800-CEO-READ - Blog posts: All Marketers Are Liars

As the progenitor of literally dozens of brandings most popular buzzwords, Seth Godin is virtually responsible for the entire lexicon of modern marketing.

A one-time Yahoo marketing VP, self-proclaimed "change agent," and author of bestsellers from Permission Marketing to Unleashing the Idea Virus to All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, Godin has long argued that successful companies must stifle the "antichange reflex" to build brands and create products that practically sell themselves.

Of course, harnessing change takes on new importance in an era when mobile technologies promise to extend the brand experience as never before.

RICK MATHIESON: Invoking Darwin, youve said the companies that are best able to adapt to change-to "make something happen"-will thrive. But you simultaneously argue that its the small ideas and the low-cost, low-risk tests-evolutionary steps versus evolutionary steps-that often result in the largest ROI. What does that mean to companies that might be thinking about using mobile technologies to competitive advantage?

SETH GODIN: I dont think there is such a thing as revolution in nature. I think nature just does evolution, and its

revolution that gets all the good publicity. But its pretty rare. Today, business is about irrevocable, irresistible, accelerating change that every company is wrestling with. Its about how innovation-mobile Internet technology or anything else-can change the ground rules of an entire industry.

What Im telling companies is, dont sit around waiting until you have the perfect solution, because the perfect is the enemy of the good. In the enterprise space, I can easily imagine a sales force with fifty people, where you give ten people the sort of mobile toolkit that has the potential to increase their efficiency and gives them the freedom to test and to try things and to keep evolving. Pretty soon the other forty people will be yelling and clamoring and saying they want that stuff too. Thats how change happens. And the companies that experiment like that will be able to identify what works, what doesnt, and what could lead to fundamental new ways to do business.

RM: What does this mean for consumer goods companies-the Pepsi-Colas of the world--who might be exploring ways to use the wireless Web to create remarkable experiences?

SG: The bad news about packaged goods companies is, they built their business model around something that was true a hundred years ago. Just because they were really successful and really profitable selling sugar water, doesnt mean that thats a guarantee its going to be true in the future. Procter & Gamble is sucking wind, and will probably do so for the foreseeable future, because the mantra of supermarkets and television arent whatre driving our economy anymore, but thats what drives their companies. So when I look at, "Can I use my cell phone to buy something from a Coke machine?" I think thats sort of a cool innovation, and its probably going to happen. But its not going to change the dynamic of their business in a big way, in my humble opinion. If I were one of those packaged goods companies, Id be scrambling as hard as I can to say, "How can we be in a completely different business five years from now?" If were going to be in a completely different business five years from now, we better start now trying lots of little things so that we know what the big things going to be when we need it.

RM: Whats an example of an innovation that could attract customers in the wireless age?

SG: Well, I can tell you what Id like. I call it My Own Private Idaho. I want a device, maybe using Bluetooth, that I keep in my pocket. And I want it to tell every merchant, when I walk into their store, where Ive been-sort of like [an Internet] cookie for the real world.

So now, if Im in the mall and I just spent a fortune at Abercrombie and Fitch, and I walk in to the Gap, all those guys with the headsets instantly get word that Im a big important customer, and they drop everything and run over and fawn over me like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. And then when Im done browsing, I just throw the merchandise I want in the bag, and I leave-because the system knows who I am, and it knows how to charge me, the way Amazon remembers my one-click preferences, and Im on to the next store.

I want to subscribe to that, and I will gladly permit the businesses my mobile carrier signs up with to know everything about me. I insist they know everything about me.

RM: As you know, these sorts of scenarios are becoming reality, sometimes connecting directly to consumers via mobile devices, sometimes transparently through RFID and other technologies. Why should companies be looking at wireless as a brand enabler?

SG: [As soon as businesses realize that wireless is] an asset that increases in value, as opposed to a wasting asset or a

decreasing asset that you use up, then we end up with a whole different business dynamic.

In the future, the stuff that used to work isnt going to. Thats nature. The early adopters in mobile are the ones who pay all the bills, because after you get to critical mass, its all gravy. What do early adopters want? They want to save time, and they want to save money. If you cant figure out how to deliver that, wireless technologies arent going to help. The secret is trying small pilots, new experiments, to see where things might go, so you can ride the next wave of innovation. Because as long as change is the only constant, evolving businesses will always win.

BOOK REVIEW: What is Your Life
Posted June 7, 2005 10:24 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Personal Development - 800 CEO Read Blog

What is Your Lifes Work by Bill Jensen

Review by Paul Gladen

What Is Your Lifes Work( WIYLW) is a collection of letters written by 64 disparate individuals to loved ones about their experience of work. Why should you want to read that? How could this book possibly help you be more successful in your work and life? Whats the big idea? Wheres the 10 step program for career success? Where are the words of wisdom from the self-help guru or captain of industry?

But thats the beauty of this book, its sheer simplicity in concept and the restraint shown in analyzing the lessons to be learnt from the 64 letters. Its also a great read. This book trumps reality TV. This book grabs your attention with real people writing about real work and real lives. Its raw and often emotional. Its usually brutally honest and the insights are based on hard learned experience.

If Seth Godin hadnt used it for All Marketers are Liars the subtitle to this book could have been The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low Trust World. If All Marketers Are Liars is a book about the stories we tell ourselves about products and services then WIYLW is about the stories we tell ourselves (and others) about ourselves.

If you are unhappy with your work, or the balance in your life, chances are youre telling yourself a lie to justify inaction. You tell yourself that youll change jobs next year or that the kids understand why you work so late. If these words have you shifting a little uncomfortably on your chair, you can be sure that several of the letters in WIYLW will hit home. But theyll hit home in a constructive way as you realize the situation you face is by no means unique and as you discover these ordinary people found a way to confront and change their situation. WIYLW has a very positive message. Each letter writer has reached some level of understanding or awareness that has given them clarity and a sense of both peace and passion about their work and life.

Every writer tells an authentic story about the work theyve done, the mistakes theyve made, how theyve found the right priorities and how theyve found work that matters to them. Many of the letters seek to draw out the insights and principles that their loved ones should try to learn from and these insights are thought provoking and occasionally profound. However, the letters are at their most powerful when they discuss real situations and real decisions and leave the reader to extract the lesson.

Bill Jensen has organized the letters into what he calls the 5 Discoveries and also provides a Field Guide to getting started. But, like any other book focused on personal development or improvement, it cant make change happen for you (and Bill Jensen doesnt try to claim he can). The 5 Discoveries and Field Guide are like a knife and fork, theyre potentially useful, but largely irrelevant if youre not hungry or cant stomach the food in front of you. WILYW wont be for everyone some people just wont connect with it (although they may be the people that need it most). But that said this book is relevant to people regardless of background. One of its most appealing aspects is that the stories are told by such a diverse group of individuals - a prison guard, a strategy and planning manager, a fishmonger.

From a personal perspective, this book definitely connected with me. Over the last 3 years I have made my own discoveries some enforced others not that have lead me closer to my lifes work. There were many situations and learnings in the letters that had me recollecting similar points in my earlier career and relating to the changes Ive experienced in the last 3 years. That recognition is valuable to me. But I will also take away an additional perspective from this book. If you dont read WIYLW simply as self-help, but rather read it as 64 letters written by people who may be your friends, family, customers, work colleagues or the next customer service agent you deal with, it provides a powerful insight into the motivations and personal battles of those around us. Using this book and its insights to help others achieve their lifes work may prove to be the most rewarding lifes work of all.

Paul Gladens work is in the field of foresight + innovation. www.muzeview.com/changeyourfuture

Businesspundit Reviews All Marketers Are Liars
Posted June 7, 2005 3:22 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Marketing - 800 CEO Read Blog

Rob at Businesspundit posted a review of All Marketers Are Liars.

He starts with:

Two thoughts kept running through my head as I read All Marketers Are Liars.
Seth Godin is not a marketer.
If you are implementing a marketing plan, this book is not for you.

I assure you it is not that simple. Check his review out.

More Reading from All Marketers Are Liars
Posted May 31, 2005 4:02 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Uncategorized - 800 CEO Read Blog

Seth Godin ends All Marketers Are Liars with a list of other books worth reading:

Crossing the Chasm by Geoffery Moore

Positioning by Trout and Ries

In Pursuit of Wow! and The Tom Peters Seminar by Tom Peters

Blink by Malcolm Galdwell

Selling the Dream by Guy Kawasaki

The Republic of Tea by Bill Rosenzweig and Mel Ziegler (out of print)

Don't Think Of An Elephant!/How Democrats And Progressives Can Win by George Lakoff

Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar

Why We Buy by Paco Underhill