Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae Review
All the fuss has died down on Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae book so I thought now would be a good time to chat on it.
The book is very easy to read and I liked how he wrote in 1-2 page chapters. Made it very easy to follow along. His explanation of new marketing was on target.
Here’s what was missing… Branding. Nothing really ever mentioned on how companies can translate new marketing into a big picture branding strategy. After all new marketing is really just a bunch of tactics. Write a blog, build a forum etc. All of these are mere tactics. How do they translate to and interact with a companies brand identity?
I also felt that Seth was somewhat?harsh on traditional media. He lumps TV advertising into one bin and says it’s done. And although I do agree to some extent I also believe that GREAT, targeted?TV Advertising works exceptionally well. And here’s where the rub is…Permission Marketing.
Seth believes that interrupting consumers is bad, hence his disdain for spam, tv commercials, radio ads etc. Whereas I believe that consumers expect interruption but because it’s generally bad they despise it. But I also believe that good, targeted interruption can be very beneficial. Here’s an example:
Say I have a great diabetes?cereal product like Glucerna (http://glucerna.com/product/cereal.aspx), a well targeted email campaign to people with diabetes could be very helpful. Is it Spam? Technically, yes. But it will be of serious help to this targeted list. Will they see it as an interruption? I don’t think so. I have diabetes and saw Glucerna’s TV commercial and immediately went to their website to learn more.
So I do feel like there is a grey area to Permission Marketing. What are your thoughts?
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March 11th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Speaking of branding, would you eat a cereal called “Glucerna”? Might be great stuff, for all I know, but it sure doesn’t sound appetizing. Kind of like “Smart Balance.” Yum!
March 12th, 2009 at 5:16 am
Glucerna is made for people with diabetes, so I would buy and eat it. The name is tied into the glycemic index thought process.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
There’s a gray area for just about everything. Permission can be sender explicit like, “Hey Scott, let me know when you update your blog!” or sender implicit, “I wish I knew a great blog about brands.”
On the receiver side, permission can be inferred, “Hey I’m Scott White damn it and that David guy wants me to email him” Scott an infer many things depending on his reasoning skills.
Reasoning is why there is a gray area for almost anything. To what degree anyone infers, states something explicitly or implicitly gives a marketer the capacity to act simply because communication is two way (or more) and everything has to be interpreted.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:38 am
If there had never been or was no such thing as “interruption marketing” Seth Godin wouldn’t have a job. Besides, if he had his way what would happen to any new product? Well there would still have to be some sort of interruption, a headline would go something like this “Excuse me, sorry I don’t mean to interrupt, but you might interested to hear…”. I’m with Steve Harrison on this, Seth Godin tends to look at badly executed work and cites it as exemplary.