Here’s a 6-minute video where I talk about some of the great ideas in Andy Nulman’s new book:
1:00 – I talk about why I wasn’t crazy about the first chapter, even though I liked the rest of the book.
1:43 – How Wilkes University used Surprise Marketing to recruit new students.
3:46 – My favorite marketing/design idea from the book: New York’s Amazing Food Wine Co.
NY's Amazing Food Wine Co. design
… over the last few weeks. I’m overdue for this type of post, so it will be longer than normal.
Books I’ve been reading
The Starfish and the Spider by O. Brafman & R. Beckstrom — Excellent, highly recommended. I loved Brafman’s Sway, and while this book is very different, it’s also a lot better in many ways. The authors do a great job at breaking down the dynamics of decentralized organizations. Couple this with Long Tail and Pirate’s Dilemma, and you’ll have a solid grasp on how the web has radically changed things forever.
A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink — My favorite book so far this year. The people who will excel in this world are the ones who have a strong right-brain (the artistic, emotional side). I had about 15 new business ideas for one of my clients while reading this, so it was the worth the cost for that alone.
And the Hippos Were Boiled in their Tanks by J. Kerouac & W.S. Burroughs — I had to buy this when I saw the cover. Two very unique authors co-wrote this before anyone knew who they were. If you’re really into Kerouac or Burroughs, you’ll appreciate it. The story isn’t that great, but it is an excellent period piece.
Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard — My second favorite book this year. This is Adam’s true story about how, after graduating from college, he decides to see if he can get himself out of a homeless shelter and into a full-time job with only $25 to his name. The author is a genuine humanist and a very good writer, as well. His story was really fun and inspirational to read and it was hard to put this book down. You’ll definitely want to read this, especially if you’re in your early-20′s.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig — Meandering and very little substance in the philosophical passages. I made it about 200 pages into this before putting it down. Would have put it down a lot sooner but two of my very close friends recommended this to me. I have no idea what they were thinking. Skip it.
How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael Gelb — Remember that “No idols” post I did? Uh yea, I take it back. Da Vinci was insanely brilliant and ahead of his time in every imaginable way. I have a newfound respect for him, even though I thought I knew a lot about him already. This is an interesting book, worth flipping through.
Survival is Not Enough by Seth Godin — Another smart book by Seth. Here’s the thing: if you’re familiar with his other works, you probably don’t need to read this book. You already know that mediocre businesses that stifle innovation and fear change will die out in the long-run. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check this out.
A few great articles
Obama’s social media toolkit — Download this right now, it’s fantastic. Probably the best thing I’ve read regarding Obama’s online marketing efforts.
Ten politically incorrect truths about human nature — From Psychology Today. A stimulating article throughout.
How do I make good art? — I asked Tucker this question and his response started a thread. Absorb what Tucker says, and be careful with everyone else’s advice. I could be wrong, but it seems like a lot of the people who responded are armchair quarterbacks.
Gilt Groupe: online retail phenomenon — From my buddy Matt Daniels. This is the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
What I’ve been watching
Final Cut tutorials — I’m trying to teach myself Final Cut and it’s a beast. Way more complex than Photoshop, Flash, and iMovie. Most of the tutorials I’ve come across have been lame, but this guy’s Vimeo account is awesome. Really straightforward tutorials that you can follow along with.
Daniel Tosh’s comedy — I got to see him live on Saturday night, and he was excellent. You know it was a good show when you overhear people outside saying, “He was hilarious, but man was he offensive.” Download some of his stuff, you’ll love it.
I just finished “Positioning” by Al Ries & Jack Trout (the authors of one of my favorite marketing books, “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing“). A bit outdated but still an extremely important book.
Originally, I planned on covering the important concepts like I did in the post on “Grapevine,” but I decided to share one of the more memorable examples from the book instead:
Sometimes you can want too much. You can want to own a position that’s too broad… This, of course, is the everybody trap, and one example is a famous campaign for a beer called Rheingold. This brewery wanted to preempt New York City’s working class… So they produced some marvelous commercials featuring Italians drinking Rheingold, Blacks drinking Rheingold, Irish drinking Rheingold, Jews drinking Rheingold, and so on.
Well, rather than appeal to everybody, they ended up appealing to nobody. The reason was simple. Prejudice being a basic human commodity, the fact that one ethnic group drank Rheingold sure didn’t impress another ethnic group. In fact, all the campaign did was alienate every ethnic group in New York.
Trying to be everything to everyone is a recipe for failure. You have to decide who you will not market to. In fact, it can be extremely beneficial (and profitable) to actively exclude other groups. You will polarize the crowd — most will dislike you, but the rest will become your diehard fans. In a world where most businesses have castrated themselves with “safe” and “politically correct,” you will stand above the mediocre.
If no one is discontent and the response to your product is tepid, you screwed up.
I recently read “Grapevine,” a book about word-of-mouth marketing written by the guys who founded BzzAgent. It’s a pretty solid book, although I still think Sernovitz’s is a bit more practical for most companies.
Here are some of the more important marketing ideas/concepts that I took away from “Grapevine.” Keep these in mind for your company:
About a month ago, I got an email that said I’d won a scholarship to a marketing conference in Chicago. Specifically, the “Word of Mouth Crash Course” hosted by GasPedal. This was a nice surprise, but not necessarily worth telling other people about.
Then I got a package this last week from GasPedal with a free autographed copy of Andy Sernovitz’s new book, “Word of Mouth Marketing.”
Brilliant. Sending me a surprise free book (that I coincidentally had on my Amazon wish list) a few weeks before I left for Chicago was a great move on their part. Why? Because it genuinely made me want to review it on this site, thus spreading the W.O.M. for his book.
Andy’s book actually turned out to be great, and should be required reading for every single company on the planet if they want to learn what all good marketers have already figured out: that online word-of-mouth is the easiest, cheapest, and most effective form of marketing you have at your disposal.
The most important point, I think, in his book is that the worst thing a company can do is to not join the online discussion. And if you think your company couldn’t possibly have anything to gain from employee blogs, message boards, Flickr accounts, Youtube videos, etc., think again.
Andy talks about Fiskars, the scissors manufacturer, and how they managed to set up an incredibly active gallery for fans of scrapbooking. Seriously. If a scissor company can do this stuff, anyone can.
I did have a few bones to pick with some of the things Andy wrote, but they were relatively small details. For instance, in the introduction chapter, he says “only about 20 percent of word of mouth happens online. When it does play a role, it usually sparks the 80 percent of word of mouth conversations that actually happen face to face.” I have no clue where he got this figure, and assume he just made it up because it feels right, in the style of Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness.” But like I said, it was one of a few minor points and it doesn’t detract from the book, overall.
Buy this book if you want to know the right way to do online marketing. The advice is simple, practical, and devastatingly effective when employed correctly.
