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Bestselling author, Entrepreneur and Agent of change. Seth's blog can be found at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
June 2008
Monday June 30, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 11:43AM EST on June 30, 2008
At every turn, Pixar messed up the marketing of their new movie. It has a hard to spell name, no furry characters, not nearly enough dialogue (the first 45 minutes is almost silent), no nasty (but ultimately ridiculous) bad guy,...
Sunday June 29, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:54AM EST on June 29, 2008
Imagine that half the cars in the US get 10 miles per gallon. And half get 40 miles per gallon. Further stipulate that all cars are driven the same number of miles per year. Now, you get one wish. You...
Friday June 27, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:53AM EST on June 27, 2008
One more post about conferences. (Except it's really about any meeting). Easily overlooked, but incredibly important: the way you arrange the room where people speak. The venue owner (hotel/convention center) wants something easy. Your boss wants something cheap. You want...
Wednesday June 25, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:11PM EST on June 25, 2008
You really don't understand a concept until you know what it's made of. The taxonomy of marketing (filled with a bazillion tactics) is murky at best. The tactics are so numerous, expensive and sometimes emotional that we easily focus on...
Tuesday June 24, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:20PM EST on June 24, 2008
I'm moving this week (new mailing address: Box 305, Irvington, NY 10533). That meant a grueling marathon with the single worst voice routing VR system the world has ever known: Verizon. Rants online can be good for the soul, but...
Monday June 23, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:27PM EST on June 23, 2008
It's not very often you hear people use the word "fell" without the obligatory "swoop", but the combination is common enough that we all know what it means. Except it rarely happens. We expect that a big marketing campaign can...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:34AM EST on June 23, 2008
I hear quite a few presentations given at conferences. Approximately 5% of the official welcome speech consists of a litany of thanks. The organizer is busy thanking the committee that handled the arrangements, the sponsors, the executive director, the tireless...
Saturday June 21, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:17AM EST on June 21, 2008
At the next conference you run, allocate an hour for table sessions. Divide the number of attendees by 10. That's how many tables of ten you need. Give each table a theme or topic (entrepreneurship, shoe collectors, whining about the...
Friday June 20, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:59AM EST on June 20, 2008
Your sales force and your customers may scream that you need to lower your price. It's not true. You need to increase your value. If people don't want to pay, it's because you're not delivering enough value for the money...
Thursday June 19, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 4:03AM EST on June 19, 2008
Might be of interest to investors, readers, writers, designers, marketers, etc. Or not... Two months ago, I got a Kindle. It's a fascinating device, unlike almost any other launched by a significant tech company. Here's why: 1. It's for women...
Wednesday June 18, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:19AM EST on June 18, 2008
When I first wrote about Little Miss Matched about five years ago, they were an obscure little sock company, selling funky socks to fashionable girls. The idea was beyond clever. 3 to a box, 133 styles, none of them match....
Tuesday June 17, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:45AM EST on June 17, 2008
Is this the best I can do? I’ve paid for the rent and the furnishings and the menus and the staff and the insurance... is this plate of food worthy of what went before it? I’ve flown across the country...
Monday June 16, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 3:06PM EST on June 16, 2008
As part of a promotion we're doing, I built a Squidoo page about my friend Jacqueline. It got me thinking about what it takes to make change, particularly change in the way markets respond. Markets are big and slow and...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 1:41AM EST on June 16, 2008
Dave Balter, an old friend and colleague, has written a new book. It costs $45 on Amazon. But, for my loyal readers...you can get a copy of the ebook (the entire book) for free here. The way he is bringing...
Sunday June 15, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 10:48AM EST on June 15, 2008
If the best thing you can think of is a bad pun, random capitalization and a weak photo (salt and pepper included!) it's probably better to do nothing at all. Nothing at all is actually the biggest difference between professional...
Saturday June 14, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:22AM EST on June 14, 2008
Take a listen to this montage of three songs. Listen to mp3 Any guesses as to what you just heard? Go ahead, I'll wait. That's right, it's the Silver Beats, a group of four young men from Japan that have...
Friday June 13, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:20AM EST on June 13, 2008
In study after study, respondents rate themselves as less racist than average, smarter than average, more generous than average. And though they are never asked, I'm pretty certain that your customers also believe that they are righter than average as...
Thursday June 12, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 2:50PM EST on June 12, 2008
We answered all three, at least pretty much. You can move on, now. Nothing to see here...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 1:16PM EST on June 12, 2008
Okay, if you have an answer, tell me (and a source, if you have it) and I'll post the answers inside this post as I get them: 1. How did Economics get to be its own academic department? Surely, before...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:42AM EST on June 12, 2008
Perhaps you haven't heard of either term, but there's no doubt you've seen or heard of both. An easter egg is a hidden treasure, usually inside of a video game. For example, in an old version of the Mac, pressing...
Wednesday June 11, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:31AM EST on June 11, 2008
Some tips on creating useful serial numbers (yes, it matters). It's easy to program your series and design your products to avoid these problems. That leads to happier customers who feel smarter: Don't use 0 or 1 or O or...
Tuesday June 10, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:33AM EST on June 10, 2008
Fear is a powerful driver of decisions Without fear, no one would use seatbelts... you don't use them because they're fun, you use them because you worry about what would happen if you crashed without them. The challenge of marketing...
Monday June 9, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:38AM EST on June 9, 2008
If I could only share one piece of personal finance advice to grads or to just about anyone, it would be this: Only borrow money to pay for things that increase in value. It's a short list: your business, your...
Sunday June 8, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:26AM EST on June 8, 2008
Like you, I'd heard scares about cell phones increasing the risk of brain cancer. While this is a scary story, it's not so vivid. After all, it takes years to get brain cancer, there are countless factors involved and it's...
Saturday June 7, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:40AM EST on June 7, 2008
So, very soon, you will own a cell phone that has a very good camera and knows where you are within ten or fifteen feet. And the web will know who you are and who your friends are. What happens?...
Thursday June 5, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:53AM EST on June 5, 2008
That's what everyone wants. Not a process or an approach. Not a treatment or an attempt. Not a best effort or a thoughtful response. They want their problems cured. Doctors, of course, can rarely provide a cure. Neither can accountants...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 2:27AM EST on June 5, 2008
Before you hit send on that next email, perhaps you should run down this list, just to be sure: Is it going to just one person? (If yes, jump to #10) Since it's going to a group, have you thought...
Wednesday June 4, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 2:01AM EST on June 4, 2008
Copy gets in the way. Actually, thinking about copy gets in the way. You start writing and then you patch and layer and write and dissemble and defend and write and the next thing you know, you've killed it. So,...
Tuesday June 3, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:20AM EST on June 3, 2008
Grand openings are severely overrated. So are product launches and galas of all sorts. Make a list of successful products in your industry. Most of them didn't start big. Not the Honda Accord or Facebook, not Aetna Insurance, not JetBlue...
Monday June 2, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 3:48PM EST on June 2, 2008
Today's New York Times reports an astonishing fact: Book publishers wholesale their ebooks to Amazon for precisely the same price as their paper books. Amazon loses money on every ebook for the Kindle they sell because publishers don't discount zero-cost...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:08AM EST on June 2, 2008
You, a type designer? Of course you are. You are if you make presentations in PowerPoint or Keynote, or if you have a resume, or create signs or brochures or ebooks or even a blog. And sadly, it seems that...
Sunday June 1, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:57PM EST on June 1, 2008
Rob Walker's (great!) new book on the overlooked triggers of marketing ships this week. Clay Shirky's book on social media is a classic for the ages. N. Kelby's funny mystery ships this week as well. Tom Vanderbilt's book on traffic...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:50AM EST on June 1, 2008
Let's say the person in charge of your retail operations does the following every single day: Puts up a sign indicating which of five doors customers should use. Locks that door. Randomly unlocks another door. When someone figures out which...
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