A Game-changing Approach to Change the Game of Marketing

Marketing is not only a short-term strategy but a long-term goal. Throughout the journey, you need to seek not merely your audience's attention, but earn trust and build a successful brand.

Summarized by Javen Loh, Marketing Manager of White Forest Suites

Book: This is Marketing

Author: Seth Godin

This book suggests that a successful marketing strategy should focus on the needs, values and desires of the target audience in order to earn their attention, trust and action. Many tend to assume that marketing means advertising. Tons of money has been spent on getting their products or services in front of as many people as possible without measuring what they really got out of this.

Below are the three important lessons from This Is Marketing:

1. Make Changes Nowadays, there are very few things that people buy because they actually ‘need’ them. Aside from food and drinks, everything else falls into the ‘because I want them’ category. You don’t need branded goods or the latest iPhone 12; you buy simply because of how it makes you feel. That’s right, the job of marketers is not to steal from people’s wallets but to attack their feelings and emotions. In answering the question, the author suggested that we need to understand the dreams/desires and fears of our audience, such as adventure, belonging, affection, avoiding new things, control, health, respect, nostalgia and many more. A solution to these demands would make a great marketing plan. There is no need to steal from your competitors to increase your market share. Instead, show empathy and offer good service is how you win the game of marketing. A metaphor shared in this book is that ‘it doesn’t make any sense to make a key and then run around looking for a lock to open. The only productive solution is to find a lock and then fashion a key.’ It makes sense, doesn’t it? The biggest challenge in marketing is that everyone always acts in accordance with their internal narrative so you can’t force someone to do something they don’t want to. However, we need to know that any thoughts we have are not predetermined but learned based on one simple idea that ‘because people like us do things like this’. This leads to the proposed idea of using the ‘smallest viable tribe’ to make a change. Seek out those ‘neophiliacs’ among the niche, take them on a journey that helps them become who they want to be. Focus on the feeling throughout the journey which will then allow them to organically spread the words on their fantastic journey to people around them.

2. Understand the Customers Back in the 19th century, many brands would be willing to spend a fortune on television advertisements. Today, while advertising becomes much more accessible and simpler on the Internet, would it be the answer then? The truth is, in spite of the so called ‘targeted ads’, there remains an issue in obtaining a measurable result from these ads, especially when everyone else is doing the same to seek attention from the audience. Spamming is not the way. Simply interfering and creating more noises in such a crowded internet space won’t get you far, not to mention spending more for little or even nothing at all. “The most important lesson I can share about brand marketing is this: you definitely, certainly, and surely don’t have enough time and money to build a brand for everyone. You can’t. Don’t try. Be specific. Be very specific.”

While reaching out to the general public, there will always be a bridge where people might not trust you no matter how great your products are. Or perhaps they simply do not want the same thing as you do. Spending time and effort on convincing someone like that won’t do the job. Being specific is a kind of bravery – it either works or it doesn’t. It is comforting to know that you can’t serve everyone, and you can’t make everyone happy. If you aim to make everyone happy, you will end up creating an average product that can be easily replaced and forgotten. So, your job here is simply finding the niche who would be happy to have you, those who would be attracted to the values and needs that you offer. Once you’ve found your, the type of people who you want to serve, neglect everyone else. The ‘smallest viable tribe’ are people who become your loyal customers and people who will get the words out. They are the only ones you need, and they are the ones who will lead the future of your brand. If there are people who know your brand and actively advocate for it, you save the effort in fighting for attention that you don’t deserve. 3. The Magical Network Effect A growing company needs to reach out to a wider range of audience. To do so, a smart move is to take advantage of the network effect. In marketing, you will be proposing either a pattern match or pattern interrupt. A pattern match is something that matches the stories we tell ourselves daily. For example, a new cereal brand is a pattern match whereby you are simply adding a new offering into the mix of breakfast choices that already exists. On the other hand, if you were to market a pattern interrupt, it requires tension to move on from the ingrained pattern. This tension is the key to make changes. However, tension is not the same as fear. If people felt coerced or manipulated, you’re not doing it right. Your job as a marketer is to create tension, tension that drives forward motion. Tensions like fear of missing out, peer pressure for you to fit in are essentially based on culture change. Again, back to the idea of finding your tribe, which is often a community populated by people who share the same interests or goals. Your work seeks to create an imbalance in the view that forces the words to spread in order to relieve such tension to ‘people like us’ who can understand the messages and resonate with the ideas you seek to deliver. Therefore, having understood the above marketing essence, one should know that a brand means more than a logo or a range of products and services – it is your promise to the customers. It takes time to build a brand. Attention is indeed scarce as people nowadays tend to scan rather than read. Once you obtain their attention, make a promise and keep up with their expectations and go beyond. Over time, they will become your fans. So, start by asking yourself ‘Who’s it for?’ ‘What’s it for?’ ‘What change are you seeking to make?’