Seth Godin's Blog, page 34

The two “Harvard problems”

In many fields, there’s a big name. The exclusive slot. The top ranking or badge. This is being a top 10 podcast, or on a certain bestseller list or working at a specific sort of company…

The first Harvard problem is erroneously believing that you deserve it. This is the kid who has neither the attitude nor the skills to thrive at a famous private college. But the culture he’s surrounded with will view anything else as a failure, and so he’ll go into debt and contort himself to get the label, wasting years of his life, tons of money and most of all, his spirit.

The second Harvard problem is not believing that you deserve it. This is the young woman I met a year ago who had a fantastic work ethic and excellent grades but came from a community where the local community college was seen as a stretch, and she didn’t believe she could or should abandon those around her.

Here’s a simple clue that you might have a Harvard problem: If the label you’re seeking comes instantly to mind, or is prompted by those around you, it may be that we haven’t thought hard enough about which label we want.

The famous outcome isn’t often the right one, and often, neither is the common outcome. Being clear about where we’re going and why is a useful place to start.

            

Difficult decisions

These are the decisions that are forced on us, the ones that feel unfair, the ones where there are no seemingly good outcomes.

How to proceed?

Acknowledge that it sucks. That you’d rather not be in this situation. That it’s not what you hoped for. You can return to this step as often as you like, but don’t permit it to have anything to do with the other steps in the process.
Consider the sunk costs. The things you did to get to this point, the hard work and investments you made to have what you had until recently. Now, ignore them. They’re sunk. They have no connection to the decision you need to make.
Outline your options. None of them are as happy as you’d hope. None are perfect. All involve a measure of discomfort. That’s okay, because that’s what’s on offer. Write them out.
Now, consider each option based on the future, not the past. Ignoring the sunk costs, ignoring what you deserve, which of these options offers you the happiest series of future days, weeks and months? Choose that one. Don’t look back. Go.


            

Alcohol vs. cannabis marketing

[There’s a lesson here for all marketers—legacy brands have clouded our understanding of what marketing can do today…]

US prohibition ended in 1933. After that, there was a gold rush that led to the creation of dozens of billion dollar brands.

80 years later, the prohibition against pot is ending in various places throughout North America and then, probably, worldwide.

The question some professional marketers are asking is: Will there be worldwide profitable brands for pot that are similar to Bacardi, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff for alcohol?

Both industries are regulated. Both have products that are sold in specialty stores. Both use non-proprietary manufacturing techniques.

Here’s the big difference:

When alcohol marketing became legal, it coincided with the glory days of magazines, radio and then TV. The mass marketing phenomenon happened at exactly the same time as these brands were being rolled out—and along with cigarettes, alcohol brands were major advertisers, particularly in magazines (hard liquor) and TV (beer). The ads supported the media in a fundamental way (and vice versa–Rick’s Cafe anyone?).

But when cannabis marketing arrives, it’s the internet that’s dominant. And the internet isn’t a mass medium.

It seems like one. It’s used by billions of people.

But it’s a micro medium. A direct marketing medium. There are 3 billion people online, but they’re busy looking at 3,000,000 web pages (that’s only a thousand a page).

The other difference is that there’s a thousand-year tradition of the pub and the bar. And those facilities offer status games, word of mouth and significant margins that created another marketing engine for alcohol that won’t exist for cannabis.

Sure, it’s possible that the huge demand and profit margins will fund a winner-take-all advertising movement for pot. But it’s more likely to be more like local espresso or high-end chocolate or whisky (word of mouth) and less like vodka.

            

Price and satisfaction

You don’t need to read many reviews to realize that the correlation between price and satisfaction isn’t what you might have guessed.

It’s super rare for someone to write, “5 stars. The product wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t exactly what I needed, but it was really cheap, so, good job!”

In fact, things that are free (streaming music or movies, blog posts, speeches, etc.) almost never get bonus happiness because they had the lowest possible price.

And almost as rare is the review that says, “This is terrific, it was magical and solved all my problems, but I’m only giving it three stars because it had a high price.”

If you want to create satisfaction, the two elements are:

Make useful promises

Keep them

Price is unrelated, except for one thing: Charge enough that you can afford to actually keep your promise. The thrill of a low price disappears quickly, but the pain of a broken promise lasts a very long time.

            

“Summer’s almost over”

When I was a kid, my mom would start saying that in mid-July.

I think she meant well. Summer is a great time to stand back, to chill out, to spend an entire day or a week producing little or nothing and simply breathe.

But she was reminding us that regardless of our internal clock, the real world keeps moving forward, and that maybe this little window of time, one that we’ll never see again, could be a great time to make a contribution, find a connection and explore what might be possible. The ability to create is a rare privilege, and it’s not to be ignored.

If you can make a ruckus, make a ruckus.

—-

Here at HQ, Kelli and Marie, Sam and our coaches are finishing up two concurrent sessions of the altMBA today. The fifth session of The Marketing Seminar just passed its commencement ceremony, and Alex Peck and I sent the final surprises to the printer for a new book. Because summer’s almost over.

Mark your calendars:

A new seminar, The Bootstrapper’s Workshop, begins on September 5. You can find the early details on our site.

The next session of The Marketing Seminar happens in January.

And the last altMBA of 2018 is accepting applications for another few weeks.

            

Reality-based reality

It’s ever easier to weave our own reality, to find a bubble and to reinforce what we believe with what we hear. We can invent our own rules, create our own theories, fabricate our own ‘facts’.

It turns out, though, that when your reality is based on actual reality, it’s a lot more stable and resilient, because you don’t have to be so vigilant about what you’re going to filter out.

            

Worth paying for

When you bring a product or service to the free market, the market decides what it’s worth. If you don’t want to be treated like a commodity (a race to the bottom), there are two paths:

Through scarcity: This is worth extra because there’s not a lot of it or we’re the only one who’s got it.

Through connection: This is worth extra because everyone else is already using it.

A little or a lot.

Few substitutes, either because it’s hard to get or because you’ve got all the good folks already.

We pay extra for something because it’s the only one its kind, because we’re quite thirsty and there’s nowhere else to stop, because we think it will go up in value, because it’s our best option from a limited selection. Right here, right now, you’re the best option. In other words, scarce.

Or…

Because we don’t want to be left out/left behind. It’s worth more because it connects us.

Value is not profit. Widespread and cheap innovations are valuable indeed. Profit, though, often has a different calculus, the creation of things that (some) people think is worth paying extra for.

            

The truth about logos

Here’s a simple test:

Ask a few people to name a logo they like.

With very few exceptions, people will choose a logo that’s associated with a brand they admire.

That’s because what makes a good logo is a good brand, not the other way around.

            

The wrong bus

Your first mistake was getting on the A53 bus, the one that goes crosstown instead of to where you're going.

Mistakes like this happen all the time.

The big mistake, though, the one that will cost you, is staying on that bus.

I know it wasn't easy to get on the bus. I know you got a seat. I know it's getting dark outside. But you're on the wrong bus, and staying on the wrong bus won't make it the right bus.

If you really want to get where you set out to go, you're going to have to get off the wrong bus.

            

The weather tax

In the short run, weather emergencies can create a boost in the economy. They put people to work, require new building, emergency action and investment.

But like a war, these boosts are only temporary. Over time, the work and cost of dealing with weather that doesn’t match our expectations produces a significant drag on all of us.

There are significant human costs, of course, but for the bloodless economist, the costs of missed shipments, expensive commutes and ongoing spending to simply maintain the status quo begin to wear down the engines that create value for us, and more important, for our children.

We all pay a tax for an endless cycle of unpredictable weather, and get little in return.