’s your flag, why would someone fly it? The smallest viable market gives you the freedom to pick those you seek to serve. Those people are looking for a certain symbol. Which is different from all the other big market symbols.
6. If you are a marketer, you are in the business of making change happen. Change that’s so profound, people can’t help but talk about it.
7. The relentless drive for the better is precisely why customers are always looking for something new. You can’t be perfect in the eyes of early adopters; the best you can do is interesting.
8. Advertising is a special case, an option engine for growth. You don’t have to earn this attention since you can buy it. We remember what we rehearse. We remember things that we see again and again, what we do over and over. Marketers forget this daily. Don’t change your advertising because you are bored.
9. When you are the cheapest, you are promising change, you are promising the same but cheaper. The race to the bottom is tempting because nothing is easier than selling cheaper. Lowering your price doesn’t make you more trusted, it does the opposite.
10. It’s not irrational, Status makes it the right choice: Why do people choose one restaurant over another? One college? One car? Why this and why not that? If you look closely at decisions that don’t initially make sense to you, you will likely see status roles at work. The Decision didn’t make sense to you but made perfect sense to the person who made it. We spend a lot of time paying attention to status.

Whether you’re a small business owner, marketing professional, or just looking to improve your marketing skills, “This is Marketing” is a must-read for anyone looking to succeed in the world of marketing.