This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See Hardcover – Illustrated, November 13, 2018

I'm not a marketing expert, but have experience in running start-up businesses. In this book, Seth provides the most powerful elements in helping your business stand out in a way that any business owner can understand. This is a must read for any start-up or small business owner.

I’ve owned my business for 21 years, but Seth Godin’s book, This Is Marketing, has transformed the way I think about marketing. I think this book could be called, The Philosophy of Modern Marketing, or Marketing that is Truly Effective.I used to think of marketing as a series of tasks I needed to do each month in order to drum up new business.Now I see marketing as a noble adventure with the intent to create meaningful change in some part of the world. On page 144, Seth talks about “your quest to matter.” That’s a beautiful way to some up his perspective on marketing. It’s not a task. It’s a quest, a call to adventure, something in sync with Joseph Campbell’s work on The Hero’s Journey.Seth emphasizes three critically important questions:1. What change are you trying to make?2. Who are you seeking to change?3. What promise can you make to your potential customers? (Hint: your promise needs to connect to the change you want to make in the world.)He points out that the primary purpose of marketing is to create change in the world; meaningful, positive change.Then in Chapter 10 he explains how important it is to create tension that causes people to make a decision to work with you. On page 121, he wrote, “There are two ways to do your work. You can be a cab driver. Show up and ask someone where they want to go. Charge them based on the meter. Or you can be an agent of change, someone who creates tension and then relieves it.”This reminds me of Joseph Campbell’s retelling of the story about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. King Arthur challenged the knights to go on a quest for the Holy Grail. Then one of the knights stood and said, “We should all enter the forest at a different point, a place where there is no path. We should carve out our own path in our pursuit of the Holy Grail.”To me, that’s what Seth is telling us to do. Carve out your own path by clarifying the change you want to make in the world, which is your Holy Grail, and then steadily, day after day, stay on that quest to create that change for the people who need that change.Early in the book I decided to put a star next to statements that really meant a lot to me. By the end of the book I had over 70 stars and most of the book underlined. Here are some of the most powerful statements for me:(Page 12) “Marketers make change happen: for the smallest viable audience, and by delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages that people actually want to get.”(Page 12) “Marketers have the empathy to know that those they seek to serve don’t want what the marketer wants, don’t believe what they believe, and don’t care about what they care about.”(Page 20) “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.”(Page 28) “You have no chance of changing everyone. You need to change someone. Which ones? Do they share a psychographic?”(Page 65) “Our calling is to make a difference. A chance to make things better for those we seek to serve…Not for your own benefit, but because of what it can produce for others.”(Page 70) “Great marketing is the generous and audacious work of saying, ‘I see a better alternative; come with me.’”(Page 81) “Marketers make change. We change people from one emotional state to another. We take people on a journey; we help them become the person they’ve dreamed of becoming, a little bit at a time.”Do you see what I mean? Over and over and over Seth is teaching a new philosophy of modern marketing. Decide on the change you want to make, decide on who to change, and make a promise as to what those people will gain from you to make that change.I can’t encourage you enough to read, This Is Marketing. I believe you will see your marketing work as a noble adventure to make great and positive change in the world. And the book is filled with nuances and processes for you to consider as you move your marketing into action.

This is the first book I read by Godin, and I've enjoyed it so much that I will certainly read more of his works in the future. In the past I read marketing books for pleasure, not to be 'manipulated' by advertisers, i.e. as a shield kind of thing. Cialdini's first book ('Influence') has always been a book of reference for me in that regard. However, I've always felt that it fell short for the needs of the modern contemporary Internet-dominated society and market. This is Marketing fills the gap, adding elements that are relevant to the social, cultural and marketing reality of the 21st century; elements that I can use to think about selling my services without having to think about learning psychological tactics that are already well-known, have been used and overused for decades, and no longer work.TARGET READER> Godin's book is a more a book that gives you food-for-thought than a book that provides you with a proper system to implement things. Godin himself states that this is not a step-by-step set of tactics by a compass and, to me, that's true. To me that's inspirational.> I see the book more targeted to lay people and small biz entrepreneurs than a book devoted to professional marketers, who might react with a 'what?!" to some of the points that Godin makes.GODIN'S CORE MARKETING PRINCIPLES+ Marketing seeks more market share, more customers, and more work.+ Marketing is driven by better service, better community, and better outcomes.+ Marketing creates culture: Status, affiliation, and people like us.+ Marketing is change: Change the culture, change your world. Marketers make change happen.+ Each of us is a marketer and has the ability to make more change than we can imagine.+ Our opportunity and our obligation is to do marketing that we’re proud of.GREAT THINGS+ The thing I like the most about this book is Godin's understanding of contemporary group dynamics, conformity trends, cultural disruption, and cultural influence. Above all, what stands out to me is the author's emphasis on serving the client or customer, treating them with respect, and not selling yourself too short in the process.+ Probably because I experience the over-dominance of Facebook and Google as something dangerous and even burdensome, I loved Godin's insistence on narrative instead of advertising, and on care as a way to obtain profit.+ Godin debunks the fallacy of the efficiency of FB and Google paid adds in marketing small businesses.+ The book reads with gusto, and has a very simple language.+ Some of the examples that Godin uses to exemplify his points are really good, too.+ The explanation of why the same book gets both 1-star and 5-star reviews is really good.+ The advice on how to treat loyal customers who ring a call center to complain.+ The definition of goal, and how it differs from a strategy and a tactic.+ The difference between direct marketing and brand marketing, and why the latter is better for your biz.+ The selected readings list at the end of the book is really good.MY FAVORITE NUGGETS> "Online advertising is also the most ignored advertising ever created. It’s not unusual to run an ad in front of a hundred thousand people and get not a single click. It’s not unusual for an entire ad campaign to start, run, and finish without making any impact on the culture. (p. 169).> "If you’re buying direct marketing ads, measure everything. Compute how much it costs you to earn attention, to get a click, to turn that attention into an order. Direct marketing is action marketing, and if you’re not able to measure it, it doesn’t count." (p. 172).> "The lifetime value of a new customer rarely exceeds the cost of running the ads necessary to get a new customer. People are so distrustful, and the web is so cluttered, that the ads rarely have enough power to pay for themselves." (p. 210).> "Lowering your price doesn’t make you more trusted. It does the opposite." (p. 185).WHERE TO START READING~ The Simple Marketing Sheet at the end of the book, especially if you get to book to help you market something you want to sell.~ Chapter 23, because it summarizes the main points discussed in the book .DOWNSIDES__ The core message is repeated over and over again, sometimes unnecessarily.__ I would have loved that Godin provided a few more examples on certain points he makes to make his advice more precise and less generic.__ Some statements are a bit vague. An example: "And then, with this knowledge, overdo your brand marketing. Every slice of every interaction ought to reflect the whole. Every time we see any of you, we ought to be able to make a smart guess about all of you." (p. 175).__ The book reads like an upgraded collection of blog entries, which makes a great read, but lacks the patina of seriousness that makes things trustworthy for the newcomer. When you get a footnote system where you back what you say, the trust is immediately there; when you don't do that, I have the doubt whether some of the statements are hyperbolic or just a way of speaking. No doubt, Godin is a powerful voice in the marketing world, but I have difficulties taking bombastic statements at face value, no matter how much I like the speaker.__ Godin defines marketing in p. 2 as "the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem". I consider that BS, sorry. I think marketing is the act of selling something to people who might need or not need it, might want it or not, especially the act of selling to people who would initially say no to something.__ Godin repeats over and over that marketers create change. I think that's a bit of BS, too. The way I see it is, marketers sell change, and that's great in itself. People who really make change in the world, do so mostly outside the marketing world, sorry. The world of ideas, the word of science, the world of art, the world of technology. I see change coming from scientists, philosophers, artists, and innovators, not so much from marketers. Navel-looking hyperbolas work when giving a conference, in a book, not so much.MINDGodin himself states that the book is based on a hundred-day seminar that involved both lessons and peer-to-peer coaching around shared work. (p.2), and that some bits of his blog are also incorporated (p. 259).BAD ENGLISH> “Treat the others the way you’d want to be treated.” (p. 234).> “Build a team with the capacity and the patience to do the work that needs doing.” (p. 235).