Welcome to another instalment of the Hugoversity library, where members of The Pack read and review PR and marketing-related books to help share the knowledge gained.
Here, Jenn talks us through what she thought of Seth Godin’s This is Marketing: You can’t be seen until you learn to see.
The book is all about truly seeing and understanding the people you seek to influence, so what did she think?
Open your eyes
As the title of the book suggests, this is all about learning to see, opening your eyes to your market, your product and your possibilities. So many marketers make the mistake of simply launching their product in the marketplace with all the subtlety and tact of a battleship, without even thinking about the end consumer. Without looking at them. Or even the product being offered to them.
One helpful tool in the book is using a set of axes to better position yourself. What is important to the consumer? Cost? Speed? Security? Values? Ingredients? Security? Organic? Good for the planet? Ease of transport? Delivery cost? Delivery time? Whether this be a bag of crisps or a car, how you create, position, then market your product needs to be in line with what your audience wants to see.
Know what you stand for
I’m slightly ashamed to admit that one of the things that resonated with me most in this book, wasn’t actually written by this author, but another.
Citing Bernadette Jiwa, Seth lists her 10 things that good stories do, and makes you think about whether yours does – and whether you need to find one that’s truer and more effective.
So, good stories should:
- Connect us to our purpose and vision
- Allow us to celebrate our strengths by remembering how we got from there to here
- Deepen our understanding of our unique value and what differentiates us in the marketplace
- Reinforce our core values
- Help us to act in alignment and make value-based decisions
- Encourage us to respond to customers instead of reacting to the market
- Attract customers who want to support businesses that reflect or represent their values
- Build brand loyalty and give customers a story to tell
- Attract the kind of like-minded employees we want
- Help us to stay motivated and continue to do work we’re proud of
Have a plan
Above anything else, marketing is a game of goals, strategy and tactics.
Tactics are easy – you either have/use them or you don’t.
Strategy is more of an umbrella, and less tangible. It’s the work the tactics seek to support.
Your goal is the change you want to see, the destination of your strategy and tactics.
Knowing what each of these are will help you to reach the right people.
Let’s take Coca-Cola. Their goal is to get more people to drink their product. Their strategy was to run a phenomenal number of ads. Their tactic was the content of their ads – which kept changing.
But that’s not to say that every tactic (ad) is going to succeed. Which in turn doesn’t mean your strategy has failed and you won’t reach your goal. It simply means that you need to adjust, try a different tactic and get back on track.
What did we think?
I have to admit something: I didn’t enjoy this book. It took me a long time to read, and I found it difficult to get through.
While I don’t think that’s down to the content – Seth Godin is a highly revered author and marketer, and the book itself is a New York Times bestseller after all – but more the delivery, the format of the book and style of writing. That being said, I have been able to take some pearls of wisdom and food for thought from it.
What did we learn?
That the days of marketing simply comprising magazine, TV or radio ads to reach your audience is long gone. But we knew that.
That you need to take an approach that identifies underlying desires, using storytelling to generate a group of fans. But we knew that.
Personalise your marketing to your core audience to turn them from customers to advocates, doing your marketing for you. But we knew that.
If you’re new to the marketing game, this may help you, but the style of writing, examples used and paragraphs that seem to neither link or lead anywhere, may result in frustration and calling the Radio Times to book your next half page.
