Seth Godin's Blog, page 268

Invitation to join the triiibe

If you read and got something out of Tribes or Linchpin, I'd like to extend a free invitation to join the private Ning group I've been running for the last two years. There are 10,000 members, and hundreds of very active, very smart, very generous people there all the time.

It's password-protected and non-anonymous. No pitching or networking. The purpose of the site is to discuss and encourage and connect. It's not for everyone, but if you're interested, I invite you to give it a try. The only cost is having read a copy of either book before you join.

The application is here. Please read the short intro carefully, because there's just no way to make exceptions to the three simple rules listed. Thanks for reading.

Voting, misunderstood

This year, fewer than 40% of voting age Americans will actually vote.

A serious glitch in self-marketing, I think.

If you don't vote because you're trying to teach politicians a lesson, you're tragically misguided in your strategy. The very politicians you're trying to send a message to don't want you to vote. Since 1960, voting turnouts in mid-term elections are down significantly, and there's one reason: because of TV advertising.

Political TV advertising is designed to do only one thing: suppress the turnout of the opponent's supporters. If the TV ads can turn you off enough not to vote ("they're all bums") then their strategy has succeeded.

The astonishing thing is that voters haven't figured this out. As the scumminess and nastiness of campaigning and governing has escalated and the flakiness of candidates appears to have escalated as well, we've largely abdicated the high ground and permitted selfish partisans on both sides to hijack the system.

Voting is free. It's fairly fast. It doesn't make you responsible for the outcome, but it sure has an impact on what we have to live with going forward. The only thing that would make it better is free snacks.

Even if you're disgusted, vote. Vote for your least unfavorite choice. But go vote.

Marketing Halloween

Some things to think about while the doorbell rings...

There are communities that have moved Halloween from today, because they don't want it to be on a school night.

There are communities that abhor Halloween, arguing that it is a day for Satanists and other ideas that are anethema.

And there are communities where the goal is to obtain as many chocolate bars as possible. (The hobo costume will always remain the official teenager get up, because you can make one in three minutes).

How did fruit end up as treat non grata?  How did the few giant candy companies end up stamping out variety, selling giant bags of cheap chocolate instead? (Hint: there's huge pressure to do 'the regular kind' as many consumers/homeowners are afraid to stand out in this regard). A great example of peer pressure meeting the race to the bottom.

And in the last few years, how did a trivial kids' holiday turn into a multi-billion dollar bacchanal for adults, complete with ornate houses and bespoke costumes? Is it because of some well-orchestrated Halloween Marketers of America initiative? It just seemed to happen, didn't it?

My take: Marketing home runs usually happen because the market/tribe/community is itching for a void to be filled, not because a marketer committed some brilliant act of promotion or pricing. The art, then, is to pick your niche, not to freak out about how to yell about it. You can't make a perfect storm, but you can find one.

Just because he's angry

... doesn't mean he's right.

... or even well-informed.

Something to think about when dealing with a customer, a leader or even a neighbor.

It's easy to assume that vivid emotions spring from the truth. I'm not so sure. They often come from fear and confusion and well-told stories.

Won't get fooled again

I know you say your media returns results better than anyone else's. I've heard that before.

I know you say that this stock is a sure thing, even better than gold. I've heard that before.

I know you say you'll work full time on business development even though it's hard work and there are distractions everywhere. I've heard that before.

I know you say that your promotional strategy for this movie is huge and we should run more ads and promote it more as a result. We've heard that before too.

The reason that people don't believe you isn't that you're a liar. The reason we don't believe you is that the guy before you (and the woman before him) were unduly optimistic hypesters and we got burned. We believed, we leaned into it and we got stuck.

If you catch yourself making a promise that's been made before, stop. Don't spend a lot of time and effort building credibility with this sort of promising, because it doesn't pay off.

Make different promises, or even better, do, don't say.

Pushing back on mediocre professors

College costs a fortune. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of money.

When a professor assigns you to send a blogger a list of vague and inane interview questions ("1. How did you get started in this field? 2. What type of training (education) does this field require? 3. What do you like best about your job? 4. what do you like least about your job?") I think you have an obligation to say, "Sir, I'm going to be in debt for ten years because of this degree. Perhaps you could give us an assignment that actually pushes us to solve interesting problems, overcome our fear or learn something that I could learn in no other way..."

When a professor spends hours in class going over concepts that are clearly covered in the textbook, I think you have an obligation to repeat the part about the debt and say, "perhaps you could assign this as homework and we could have an actual conversation in class..."

When you discover that one class after another has so many people in a giant room watching a tenured professor far far in the distance, perhaps you could mention the debt part to the dean and ask if the class could be on video so you could spend your money on interactions that actually changed your life.

The vast majority of email I get from college students is filled with disgust, disdain and frustration at how backwards the system is. Professors who neither read nor write blogs or current books in their field. Professors who rely on marketing textbooks that are advertising-based, despite the fact that virtually no professional marketers build their careers solely around advertising any longer. And most of all, about professors who treat new ideas or innovative ways of teaching with contempt.

"This is costing me a fortune, prof! Push us! Push yourself!"

On buying unmeasurable media

Should you invest in TV, radio, billboards and other media where you can't measure whether your ad works? Is an ad in New York magazine worth 1,000 times as much as a text link on Google? If you're doing the comparison directly, that's how much extra you're paying if you're only measuring direct web visits...

One school of thought is to measure everything. If you can't measure it, don't do it. This is the direct marketer method and there's no doubt it can work.

There's another thought, though: Most businesses (including your competitors) are afraid of big investments in unmeasurable media. Therefore, if you have the resources and the guts, it's a home run waiting to be hit.

Ralph Lauren is a billion dollar brand. Totally unmeasurable. So are Revlon, LVMH, Donald Trump, Anderson Windows, Lada Gaga and hundreds of other mass market brands.

There are two things you should never do:

Try to measure unmeasurable media and use that to make decisions. You'll get it wrong. Sure, some sophisticated marketers get good hints from their measurements, but it's still an art, not a science.

Compromise on your investment. Small investments in unmeasurable media almost always fail. Go big or stay home.

And if you're selling unmeasurable media? Don't try to sell to people who are obsessed with measuring. You'll waste your time and annoy the prospect at the same time.

I spread your idea because...

Ideas spread when people to choose to spread them. Here are some reasons why:

I spread your idea because it makes me feel generous.

...because I feel smart alerting others to what I discovered.

...because I care about the outcome and want you (the creator of the idea) to succeed.

...because I have no choice. Every time I use your product, I spread the idea (Hotmail, iPad, a tattoo).

...because there's a financial benefit directly to me (Amazon affiliates, mlm).

...because it's funny and laughing alone is no fun.

...because I'm lonely and sharing an idea solves that problem, at least for a while.

...because I'm angry and I want to enlist others in my outrage (or in shutting you down).

...because both my friend and I will benefit if I share the idea (Groupon).

...because you asked me to, and it's hard to say no to you.

...because I can use the idea to introduce people to one another, and making a match is both fun in the short run and community-building.

...because your service works better if all my friends use it (email, Facebook).

...because if everyone knew this idea, I'd be happier.

...because your idea says something that I have trouble saying directly (AA, a blog post, a book).

...because I care about someone and this idea will make them happier or healthier.

...because it's fun to make another teen snicker about prurient stuff we're not supposed to see.

...because the tribe needs to know about this if we're going to avoid an external threat.

...because the tribe needs to know about this if we're going to maintain internal order.

...because it's my job.

I spread your idea because I'm in awe of your art and the only way I can repay you is to share that art with others.

How media changes politics

If you want to get elected in the US, you need media.

When TV was king, the secret to media was money. If you have money, you can reach the masses. The best way to get money is to make powerful interests happy, so they'll give you money you can use to reach the masses and get re-elected.

Now, though...When attention is scarce and there are many choices, media costs something other than money. It costs interesting. If you are angry or remarkable or an outlier, you're interesting, and your idea can spread. People who are dull and merely aligned with powerful interests have a harder time earning attention, because money isn't sufficient.

Thus, as media moves from TV-driven to attention-driven, we're going to see more outliers, more renegades and more angry people driving agendas and getting elected. I figure this will continue until other voices earn enough permission from the electorate to coordinate getting out the vote, communicating through private channels like email and creating tribes of people to spread the word. (And they need to learn not to waste this permission hassling their supporters for money).

Mass media is dying, and it appears that mass politicians are endangered as well.

Last call for the Los Angeles road trip event

This is my only public west coast gig this year... I hope you can make it. November 9th at the fabulous Zipper Hall. Full day tickets are here. Use discount code sethsblog. It seems there are only twenty tickets left.

Inexpensive breakfast plus one-hour interview tickets are here.