This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See

by Seth Godin

knuckleheads

merry-go-round

Marketers don’t use consumers to solve their company’s problem; they use marketing to solve other people’s problems.

If you want to make change, begin by making culture. Begin by organizing a tightly knit group. Begin by getting people in sync. Culture beats strategy—so much that culture is strategy.

embroidered,

abject

You listen to their frustrations and invest in changing the culture. Being market-driven lasts.

What promise are you making?

hubris

kooks.

cruft

hoard

resuscitated

palliative,

denigrating

temerity

ovation?

tepid

We create tension when we ask someone to contribute to the bake sale or join our book club. We’re using one force (in this case, social engagement) to overcome another force (the status quo).

inculcate

jostle

proponent.

noxious, infantile narcissism

impugn

contentious

If you want to build a marketing asset, you need to invest in connection and other nontransferable properties. If people care, you’ve got a brand.