This is Marketing
By Seth Godin, summarised by Dr Sharad Joshi
Marketing Philosophy
Marketing is about telling your customer a story that will convince him. We need to care enough about those we serve, to imagine a story that they need to hear. Marketing is our quest to make change on behalf of those we serve and we do it by understanding irrational forces that drive each of us. Marketing is a process and a craft. By itself it is not good or bad. That will depend on what use you put it to. Marketing polio vaccination to children may be good while marketing smoking to high-school kids may be bad.
If you can bring someone, belonging, connection, peace of mind, status or some other most desired emotions, you have done something worthwhile and done your job as well. The thing that you sell is simply a road to achieve those emotions. Marketer sells experiences.
Silicon Valley is tech-driven. Similarly, organisations should be market driven, not marketing driven.
Economics states that people make rational choice. In reality rational choice is a myth. People, as a rule, are not well informed, rational, independent, long term decision makers.
Your sincerity, genuine desire to be of service is extremely important. There are rules of ‘power’ which politicians use to provoke the people, marketing can use them constructively not to provoke but to sincerely, genuinely help people.
Marketing Objective
Marketing is essentially about bringing about a change, small or big. All marketing is about a promise to bring about a change. Let the change you are planning be practicable, don’t aim for the moon. Do not defend what you are doing and reverse engineer that as a change.
Importance of Segmenting, Targeting, Positioning
You need not change everybody. You can change only those who trust you. Aim at a market segment. While choosing a market segment go by psychography rather than demography. Psychography groups people according to a common worldview. For example, people have a worldview about how to shop. Some may shop for luxury and some for bargains. Some are hurried, some careful. ‘Sonder’ is defined as that moment of empathy when you realise that everyone around you has an internal life as rich and as conflicted as yours.
A> B>C therefore A> C, is not a valid comparison when people buy things. There is nothing like universal best. There are hundreds of brands and each has its following.
Mass marketing may be difficult, begin with smallest viable market, that you would like to please.
Lean entrepreneurship is built around minimum viable product. This positioning will help you to serve the way you desire. Everything gets easier when you walk away from the hubris of convincing everyone. Even politicians should not aim at 100% votes. (Many don’t even vote; they are not worth bothering about.) Something not being for you is a perfectly acceptable situation.The challenge is in creating a small viable market. If you can’t even win over a small group of loyal followers how can you win big?
Complete and follow, the following 3 sentence marketing template.
My product is for people who believe —-
I will focus on people who want —
I promise that engaging with what I make will help you get —
As you are focusing on your market segment, avoid the other ‘non-believers’. They do not form your market.
Cultivating your market segment
Having chosen your market segment, plan to make your market segment fall in love with you.
Consider your customers as your students whom you are trying to teach something. Respect them.
Everyone is lonely, insecure and a bit of fraud and everyone cares about something. Thinking too much about yourself is therefore meaningless. It is more productive to dance with your customers.
All marketing is kind of ‘acting’ to please the customer. It is to be done with guts and energy, must look authentic.
The heart and soul of a super thriving enterprise is the irrational pursuit of becoming irresistible.
True fans spread the word. (For that you need extraordinary product or service as well.)
You have created a brand when you have created brand loyalty. When you care if people switch to another brand. A business dealing in a commodity does not care.
Importance of pricing
In theory everything you buy is a bargain. That’s why you bought it. When you are trying to sell something leave thinking about its benefit to the buyer, you need not feel shy while making a sales pitch.
The fixed costs of marketing are so much that you barely cover the average cost from most of the customers. You are really looking for about 8% (according to research) who are ready to pay more than the average, – the delighted customers. The way to locate them is to be attentive to customer service. Solving a complaint is an opportunity to delight the customer.
Do not keep worrying about you not being the market leader and therefore pricing low. There is always a disconnect between performance and appeal, dog food is chosen by owners for their own reasons. Performance, that is taste, is known only to the dogs!
it is well known that pricing is a strategy. It tells a story about you. Think about customers who want to have everything free and those very customers who buy expensive things as well. Think through reasons for both. People buy expensive things out of a trust that those will surely pay for the investment made in them; essentially, it is about building that trust.
Show generosity with your empathy, bravery and respect but not with lower price and discounts. You will not afford it in the long run.
There is case study of a New York restaurant which simply increased the prices by 20% and eliminated tipping. They may have some customers for whom generous tipping was a status symbol but gained and retained another class who appreciated transparency and ease of transaction.
Early Adopters are important for you
Early adopters are not adapters; they have a fancy for the new, they want the thrill of new products.
In any market, going by normal distribution, 68% are within 1 SD. They are like others. People on their right, are conservative and those on the left are seeking the change. Good marketers do not waste their time on those on the right. They will not switch. Focus on those on the left. They are called ‘Neophiliacs, – lovers of the new, those who want to be there first. Your job is to get them interested and make them talk about your product or service. What you need is positive word of mouth. You have to truly delight them.
How to locate your market segment?
The marketer should be endlessly curious about what people may want and should have humility about his lack of knowledge.
Too much of choice confuses the consumer, he may choose none. Positioning is all the more important in these cases. Marketer should reduce the choice for his chosen market segment.
What all 7 billion people on the earth are looking for in varying degrees? Any of the following feelings/ emotions. Build your segment around them.
What all 7 billion people on the earth are looking for in varying degrees? Any of the following feelings/ emotions. Build your segment around them.
Adventure, Affection, Avoiding unknown, Belonging, Community, Control, Creativity, Delight, Freedom of expression, Freedom of Movement, Friendship, Good looks, Health, Learning new things, Luxury, Nostalgia, Obedience, Participation, Peace of mind, Physical Activity, Power, Reassurance, Reliability, Respect, Revenge, Romance, Safety, Security, Sex, Strength, Sympathy, Tension.
Understand psychology of your market segment
People buy things, like a house, because they are afraid of something. No one wants to spend that kind of money. Handhold them to take them through their fearful journey.
Always be seeking, connecting, solving, asserting, believing, seeing, and yes, testing. That is an attitude which rewards.
Marketers are trying to normalise new behaviour. It is about trying to change the worldview of small group of people.
People have an inertia about not changing their established pattern of thinking. Only reason they may change is the fear of being left out. Create a subtle ‘tension’ about that. Note that tension is a positive motivation while fear is negative. Don’t create fear, create tension.
A marketer plays upon secret desire about status, dominance and affiliation. People may have preferences towards one or the other, which builds their psyche as individuals. The marketer should have the sensitivity to understand the individual preferences.
About Advertising
Brand advertising is expensive and does not work for most. It is a waste. What works is direct advertising, targeted at those who have shown interest- like people who have clicked your online advertisement.
Permission Marketing
It focuses on only those who have expressly granted permission for say, emails or even brochures being sent to them. Spam is avoided. It is about getting their attention by respecting them. Over a period, they should miss you if you stop communicating. In continuation with this theme, even asking for personal information from people who visit your trade show or website is not right and should be avoided. Once permission is obtained you can educate the customer bit by bit and develop loyalty. If you are able to create a long list of such customers it is a very valuable asset. It is obvious that you should have good, original content to be shared. Avoid the temptation of spreading stunt, you will lose followers if they sense your dishonesty. What marketer will like to earn is trust but it is becoming rare in the distrustful world of Internet. In a world that scans instead of reads, gossips instead of researchers, the best way to earn trust is thru action. If you have actually given customer service, not just talked, it makes a difference.
Instead of spending money on advertising it will make sense to focus on neophiliacs, build their trust and generate word of mouth.
Beating Pareto’s curve – 80/20 principle
The curve exists because everyone likes to bet on hits – everyone means everyone like us. How should people on long tail survive in this situation? The strategy is to divide the curve in many curves so that there are there are many short heads and shorter long tails – meaning, segment the market. Now, consider the following to spread your message through the market segment you have chosen.
A message spreads across a group not because you tell them to do so. It is because answers to two simple questions are found- 1. What will I tell my friends? and 2. Why will I tell them? Facebook became a craze because it started with Ivy League students who had fast internet connections, plenty of spare time and an insatiable desire to be seen, to connect and to move up in some invisible hierarchy. Watch how yoyo spreads in a school. Just any kid carrying yoyo does not influence others. But a group of 4 smart kids in a senior class considered as leaders, will start the movement. The cost of entry has got to be low, the payoff quick; and the connection feels real. Who starts the new wave, is important. It must create a feeling of status so that tension of being left out kicks in.
When you spread your story, the three messages that should get across are (1) what you (or your company) did or will do, to bring about the change you are proposing (2) how they are like you (meaning part of the same culture), so they can adopt too and (3) why they should do it now. See how this will be done by a person who says how he was 50 pounds overweight and how he did something that worked, how others are like him, and so they can do it and why should they do it now.
Use shared interests, shared goals, shared language to create a tribe of customers. Create artifacts, status roles, code words that the tribe needs. Apply these principles to say, a tribe of Art of Living followers to see how it works. Lead the tribe like an effective tribe leader, using all principles of constructive leadership.
Having created a tribe, you also have to reinvent it every now and then or else it will fade.
Seth Godin quotes 2 case studies.
Artists appoint agents to promote themselves. But agents do not work extra for any particular artist. That happens when extraordinary talent of the artist creates a small group if admirers who are ready to talk about him. That is when agents wake up to promote. Tesla promoted its car not in auto shows. Elon Musk built a group of admirers who started talking that it is the fastest, the safest and the most efficient car of its size.
National Rifle Association focuses on only pro-gun lobby to create a strong opposition to anti-gun majority. The latter may not like NRA but it is responsible to its members, not the majority.
You can convert your boss to your view by turning him into student, changing him bit by bit.
For more details, refer to – www.TheMarketingSeminar.com