Lessons from “This is Marketing” by Seth Godin

“This is Marketing by Seth Godin” is a wonderful read which gives insights into the world of marketing, how it has changed over the years and how you as a marketer can adapt and grow to excel in your field. If you’re looking to learn more about marketing I've compiled some of the key takeaways and lessons which I found to be the most useful.

The 5 Steps of Marketing

At the beginning of the book, Seth breaks down marketing into five steps. Step one is to create something that’s worth making. Step two is to create it in a way that only a few people will benefit or care about. Step three is to tell a story which connects the product to the small group of people which leads into step four where you get your small audience excited and they spread the word. Finally, step five which is commonly dismissed is to simply show up consistently. This is crucial since over time you’ll gain the trust and permission of your customer which will allow you as a marketer to make change.

How Do You Feel?

A focal point of the book was that people don’t need things, but rather want them due to how they will make them feel, so as a marketer, it’s easier to identify a feeling before you make a product. Also, it’s important to always be testing things. Now, it’s never been as inexpensive and fast to create a prototype and engage with early adopters to tweak your product as you create it rather than to create a fully formed product, just to realize nobody wants it . His advice to make this an effective process is to not ask for feedback, but rather to seek advice. This way people will be more open to making critical suggestions and it reveals what they want, thus giving you clues on how to make a better product next time.

On the topic of customer engagement Seth noted that every good customer will get you a new one, whereas a silent customer can’t help you grow. Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to gain new customers. People trust what their friends say and products often work best when many people have it. For example, the fax machine was a great invention but is only useful if both parties have one. The best way to find these good customers is to focus your energy on a small portion of the market, your true fans. These are the people who will be your champions who will not only do word-of-mouth marketing for you, but they’ll genuinely care about your product meaning they’ll be the ones who show up to your events or the release of your product.

People Like Us

A main focus in this book was the concept of “people like us”. People are predictable creatures and act in accordance to how they believe people like them should act. We make decisions based on how we perceive our peers would act and try to mimic it. As a marketer, it’s our job to make change by normalizing new behaviours. A great example of this was through the Robin Hood foundation. They are a charity which puts a lot of work into creating an auction which was for the socially elite where they could bid on items in front of their peers. In one night alone they raised $101,000,000 since people were able to bid not only for the item, but they could gain social status by being able to outbid their peers. This demonstrates that affiliation is important. Everyone wants to do what everyone else is doing and this is ultimately up to the consumer, not you meaning you’ll have to find a way to leverage the consumers desires.

While people are not typically persuaded to change their behaviours, a group of people who are easy to market to are those entering a new phase in their life. Newly weds, engaged couples and new parents are a perfect target for marketers since they haven’t established patterns yet, meaning that is the time for you to try to get them into one with your product or service.

Status & Symbols

Another reason people buy things is because of their status. For example, a class clown and the A+ student have different statues. Status is different from wealth since wealth can be quantified whereas status is a qualitative trait. Seans notes that status is relative and is based on perception relative to others. Status is also it’s in the eye of the beholder meaning that my view of status is different than yours. The status we currently have is the status that matters as people’s status can change throughout their life. Status also has inertia which means we are more likely to uphold our status than try to change it and finally, status is learned and is a social construct whereas wealth can be measured.

As many markers know, symbols are a great way to give meaning without saying anything, but Seth notes that now context is an important thing to consider when thinking of symbols. For example, someone wearing a hoodie in Silicon Valley could be a positive symbol that they’re too busy focusing on their brilliant work to care about their appearance. However that same hoodie anywhere else could be a negative symbol, demonstrating that you’re lower class. This even goes into how we perceive brands. Nike is a company with a globally recognized brand. They don’t have hotels, but if they were to, it would be easy to imagine what the hotel would look like and how the experience of visiting the hotel would be.

Marketing Analytics

Seth then transitions into the analytical side of marketing, focusing on the standard deviation. No matter what metric you choose to measure especially with human behaviour, people’s responses are going to be clustered around the middle. As a marketer, you want to focus on people on the left side of the curve as they’re the ones who are open to change and who will hopefully introduce your product to people who are further along on the right side of the curve in the future through word of mouth and gradual dissemination. Not all your customers will make you money, so it’s important to focus on those who will since they keep you in business.

Direct & Brand Marketing - What’s the Difference?

Seth claims that the most important part of his book is learning about the difference between direct and brand marketing. Direct marketing is based on actions and can be measured whereas brand marketing is oriented around culture and can’t be measured. If your approach is direct marketing you should measure everything, if you’re unable to measure it, it doesn’t count, whereas if you’re buying brand marketing ads be patient. Brand marketing is hard to measure since it’s all about the overall feelings someone has about the brand rather than directly encouraging them to make a purchase. He suggests that as a marketer you don’t measure and engage with the culture, if you can’t afford to be consistent and patient don’t pay for brand marketing ads.

Seth believes that advice is worth the cost of the book and time it spent the reader to finish his book. The lesson he believes is the most important about brand marketing is “you definitely don’t have enough time to build a brand for everyone. You can’t so don’t try. Be specific and then with this knowledge overdo your brand marketing”. This emphasizes the importance of having a specific target audience and focusing your attention on them rather than trying to sell to everyone.

What’s the Cost?

Price is another factor that marketers should consider. Two things to note about pricing are that “marketing changes your pricing (and) pricing changes your market”. Essentially, people will have assumptions of your product based on the price and it acts as a signal for the consumer.

Right now, a lot of things are free. A chef may share her recipe on television for free, but to truly experience it, you’ll have to visit her restaurant. Free things are a way to introduce people to the product, leading them to want the full experience. A great way to introduce something is to earn the permission of your audience. For example, introducing a new Marvel movie at Comic Con with a warm audience. At this point, Marvel isn’t trying to sell tickets, but introduce it to an audience who will then normalize and spread the word about the movie, resulting in the buzz reaching its peak right when tickets go on sale.

The Story of Self, the Story of Us, and the Story of Now

Seth concludes the book by introducing his “simple three-step narrative for action: the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now”. The story of self is your chance to tell the listener that you are someone like them. The story of us is explaining how you’re alike and why they should care about what you have to say. Finally, the story of now explains how you’ll take your tribe on a journey and enlists a feeling of peer pressure to move or make change as a group. It isn't your job as a marketer to scam someone or make them buy something they don’t want, but rather to connect people to their tribe. He says “the best marketers are famers, not hunters: plant, tend, plow, fertilize, weed, repeat”. Meaning that instead of seeking out a customer, to spend time building relationships and adding value to your customer as a way to know you’re doing your job as a marketer right.

Seth has great insights in his book and I found it to be an easy read. While I highlighted the key lessons I learnt from the book I would highly encourage you to read it to learn more of Seth’s tips and to see how you can apply them as a marketer.