This is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn To See

by Seth Godin

Instead of selfish mass, effective marketing now relies on empathy and service.

Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.

The other kind of marketing, the effective kind, is about understanding our customers’ worldview and desires so we can connect with them.

Marketing is the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become.

Marketers offer solutions, opportunities for humans to solve their problems and move forward.

Your emergency is not a license to steal my attention. Your insecurity is not a permit to hustle me or my friends.

because it involves patience, empathy, and respect.

And if you help them become better versions of themselves, the ones they seek to be, you’re a marketer.

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

Persistent, consistent, and frequent stories, delivered to an aligned audience, will earn attention, trust, and action.

Smart marketers make it easy for those they seek to work with, by helping position the offering in a way that resonates and is memorable.

your commitment to a way of being and a story to be told and a promise to be made—can

If you want to make change, begin by making culture.

Culture beats str...

“Who’s it for?”

“What’s it for?”

What you say isn’t nearly as important as what others say about you.

The extraordinary thing is that every person’s narrative is different.

Desire for gain versus avoidance of loss.

Maybe the people we were trying to serve saw shopping for something new as a threat, not as a fun activity.

The way we make things better is by caring enough about those we serve to imagine the story that they need to hear.

Why did you buy the one you bought?

Marketing isn’t a race to add more features for less money.

Marketing is our quest to make change on behalf of those we serve, and we do it by understanding the irrational forces that drive each of us.

What people want is the shelf that will go on the wall once they drill the hole.

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want to feel safe and respected.”

Who’s it for and what’s it for are the two questions that guide all of our decisions.

Stories, connections, and experiences

The alternative is to be market-driven—to hear the market, to listen to it, and even more important, to influence it, to bend it, to make it better.

when you’re market-driven, you think a lot about the hopes and dreams of your customers and their friends.

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

if you’re a marketer, you’re in the business of making change happen.

based on that success, you can replicate the process on ever bigger challenges.

Start with small

Meaningful mission and changes for guests/customers

and guests from outsiders to insiders.”

all effective marketing makes a promise.

“If this works for you, you’re going to discover

Your promise is directly connected to the change you seek to make, and it’s addressed to the people you seek to change.

Treasured memories Getting Yes Be a sales leader

Do they share a belief? A geography? A demographic, or, more likely, a psychographic?

What makes them different from everyone else and similar to each other?

Once you’re clear on “who it’s for,” then doors begin to open for you.

Begin by choosing people based on what they dream of, believe, and want,

use psychographics instead of demographics.

worldviews.

Everyone deserves to be treated as an individual, with dignity and respect for their choices.

Everyone has a problem, a desire, and a narrative.

smallest viable market.

What’s the minimum number of people you would need to influence to make it worth the effort?

Choose the people who want what you’re offering. Choose the people most open to hearing your message. Choose the people who will tell the right other people

Choose the people you serve, choose your future.