Cover Story
Big marketing ideas from the experts:
Thriving in the connected economy
Diana Varma
Be remarkable, tell a story, date your prospects
and create a ruckus!
Author, speaker, educator and thought leader Seth Godin needs
little introduction in the marketing world. He’s blogged nearly every
day for a decade, written 19 best-selling books, created the highly-
successful ‘altMBA’ program, and been inducted into not one, but
three, marketing Halls of Fame (Guerilla Marketing Hall of Fame,
Direct Marketing Hall of Fame, and the plain old Marketing Hall of
Fame). In fact, Google the word ‘Seth’ and his blog and his website
are the top two organic hits (above the Wikipedia entry describing
the origins of the name Seth). Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled
to be speaking at the same event as my marketing hero at Print 18
in Chicago, Illinois. His keynote address, titled Thriving in the
Connected Economy didn’t disappoint and I’m thrilled to share Seth’s
insights with you here.
So let’s start with a big, loaded question
– what is marketing?
Merriam-Webster defines marketing as:
1. The act or process of selling or pur-
chasing in a market; the process or
technique of promoting, selling and
distributing a product or service.
2. An aggregate of functions involved in
moving goods from producer to
consumer.
Godin defines marketing as:
1. Doing work that matters for people
who care.
Simply stated, he believes that strategic
marketing is not for the masses. Instead,
it’s for people who care about what you
do. Marketers have a history of pushing
stuff we, as consumers, don’t want. The
era of “trust us because we’ve been in
business for a long time” or “trust us
because we’re a really big company”
@graphicarts
simply doesn’t work anymore (here’s
looking at you, Sears.) And being the
local option is no longer an advantage
– because web-to-print service providers
enable consumers to buy high quality
products produced all over the world
from the comfort of their own homes.
So what’s left?
He argues that you must dig deep and
get to the core of why people want to
engage with your business. Forget
about appealing to the masses (defined
as those within the normal distribution,
existing under the largest part of the bell
curve). The ‘normal people’ aren’t listening
to you. The edges are much more important
and relevant, and so you should appeal
to the ‘weirdos’. In fact, Godin has written
an entire book on the topic titled We Are
All Weird (‘Mass is dead. Here comes
weird!’). The further to the edges of the
curve you work, the greater the chances
that you’re doing work that matters to
people who actually care about the
work you’re doing. For example, why
offer generic business cards to every
business owner on the planet, when you
can offer a range of marketing materials
to owners of local restaurants complete
with ‘scratch and sniff’ and other unique
coating options. Work hard to gain an
intimate understanding of their customers
and their competitive landscape to help
them tell their story through print.
This makes a lot of sense on a lot of levels,
and it may explain why you’re not gaining
the traction you believe you should be.
Let’s take a deep dive down the marketing
rabbit hole where I’ve broken down
Godin’s ideas into four key themes – to
help you think about marketing your
produc t s and ser vices in today ’s
business landscape. I drank the ‘Seth
Godin Kool-Aid’ years ago and after
reading the next 2,000 words, I hope
you’ll appreciate his insights as well.
GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE | April 2019 | 17