Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

My friend Tobin has been on my back to read Seth Godin, and I finally took a look at Purple Cow and Meatball Sundae (only eight more print and four e-books to go), and can understand why he’s been working on me to do so.

Godin’s blog turns up on blogs and blasts I get from the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), so I’m not totally unfamiliar with his points-of-view, and I generally agree with just about everything he says.

But. I’m not 100-percent on board.

In Meatball Sundae, Godin speaks of how the new Web 2.0 marketing will not work for companies who continue to conduct business according to the old methods in which Company X creates a mediocre product for the mass market, shoves said product down the public’s throats using TV advertising, and then uses revenues from sales to manufacture more product. (I have called this method the “media industrial complex,” he calls it the “TV industrial complex”…and I’d like to state for the record that I arrived at my term independently…so please don’t try to label me a plagiarist.)

And of course, he’s dead on.

There is no middle market anymore, it is difficult and costly to efficiently reach individual consumers through mass media marketing, using these methods won’t necessarily generate the desired sales revenues, and you’ll soon be on the bread line.

The basic thrust of Godin’s message in both books that in order to market most effectively, we need not change the marketing as much as we need to change the companies (or the products and services) we market.

Be remarkable, market your remarkable-ness and the world will beat a path to your door, is his charge.

Which is sort of like saying, be Michael Jordan, practice really hard, and you can win some basketball games.

Marketers should be remarkable. We should be creating products and services that serve the needs of a narrowly selected group of customers who share our passions. We should engage them via the Web or other resources in conversations (over coffee, perhaps?) that enable us to further refine and improve our products and services and enhance long-term customer loyalty.

And we should also exercise more, drink less and mix in a salad now and again.

Web 2.0 is the future, but I depart from Godin when it comes to the so-called mass media, as I feel he places too much faith in individuals’ abilities to find remarkable products and services via the Web. It’s still a numbers game.

And while it helps to be remarkable, I think you can still sell Miller Lite, a Saturn Vue or a moss-covered, three-handled family credenza if you know how to leverage the old ways using the new media.

My last post suggested that by examining online communities, marketers could create online channels within MySpace, for example, that allow for mass marketing on a micro scale, which in turn enable a marketer (remarkable or not) to efficiently generate awareness for his products or services (either through advertising or PR-generated editorial) via channels that appeal to very specific customer segments (e.g., affluent gay men ages 25-29 who love NASCAR).

The goal is to convert these suspects/prospects into customers and then convert customers into advocates. I agree with Godin that an engaging, interactive Web 2.0 site is the best place in which to host the dialogue that enables a marketer to respond to customer demands, improve products/services, engender long-term loyalty and ensure revenue growth and viability.

The dialogue must be customer-driven, but unless you cast a wide enough net or have the resources to wait forever for your customers to find you, you’ll die bored and broke is you do not incorporate some form of mass media marketing strategy in your overall plan.