Meatball Sundae Thoughts
My friend Claudia sent me an excerpt from Seth Godin’s latest marketing tome, Meatball Sundae.
She wanted my thoughts - I thought it’d make a good blog post. So here you go, CJ:
Seth: “Corporations, political parties, nonprofits, job-seekers, and yes, even people looking for love are all scrambling around, trying to exploit the power of these new tools. People treat the New Marketing like a kid with a twenty-dollar bill at an ice cream parlor. They keep wanting to add more stuff-more candy bits and sprinkles and cream and cherries. The dream is simple: “If we can just add enough of [today’s hot topping], everything will take care of itself.”"
JLJ: I couldn’t agree more - just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I can’t tell you how much money (and time) I’ve seen organizations waste on trying to make a “viral marketing program.” Viral happens. There are some known qualities of a viral campaign, and most organizations are too conservative (often rightfully so) to construct a campaign that would let viral happen. Once the PR folks and the legal teams are involved in the inevitable opinion pile-on [their versions of today’s hot topping], you might as well kiss the hope of pass-along goodbye.
Seth: “Most of the time, despite all the hype, organizations fail when they try to use this scattershot approach. They fail to get buzz or traffic or noise or sales. Organizations don’t fail because the Web and the New Marketing don’t work. They fail because the Web and the New Marketing work only when applied to the right organization. New Media makes a promise to the consumer. If the organization is unable to keep that promise, then it fails.”
JLJ: Again, most organizations have no idea what it takes to keep the promise - much less keep up with the pace of “New Marketing.” How many “corporate blogs” hanging off the corporate web site [www.bigbusiness.com/blog] haven’t been updated in three weeks or three months? It takes [more than meat]balls to keep blogging when no one comments on your posts. It takes intestinal fortitude to sit at a blank screen and write your thoughts. It takes commitment, time, energy and a focus on the brand to do it right.
Seth: “New Marketing-whipped cream and a cherry on top-isn’t magical. What’s magical is what happens when an organization uses the New Marketing to become something it didn’t used to be-it’s not just the marketing that’s transformed, but the entire organization. Just as technology propelled certain organizations through the Industrial Revolution, this new kind of marketing is driving the right organizations through the digital revolution.”
JLJ: I’ve been transformed through the process of “New Marketing.” Completely. Although I reach back into the fundamental roots of direct marketing, positioning, branding and certainly integrated marketing concepts that I’ve learned over the years, I think about communicating them in a very different way.
In fact, the very idea of sharing my thoughts on this book in email with only one person seems an abhorrence to me.
