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Number
8: June 25, 2003
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This week in Katydid:
Never
Out of Fashion
I had the good fortune to take part in the Purple Cow Round Up here in
Phoenix last week. The event, sponsored by Corp-Net, featured Seth
Godin, author of Purple Cow and reluctant marketing messiah.
Mr. Godin says that the marketing model of sponsored interruptions
has been replaced though marketers continue to use it with increasing
desperation. According to Godin, because people have so many media
choices they have become experts at avoiding interruptions.
Godin says marketers need to create remarkable products that gain
awareness through word of mouth. These are purple cows standing out in a
field of Guernseys. Godin says that marketers are really in the fashion
business.
I'm a big fan of Godin's from his previous work Unleashing the
Ideavirus, but I bristle at the idea of being in the fashion industry.
My head fills with thoughts of being back in high school in my Angel
Flight slacks and Members Only
jacket. Fashion is not pretty.
On the other hand, he's right; as much as I hate it, Pop culture is
American culture. It's our common ground across ethnic diversity and
it's our main export. That does not mean appealing to the lowest common
denominator; it means appealing to people that start trends rather than
to trendy people.
I don't know Godin's intentions; he seems to encourage any kind of
differentiation; but I hope this leads to a market dominated by products
and services that are remarkable because they are truly exceptional.
We've heard that you sell the sizzle and not the steak, but when I buy
the sizzle, I expect the steak. Too often, I get beef jerky.
And I want to help my clients market wonderful things. I want my
clients to find the right audience. There's no worse task that to try to
find another word for exciting, new, or important. People who start
trends know exciting, new, and important when they see it. It's our job
to draw their attention to it.
So, in the end, Godin's vision of remarkable marketing is classic
marketing really. Ninety percent of the work is done before any copy
ever is written. Marketing should mean going out and researching what
people want, and then developing the product to exceed that need in a
remarkable manner. When you have a clever product, it's easy to create
clever campaigns.
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Preaching
to the Converted
The Purple Cow Round Up also featured Jackie Huba, co-author of Creating
Customer Evangelists, How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales
Force. (That reminds me, I plan on writing a book called, Creating
Titles, How to Create Subtitles that Really Should Be the Main Title But
Would Be Hard to Quote).
Jackie Huba gave a rousing presentation (with complimentary Krispy
Kremes) that dovetailed nicely with Godin's. Her book contains many case
studies of businesses that motivate trendsetters to become vocal
proponents of their product. She says you need to find those people that
are the hubs of your network (meaning people who have large personal
networks) and give them tools to spread the word.
I think this works better for existing brands. In fact, it seems that
the order of presentations ought to have been reversed (as I have done
here) because Godin's model is a great way to think about starting a new
brand, and Huba's model picks up where his leaves off.
However, there's something of an extraverted bravado to these
strategies, and I wonder how one would apply them to a product that
appealed to a more introverted audience (or a more personal product). I
suspect you would need to create a product remarkably understated,
followed by a campaign to give these reserved trendsetters an exclusive
way to let their closest friends in on the deal.
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Rounding
Out the Round Up
Finally, the Purple Cow Round Up included a panel discussion with
Godin, Huba and two marketers from Phoenix: Tonya James from MindGame
Marketing and Steve Bast from Cramer-Krasselt. Having worked with
MindGame Marketing from their inception, it was personally gratifying to
see them receive so much positive attention during the event. Both Tonya
and Steve fielded questions expertly.
If you have a chance to attend one of these events, I recommend
going. (Beth Gallob, the local Corp-Net coordinator, says they're
planning a new event for August). I have a feeling that the Round Up may have been
a seminal event for Phoenix. These strategies work and Phoenix is
fertile ground for implementing them. The prevalence of smaller,
boutique firms, the relative youth of the network, and the pool of
incredibly sharp talent, all contribute to a forward-thinking community
of marketers. Don't be surprised if in ten years one or two of the
pre-eminent firms in the nation base themselves in the Valley.
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Kind regards,
Kevin Troy Darling
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