seth godin

Ideavirus

The decline of advertising in the Internet Age has made the marketing community see the need for a radically new, effective strategy of reaching customers. Seth Godin’s Unleashing the Ideavirus (2000) takes us through the concept of ‘going viral’, and what implications it has in ensuring a successful marketing campaign.

Today, any content on the Internet can become contagious. Ideas, concepts, messages, ads, information, etc. can snowball to fame with everyone not only viewing the content but talking about it too. It spreads like a virus.

Such virulence of content can mean big bucks for those in marketing. Simply imagine the potential of information that is viewed by millions and that spreads organically from customer to customer, without needing to empty out wallets on mainstream advertisements!

The Ideal Conditions For An Ideavirus

The basic concept of an ‘Ideavirus’ has been around for ages. The spread of ideas, information, education, and culture via person-to-person communication has indeed been the way throughout history. Even word-of-mouth marketing has been a well-used concept in the field of marketing for decades.

However, with the advent of the Internet, the buzzword is ‘Ideavirus’. It is a science and an art, and everyone can learn to use it.

While earlier, ideas, concepts, and information would spread via word-of-mouth, its spread was limited to smaller circles, the process was slow and the content would either die-out, or lose its charm before really becoming ‘the big news’.

Today, it takes but one share of information, or an idea to reach hundreds and thousands of people. And each of the hundreds and thousands can share the information further to another hundred and thousands, exponentially expanding the reach of the information or idea. This is the word-of-mouse marketing!

Additionally, culture is undergoing a transformation too. Earlier, people would value the tried, tested, and true, while today, the culture is shifting towards valuing the cutting-edge, and seeking new products and services. People crave to own the newest, latest product on offer, proving that the shift in culture has been a game-changer too.

This new culture of valuing and craving newer products has made people more receptive to new information than it did earlier when people valued tried and tested products. It makes the concept of the ‘Ideavirus’ an ideal strategy in this Internet age.

Increasingly Ineffective Advertising 

Mainstream advertising, which was the star strategy in the latter half of the last century is slowly dying out. Whether it was the brilliance of well-timed TV or radio ad, a catchy jingle that was augmented by a huge strategically placed billboard, or the idea of reaching millions via a newspaper print ad, the underlying strategy was an interruption. It was to capture the attention of customers unaware, with an unwanted message.

However, when customer’s attention is the aim of every marketer, the competition is fierce, especially with the increasing number of mediums in the form of social media platforms, websites, TV channels, or magazines available. Essentially, the same information and message are available everywhere, all at once. Moreover, the number of product options available to the customer has increased exponentially too.

This combination of increased ads, products, and media has forced the customer to learn to tune out. Year-on-year, as this number increases, the value of advertising decreases whereas its inefficiency increases.

Today, marketers need a shift in paradigm, where the focus lies not on getting customers to listen but encouraging talking about the product. That’s where, word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse marketing are needed, with an aim to unleash the Ideavirus.

It’s Really, Actually Marketing An Idea

Even the economy has seen a shift due to the decline of advertising. In this scenario, the concept of an Ideavirus becomes the key to a successful economy as well.

Earlier, when the economy was simply either agrarian or industrial, churning out a good crop or manufacturing machines would rake in the cash. Today, the culture values intellectual property and ideas more than physical products. Ideas such as songs, software, websites, technologies, or even diets, are examples of intellectual property. Even physical products that are revolutionized with new ideas change the way people think. For example, Hotmail popularized the concept of free email. 

Additionally, ideas also add value to physical products. For example, Nike’s Air Jordan’s are priced at a whopping $100 because of what the shoes represent and the way they have been branded, and not just their quality.

There is no sure-fire formula for creating a veritable idea. Yet, it is certain that for an idea to be successful in today’s times, it has to spread, and spread exponentially for people to take notice and get persuaded.

In other words, an idea is like a declaration or a manifesto of a product or a service, which conveys a novel way of doing something – no matter how small the idea could be in the grander scheme of things.

Thus the main of marketing in the Internet Age is to spread a manifesto-like idea, within a sought-after target audience and try to reach as many within that target as possible. Moreover, if the idea spreads throughout the targeted segment, seemingly having a life of its own, it becomes an ‘Ideavirus’.

Spreading The Ideavirus: Resonance

For an idea to become an Ideavirus and spread, it has to be compelling enough to be worth spreading. However, ‘compelling’ is subjective, and which idea works, turns into a fad or a fashion, dies or makes a comeback, etc. requires marketers to have their finger on the pulse, have the understanding of what constitutes the ‘right moment’, have a great sense of timing and of course, an in-depth understanding of their target audience.

The target audience is like a hive. A group of people, interconnected with common interests, ways of communicating, standards, rules, fashion, leaders, traditions, etc. Marketers should ideally, choose a hive and then create a tailored product to cater to that hive. Marketers can even choose to tap into a consumer group by creating a product that brings them together to form a hive.

For example, the magazine Fast Company, first identified an untapped consumer group that wasn’t part of any hive and then launched their magazine. They targeted those who worked in mid to large-sized companies, with an ambition to succeed but limited by the slow pace of workplace bureaucracy. Fast Company achieved viral success by helping them become a hive. The magazine helped them form connections with like-minded people, and soon, a global network of support groups sprang up, which were Fast Company inspired.

Therefore, getting one’s hive to be the pillars of marketing the product can help in unleashing the Ideavirus.

Spreading The Ideavirus: Selecting A Hive

Whether a marketer chooses to select a hive first and then tailors a product for it, or vice versa, selecting and targeting the right hive is vital.

It is natural to want to go ‘guns blazing’ for the largest hive. However, the largest isn’t always the best, as marketing to a bigger hive makes spreading the message harder. The obvious reasons being, the fierce competition to reach the large hive. Getting one’s message through the noise becomes tougher.

For example, trying to market an Ideavirus at a huge trade show such as the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas will be a herculean task as compared to marketing it a smaller trade show like a DEMO conference.

One of the biggest hazards of aiming for a big hive is that while trying to get the product to appeal to everyone, it might end up not attracting anyone. The smaller and more tightly knit the hive is the easier it will be to spread the message within the group. Additionally, it will be easier to tailor an idea to specific desires common to those in the hive. 

To be able to successfully unleash an Ideavirus, one has to be able to reach the nearly whole hive. Thus, if one targets a big hive, even with the advantages of the Internet, it becomes virtually impossible for a company to reach the numbers needed for an Ideavirus. It is thus wiser to target a specific demographic or a specific segment of the population.

Spreading The Ideavirus: Finding The ‘Sneezers’

A virus needs spreaders. Similarly, an Ideavirus needs ‘sneezers’ within the hive. Therefore it is essential to take a closer look at the people who are part of the hive. These ‘sneezers’ are people or organizations that are habituated to telling others about a new idea.

There are two types of sneezers – promiscuous sneezers, and powerful sneezers.

• Promiscuous Sneezers – They are the people who are talkative and over-eager to share their new idea with anyone and everyone who is there to listen to them.

• Powerful Sneezers – These are highly influential people who those in the hive hold in high esteem. For example, the publisher Warner Books, while promoting The Bridges of Madison County, reached out to the powerful sneezers of the hive of book readers, the independent bookstores.

To make an idea an Ideavirus, one should have a good mix or promiscuous and powerful sneezers who will spread the Ideavirus in all directions.

Spreading The Ideavirus: Recruiting The ‘Sneezers’

Once the sneezers are identified, they have to be wooed and recruited into believing in the idea. Let’s understand how promiscuous and powerful sneezers work.

• Promiscuous Sneezers – By comparison, promiscuous sneezers are not as selective about the ideas that they endorse and spread. They can be easily motivated with incentives, and thus are easily persuaded too. 

However, because they are easily persuaded, their ‘sneezes’ can be less infectious. That said, within a hive, if a good number of promiscuous sneezers sneeze on a good number of people, many times, they can be effective in spreading the Ideavirus.

With promiscuous sneezers, getting them to leave a review or signing them up for an affiliate program are the things that work.

• Powerful Sneezers – Powerful sneezers have a very powerful and infectious sneeze. They are also extremely selective about the ideas they endorse and spread and are very difficult to trigger into spreading an idea. This is because the public perceives them as having integrity and relies on their selectivity, and their power depends on this very fact. If a powerful sneezer can be bribed with incentives, they will lose their integrity and hence, the trust of the public. 

In order to court powerful sneezers, simply telling them about the idea isn’t going to suffice. These are the people who will need to be convinced with testimonials, prototypes, and free samples. They ask questions and will expect a one-on-one session where their questions need to be answered. 

With powerful sneezers, there is no guarantee that they will spread the idea. However, without being infected you can be sure that they won’t spread the idea at all!

Spreading The Ideavirus: Making It Easy To Spread

If we look at an actual virus, its spread depends on how easy it is to spread it from one host to another. An Ideavirus works in the same manner. Its spread is smoother if it is easy to spread.

For example, some services and products are so smooth that they spread when people simply use them. The instant Polaroid camera is a great example. When one takes a photo with it, the value of ‘instant’ is promoted instantly, as one sees the photo develop then and there.

Conversely, some ideas are tough to spread. For example, for a reflexology therapist to promote his services, he will have to first tackle the fact that not many even know what reflexology is, which can be a difficult concept to explain, let alone spread.

There are, however, ways to make a difficult idea easier and make its transmission smoother. The Toyota Prius for example, if marketed in the 1900s would have been difficult to convert into an Ideavirus, especially considering the fact that its technology would have been difficult to explain then. How would its makers have then marketed it?

Firstly, it could have been given another name. Even when it debuted, people were confused whether its pronunciation was ‘Pree-us’ or ‘Pry-us’. Thus to even bring it up in conversation, the name of the product or service should be catchy and easy.

Next, the makers would have needed to work on a design that appealed to the masses then. For example, designing it like the Volkswagon Beetle would have made it a billboard in itself!

Finally, the makers would have needed to work on conveying the car’s ‘manifesto’ – of being a low fuel consumption, money-saving automobile. This could have been done by probably having a digital bumper sticker that would display the car’s mileage.

Therefore, for an Ideavirus to spread, it has to be easy, and expressing its idea should be easy enough to persuade people to spread it.

Conclusion

With mainstream advertising on the decline, marketing now relies on the success of ideas and intellectual content, rather than simply physical products and services. These ideas become successful within an evolving economy when they become Ideaviruses and spread exponentially among the right people. 

An Ideavirus, is essentially marketing an idea the right way, by connecting and creating hives of like-minded people, finding the effective sneezers within that hive, and most importantly making the idea easily spreadable to resonate with those in the hive.

Effective Marketing In The Internet Age

Marketing and advertising have been so closely related to each other. Additionally, for the traditional marketer, advertising is the center of the marketing universe. However, today, there is a clear shift in how both these are viewed, as well as how they work. The world of marketing needs to be revamped.

Marketing, today, goes much beyond advertising, and advertising is now an accompaniment to other marketing strategies if not a dead-end for many. Marketing has taken a deeper meaning and needs a new approach.

This Is Marketing (2018) by Seth Godin delves deeper into what marketing actually stands for today and how marketers and companies can align their marketing strategies with the new age!

The Redundancy Of Mass Advertising

Traditionally, mass advertising aimed at reaching the masses. Also known as ‘the Coca Cola method’, is focused on getting a lot of ads to reach as many people as they could, via different media, mostly print, radio, or television. The keyword was ‘mass’ and included mass media to reach the masses.

Coca-Cola has, year after year flooded media with ads, with an aim to convince that everyone drinks coke. It was a great strategy in the 1960s when there were only 3 television channels broadcasting, and catching a slot on prime time reached millions. However, today, one has a million options right from channels on TV, to platforms such as Netflix and Amazon, and even different media such as smartphones, tablets, etc.

The Internet has been a game-changer for marketing. While on one hand, it has proven to be the biggest mass medium that has connected millions across the globe, it also has proven to be the least massive, because people can customize their viewing, have personalized Facebook and Twitter feeds, and even have tailored Spotify and YouTube playlists.

This splintering of mass media also resulted in the fracturing of mass culture that once surrounded mass media. Mad Men, which showcased the early world of advertising ran from 2007 to 2015. It adeptly narrated the shift and was itself an example of how media and the masses have changed. While it was touted to be a great show, it was reported that only 1% of the US population watched the show in actuality.

The Features And Limitations Of Internet Advertising

The Internet, like all other mediums, has its pros and cons. While it doesn’t provide the mass reach that a prime-time slot on a popular channel would earlier, it gives marketers the ability to target a precise group – a more effective strategy to reaching prospective customers.

Websites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Google, can help one find the right demographic and reach them at the click of a button. Additionally, the Internet does not have limitations on geography, and customers, literally the world over, can be reached anytime. No need to wait for that prime-time program.

Perhaps, the more useful feature of the Internet for marketers has been the ability to measure the success of their ads – a feature that advertisers back in 1960 could only dream of. Marketers can see the number of people their ad has reached, the number of people that clicked on it, and the number of people who purchased a product after viewing the ad. Thus marketers today are able to tweak content based on actuals and optimize their advertising budgets.

However, the Internet has but one major drawback. It’s available to everyone, everyone uses it to measure the success of their ads, work with optimized budgets, and reach a targeted audience. Thus, the target audience is bombarded with a million ads, and finally, end up ignoring most ads even though they are the correct demographic targeted.

There is a viable solution to this problem – Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Using optimized or the right keywords can help searches lead customers right to you. However, even this can be tough as not everyone can get the right mix of keywords that lands them on the first page of a search; and search engines, especially Google, yields so many pages with so many other competitors vying for the audience’s attention.

There are however, other approaches to get the right marketing strategies in the Internet era.

Make It Worth Buying

To begin with, marketers should make their product ‘worth buying’, a feat that is easier said than done. While many would argue that this is in the hands of the designers, marketers play an essential role too. How?

Take an example of a quarter-inch drill bit. No one wants to buy a quarter-inch drill for its own sake. They buy it for the hole it makes. At the same time, no one needs the quarter-inch hole in itself either. They need it for, perhaps, putting up wall shelves. 

And why would people need wall shelves? To make their homes look tidy by organizing things, to have a little bit of semblance or organization in their environment, or even perhaps, to make their homes look good so that their visitors admire and respect them for the way they manage the look of their home.

Therefore, the quarter-inch drill becomes only a tool to satisfying another need, a point that was made by Harvard’s marketing professor, Theodore Levitt.

Similarly, effective marketing begins by understanding the underlying needs and wants of customers, which often lead to emotionally resonant aspirations like adventure, strength, belonging, freedom, etc. that are buried deep down. People buy a product when it can resonate with these aspirations.

For example, when a man buys an SUV, he may have made his buying decisions on the premise that he can go off-roading with it. While he might never actually go off-roading, the mere promise of the ability is what attracts him. It perhaps resonates with his underlying need for adventure.

Thus effective marketing begins at the designing and manufacturing stage, where our man with the SUV and his thirst for adventure is kept in mind to build a compelling product that helps identify with people’s aspirations.

What Desire Means To The Target Audience

Everyone has different needs and desires. Additionally, people define the same desires differently. For example, for one adventure could mean thrill, whereas, for another, it could mean travel.

Every product embodies the definition of the desires it satisfies. More importantly, marketers should remember that their target audience shares that definition and desire. This target audience can further be classified into adopters and adapters.

While adopters are thrilled by the prospect of trying new, innovative products, which they have never encountered before, adapters prefer the sense of security and comfort of familiarity. They tend to shy away from new products, preferring to use products that they are used to. Adapters, when given no choice, will adapt.

For example, people who still use flip-phones will eventually, yet reluctantly adapt to smartphones.

Marketing should first target adopters, because they will be excited to try out something new that offers them a novel way to fulfill their desires. Adapters, on the other hand, won’t be comfortable making changes to their already successful ways of fulfilling their desires and turning to something new that is unproven.

For an initial target, adopters are the audiences to aim for, even if they make up the smallest viable market that can make a product profitable.

How Personal Values Affect Buying Decisions

In addition to deep-seated desires and needs, people also make buying decisions based on the things they care about while they pursue what they want. These are their personal values.

For example, a person, wanting to satisfy the basic need of nutrition, will choose a snack based on the values that define him. Thus, if the person cares more about affordability and popularity, the choice would waver to the cheapest ‘big-name’ brand on the shelf. However, if health and sustainability are the values that influence the choice, then the person will opt for a local, organic brand.

Each value can be paired with its opposite, forming the extremes of a spectrum, such as trendiness and old-fashionedness, professionalism and casualness, dependability and risk, etc.

As a marketer, one can either choose the middle ground on the spectrum of values chosen or aim for an extreme. For example, a popular extreme for most marketers is affordability, as the value resonates with most buyers. However, one should also remember, that these safe or middle-ground values are where most products are marketed. The competition becomes fierce and thus it becomes difficult to stand out from the crowd, especially if the company is a start-up.

It is often seen that the ‘smallest viable market’ lies at the extremes of the spectrums and isn’t overcrowded by many competitors. The trick to finding one’s smallest viable market is to probably try linking two opposite values together or have a combination of extreme values to reach out to.

For example, the rock band Grateful Dead, despite having only one Top 40 Billboard hit from 1965 to 1995, became one of the most commercially successful rock bands in history. They chose two extremes in opposing musical values. They would give perform long jams at concerts giving the audience raw and loose music. However, their albums were 13 slickly produce, polished and concise, with songs that were cut shorter.

They gained a die-hard fan following that comprised audiences from a core group. This led to them grossing more than $450 million in sales from records alone.

The Tribe And Its Shared Worldview

To find the smallest viable market for any product, marketers need to keep in mind that this very ‘core group’ of loyal customers already exists. It is simply a matter of showing these fans that the values governing their desires and needs connect with the products the marketer has on offer. Thus marketers have to find a way to connect all like-minded customers into a new ‘tribe’.

A tribe can be defined as a group of people that share a similar worldview and have affiliations with each other. These affiliations, and their shared worldview, tell them how to pursue what they want, need, and desire.

 Thus, the next strategy is to create, connect, and lead tribes by telling them stories that match their worldviews. In order to tell a successful story, it has to put forth a promise in the language the tribe understands. 

By appealing to the assumptions that lie at the base of the tribe’s worldview, the language of the story can make the promise believable. For example, JCPenney, the discount American departmental store, wanted to connect and create a tribe of shoppers who valued affordability and a desire to play above all. JCPenney put forth the promise that their customers’ need for bargain hunting and deals would be fulfilled. They made their promise feel believable with coupons, clearance sales, and discounts, held every other day; symbols that made the tribe associate JCPenney with bargains and deals.

JCPenney also implicitly sent a message to the world, ‘this is how we are and how people like us do things’. The ‘we’ and ‘people like us’ bring the tribe closer.

In 2011, when Ron Johnson took over as CEO of JCPenney, he got rid of the ‘coupons and bargains’ culture, because that was too tacky for a high-end store. This resulted in about a fifty percent drop in sales, as the bargain-hunters lost interest.

Thus ignoring the shared worldview of the tribe and its symbols can indeed be a major misstep.

Challenge Statuses And Create Tension

The next step after creating and connecting with a tribe is to get them to actually go out and buy the product. Marketers have to create – within their customers – a pressure of discomfort, for which their product becomes the antidote. In other words, they have to create a sense of tension, which can be only relived with the purchase of your product.

Every tribe has a hierarchy or a sense of hierarchy that dictates it. In this case, marketers can create tension by challenging the status of the members of the tribe, with respect to owning it, being a champion for it, or even having first-hand experience knowledge of the product, etc. Members of the tribe will feel their statuses challenged if they sense the threat of separation from the tribe. 

Once a person feels part of a tribe, they don’t want to get left behind, especially when it changes direction or moves forward. Marketers should create this sense of ‘being part’ of the tribe by broadcasting this message to the members that the only way, is to adopt the product.

Additionally, marketers have to understand the types of people who belong to the tribe. Members are of two types, depending on how they approach the status relationship.

• Affiliation Approach: The members seeking affiliation within the tribe look for kinship and status within the hierarchy of the tribe. Such members respond to signals of popularity. For example, having celebrities attending the launch of the product is one way of attracting them.

• Domination Approach: People of this category have three aims: to reach the top of the hierarchy of the tribe, to make their own group outrank other groups or a combination of the two. For them, signals of domination, and a “winner” attitude works best. Uber, for example, during its early days took on conflicts with competitors and even local governments, sending out the message to domination-oriented customers and investors.

Expanding Beyond The Tribe

The aim of all marketing is to keep expanding the customer base beyond the tribe, to the general public, unless the product is super-specialized for a niche customer. Thus, effective marketing requires marketers to build a bridge that helps the product spread to a larger audience. To do this, marketers have to have an understanding of how wide the gap between the tribe and the others is. 

To a marketer, all the members of his tribe are essentially adopters, whereas the general public can be classified as adapters. Thus, due to the basic differences between these two groups of “disrupting the old way of doing things,” the product is a hit with adopters (fans) and not necessarily with the adapters (others). The trick is to build a bridge to the adapters or the general public using a strategy called the ‘network effect’.

The network effect takes place when any product becomes more valuable as more and more people use it, setting a stage for a loop of positive feedback.

An online collaboration platform for co-workers called Slack is a great example. In the initial stages, it had a small fan base of those interested in learning a new program that wasn’t used by others. Once this small base learned it, they started converting their co-workers into users, because the platform became more useful as more co-workers started using it. Soon, as its popularity increased, even adapters within the crowd, otherwise resistant to change, wanted to be part of the collaborations and conversations that others were having.

Thus network effects can help a product reach the mainstream audience – and it will be the tribe, or the fans that help build that bridge.

Conclusion

The redundancy of mainstream advertising in today’s times has created the need for effective marketing strategies that keep up with the technological advancements of the Internet age.

Strategies such as specializing products to the needs and wants of customers at the manufacturing and R&D stage itself, analyzing how needs desires, and values of buyers influence buying decisions, creating a tribe and aligning its shared worldview, and finally using network effects to expand to the mainstream audience.

Tell A Story Every Customer Wants To Hear

Marketing, since the beginning has been all about telling a customer a story about a product, brand or company, that will entice and enamor him and ultimately result in a purchase. All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin aims at giving insights about the world of marketing, how marketers think, and above all, how telling customers stories that are meaningful and authentic, and should be aimed at creating lasting relationships.

Additionally, it delves into marketing practices that – for better or worse – often rely on fibs and frauds in order to tap into the minds of consumers, and how these practices impact people.

Marketing A Believable Story

How can a story make marketing powerful?

The fundamentals of good marketing are about telling customers a story that is believable. Let’s take the example of George Reidel. Reidel is a 10th generation glassblower. Apart from his other glass products, his wine glasses are popular to effect that people swear by their quality.

Reidel believes in stories, and this belief makes his products connect with his consumers. He says that every wine has a message; and the glass through which a person drinks it, is the medium that conveys the message. While scientific comparisons have proved that there is no difference between other brands and Reidel, wine enthusiasts and experts world-over insist that wine tastes better in a Reidel glass.

A story, is thus, powerful enough to change the taste of wine!

Consumers all over the world today, buy what they want as opposed to what they need. And thus, marketers who cash in on the power of a story achieve success. Today, marketing sells if a story sells. Take an example of a woman who buys a pair of Puma shoes for $125. While these shoes were produced in China at a cost of a mere $3, her purchase is based on how the shoes make her look and feel, as opposed to the value or the comfort they offer.

Feeling The Customers Worldview

Each and every individual has their own needs and thus, their own worldview of what they want in life. This worldview is based on their own assumptions, biases, and values. Therefore, one’s upbringing, parents, school, current surrounding environment, as well as the different places he/she has resided in influence one’s worldview.

For example, the impression of a person who has been cheated at a second-hand car dealership will have a different view than one who has had repeated success at buying cars at dealerships.

Now while not all customers are the same, they aren’t entirely different either. For example, two people with similar environments and backgrounds will have similar worldviews – at least to some extent. Hence, it is the responsibility of a marketer to find the similarities and the similar people in the audience and market their story to them accordingly – a story that will resonate with this shared worldview.

Thus, the group of new mothers will look for products that help prioritize the growth and safety of their babies, and stories that appeal to this common worldview will attract new mothers. For example, in 2004, Disney’s division Baby Einstein sold $150 million worth of videos to parents of newborns, who thought that the videos would make their babies smarter. It was a combination of a brand name, an aggressive campaign, and the common worldview of having the best for their babies that worked.

Tailoring To The Worldview

Once the common worldview of the target audience is known, marketers next need to create a story or a framework that matches that worldview and resonates with it meaningfully.

Twinkies and Wonder Bread’s Interstate Bakeries went bankrupt when Dr. Atkin’s low-carb diet became famous. People wanted a healthier alternative for their children. Their worldview had changed!

During that time, General Mills cashed in on this worldview and tweaked their story by aligning with the ‘carbohydrates are unhealthy’ worldview. They started using 100% whole grains in all their cereals.

Therefore, in addition to understanding customers’ worldviews, marketers should also be able to identify those who are willing to shift their worldview and open to hearing a new story and tailor their messages accordingly.

Thus, if the marketer of a salty snack has to change the perception/worldview of mothers who consider salty snacks unhealthy, they would have to create stories that shift the focus from the salty potato snack to ‘made with soy’, or say that they are low-fat, with healthy sea-salt, etc.

Understanding How The Brain process New Information

A shift of story focus amounts to new information that customers will have to understand and process. Thus, it is vital that marketers understand how the human brain works too and how consumers process information.

Firstly, humans are attuned to change. Whenever they see something new, they immediately compare it with the information they already possess about that concept. The moment they notice the ‘new’, the brain works to process and understand the difference, and people look for explanations for the change because the brain becomes restless with the ‘newness’ and the randomness. Thus, for example, if a person sees a broken window, the brain instantly tried to find the explanation of what could have broken it and the eyes instinctively get directed to the floor in search of the object. 

Therefore, for the target audience has to be able to wrap their brains around the new information the marketer gives them, the marketer has to be able to tell their story, or present the new information with authenticity. Authenticity will enable the customers to make sense of the shift in the worldview that is brought about by the story.

The Resounding Impact Of Authentic Stories 

Purchasing decisions rely on the judgment people make about the brand, company, story, campaign, product, etc. Therefore marketers have to ensure that their targeted customers make the right judgments about their product when they are first exposed to it.

At the same time, there is a vast difference between a first product contact and a first product impression. While marketers often get confused between these two, the first contact is just that – the customer’s first contact with the product or brand. It isn’t necessary that the first contact gets a reaction from the customer, however, the first impression most certainly will – and will generate a meaningful reaction.

For example, a new online e-commerce store sends out promotional emails to customers. This email will be the first contact. While some would ignore the email, any customer who makes a purchase and has a bad experience due to damaged delivery will have a first impression – and a negative one at that!

It is impossible to ascertain when and how a product or brand can create a first impression. Thus it is essential that marketers endeavor to create a positive one. This can be achieved with authenticity. Authenticity is seen when the product, the message, the business, the marketers, and down to the last employee of the company are aligned with the story.

For example, if a company has a great product and a great message, but the salespeople and staff are rude, neither will the message be coherent to the customer, nor will the story, or brand, or product seem authentic. Thus it is vital that all the first points of contact the customer have with the company/product/brand resonate with the message that needs to be conveyed.

The Fine Line Between Fibs And Fraud, And Never Crossing It

Marketing is rooted in understanding the irrationality of buying behavior. Consumers do not always make rational buying decisions. With the fight of want over need, everyone is guilty of buying an overpriced product or making a purchase without having proper information about price or quality.

And marketers understand this well and exploit this irrationality to the fullest. Some marketers resort to using fibs and frauds to sell their products. While fibs can be small harmless leis that focus on making a story seem authentic, frauds are outright overt lies that do harm consumers.

Reidel for example is a fibber. His ‘honest lie’ makes his products sell, despite scientific evidence that his wine glasses do not make wine taste better. The customers’ belief in his story makes his fib true.

Nestle, for example, had committed fraud, some year ago, when they advertised that bottle-feeding is better than breastfeeding, a piece of information that has, according to UNICEF, inadvertently resulted in the deaths of a million babies. A simple shift in their target audience (new mothers who could not or had trouble breastfeeding) could have averted the disaster.

Conclusion

Telling a story – an authentic and a meaningful one – is a sure way to reach out to the right customers. Marketers have to understand the concept of ‘worldview’ and adjust it to fit it with the audience they wish to target. Additionally, they should be able to align every aspect of their business with the story they are telling their customers, and at the same time avoid fraudulent stories at all costs!

Edgecraft

We all have childhood memories of begging our parents to buy that particular brand of cereal simply to get the ‘free prize’ inside. While most elders thought it was a cheap gimmick adding to the junk in the house, for the children, it was nothing short of finding a treasure!

While this marketing strategy had its ethical concerns of advertising to children, it still was a brilliant strategy that boosted sales without companies needing to change their core product, boost their advertising campaigns, and barely cost anything to boot. Such a  ‘free prize’ idea could skyrocket sales and make a brand, product, or service irresistible to customers, without today’s high expenses of marketing and advertising, minimum resources and risk are invaluable.

Seth Godin’s Free Prize Inside (2004) delves into the power of small-scale innovations that can help marketers break through the white noise of advertising and make their products truly stand out.

Big Innovations And Expensive Advertising Is Redundant

Any product, service, or company that is at the brink of stagnancy resorts to the one thing that has earlier proved its mettle time and again – launching a major ad campaign.

However, today, traditional advertising has lost its mojo. The reason is simple – too many adverts and alternative forms of media available as platforms for these ads are bombarding the consumer every second. It is thus natural that consumers simply tune out.

Secondly, any company that wished to revamp its image and re-win customers would traditionally resort to a ‘big-innovation idea’. Such innovations would make the company or product a ‘one-of-a-kind’ in the market and rake in the customers and the moolah – at least until the competition would be able to catch up. The thought process here relies on the fact that the bigger the innovation, the bigger is the potential payoff. However, big innovations need big investments, and it is always a gamble considering the probability of the success of the innovation.

Essentially, not every product becomes the iPod of its category. The higher the expenditure on the big innovation, the higher one raises the threshold for success, and in turn, the higher are the risks of failure.

Small-scale Innovations Are More Suited For Today Economy

Innovation is still the key to success. However, it is also believed that innovation needs a ‘big idea’. No one really gets excited with a small innovative change like a slightly better processing speed in a computer. However, does one need a revolutionary innovation to really grab the attention of customers?

The answer to the question depends on how ‘revolutionary’ is defined. For example, Edison’s bulb was a revolutionary innovation of the time. However, since then, technology has advanced at a turbo speed, and thus an equivalent of Edison’s innovation today, would be a big-innovation idea, that would then increase the expense and thus success threshold and the risk of failure.

However, thankfully, looking for small-scale innovations within one’s industry or product line are effective methods. For example, smarter smartphone pricing can go a long way in an already saturated market, or purple ketchup could do the trick! Such small-scale innovations are not only easy on the budget but also have higher achievement feasibility.

Small-scale innovations, also known as soft innovations, are clever ideas that done need gigantic budgets or R&D. any organization can implement these with the right know-how. However, soft innovations can vary in innovativeness, and thus most of them aren’t very successful.

Making The Soft-Innovation Succeed

Considering most soft-innovations are a flash-in-the-pan, how does one ensure that the innovative idea has credibility for success?

 We have already seen that mainstream advertising today, doesn’t have the credibility it once did. Today, word-of-mouth is a more powerful medium. However, the challenge lies in getting customers to spread the word. And for that, one needs to have a remarkable and desirable product or service that people can’t resist talking about.

For example, a ski resort that houses a great Mexican restaurant will piggyback on the word-of-mouth success of the restaurant. Ideally, the ski resort’s primary function – that is to provide visitors with a skiing experience – will function irrespective of the restaurant. Just like the toy in the cereal box, it is the great experience at the restaurant that will make the ski resort and the experience of the stay remarkable.

The ‘added remarkability’ of the extras – like the toy in the cereal or the restaurant at the ski resort – gives people an experience. Customers crave an added valued experience more than simply a product or a service. Hence, the ‘free prize’, or the added experience of the extras often influence consumers’ buying decision.

Therefore, marketers have to look for soft innovations that make a major difference to the actual product by adding remarkability. While these soft innovations become a ‘side benefit’ for customers, for the company, it is a boost in sales.

Edgecraft

Finding that perfect soft innovation that will boost sales and help the product stand out, all at a cheaper cost feels easier said than done. However, it is actually a simple strategy called edge craft, or simply put, the art of giving a product or services an edge.

How does one give a product or a service an edge? Let’s consider a security services company. It could be challenging to make the service edgy.  Now imagine if the guards of the security company dress up in trench coats and shades like the characters of the movie The Matrix, as opposed to regular guards uniforms. All of a sudden you find that interests are piqued.

Making a product or a service edgy requires taking aspects of the product or services as far as one can go in a new direction– or stretching it to the edges. Now anyone product could have many aspects and many edges defined. The marketer has to be able to identify these, select one of the aspects, and stake a position on it.

If we consider a restaurant as a product and customer dining experience the aim, we can find innumerable aspects that can be changed and redefined, such as, the location, the menu, the décor, etc. let’s say, for example, the restaurant owner chooses to make the wait staff aspect edgy. He could choose to have all the staff dress up in cosplay, maybe hire only exceptionally good-looking staff, or hire only twins.

The idea is to be as edgy and steer away from safe. Safe equals boring equals ‘doesn’t sell’!

Thinking Outside the Box And Even Industry For That Edge

Pursuing the concept of edge craft doesn’t need a lightbulb moment or a complicated brainstorming session. Edgecraft involves a simple process that gives marketers that push to finding the right edge to pursue.

To start, pick any service, product, or business from any other industry from the one your product is from. From that sector or industry, pick a product/service that is achieving remarkable success due to an added edge.

Let’s take an example of a hardware store that needs to find its edge. A few shops ahead of the store is a restaurant that has suddenly shot to fame due to its new weekly all-you-can-eat pepper chili night. What makes the restaurant popular all of sudden?  The chili pepper night is the obvious answer. However, if we look beyond the surface, we find that it the ‘excessiveness’, or the ‘all-you-can-eat’ offer that occurs only once a week that helps give the restaurant its edge.

Now if the hardware store was to use the principle of excessiveness and apply it to their store, they could perhaps have an all-you-can-carry brick event for a reasonable cost of, probably, $9.

Thus, using the context of a successful company/product/service from a completely different industry to apply to one’s product helps in giving it an edge.

Imagination Is The Only Limit

Technically, the numbers of edges one can apply to their product are infinite. One can take any adjective from a dictionary and use it to find an edge. While it isn’t possible to explore all of these edges, let us look at some that can put the process of ‘edgecraft’ into perspective.

One edge for a marketer to start with is visibility that is, taking an invisible product or service and working on its visibility to customers. For example, a massage parlor can make their services (that are mostly invisible and happen inside personal rooms) visible, by putting chairs out and letting others see their customers relax while getting a head massage.

This is a very literal example of visibility. Visibility can also be figurative and have a broader meaning. For example, trying to amp up the looks of an otherwise inconspicuous line of cars at a dealership to make them more visible to customers. 

Conversely, one can use invisibility to make an otherwise visible product invisible – literally and figuratively. For example, the metal braces that were common in the yesteryears have given way to innovations that have made braces literally invisible by changing the material used.

The contrasts between visibility and invisibility show that in edgecraft, it is possible to start with one edge, move on to a contradicting edge and finish at another different edge altogether.

For example, a shoe store wanting to work on the edge of exclusivity can stretch from selling only a particular type of shoes, or better yet, have stores open for only two days a week. Such an edge can make the store seem intriguing to customers.

The Main Obstacle

Coming up with edgecraft is simple enough and one can come up with many ideas, especially for soft innovation. However many face the challenge of converting those ideas into reality, as the other members of the organization are going to have to adapt and absorb the new edges to the product too!

While the idea seems veritable to a few, to some others it could be downright dumb and they could end up being skeptical, hesitant, or even absolutely hostile about it. While most of the pushback will be polite, it will still prove to be discouraging.

However, it is best to remember, that others’ opposition to any novel idea is a reaction of their own fears towards change, rather than a personal attack on the idea itself. Hence, one should not back down, be disheartened, or discouraged. 

Additionally, it does well to remember that along with irrational fears that people will have towards the idea; there will be some reasonable doubts as well. And there is always a way of dispelling these doubts.

The Art Of Convincing: Is It Feasible?

Every new idea will have its fair share of ‘yays’ and ‘nays’. However, whatever form resistance ones ideas face, convincing is key.

Now to break through any resistance faced, one has to be able to gain leverage from the organization by developing a fulcrum to the resistance. Essentially one should position the idea by finding the pressure point that will help in levering the organization in favor.

To this, one has to be well prepared with answers to any kind of questions that could be asked.

To begin with simplest and the most important questions that is always the first is ‘Will it work?’

As someone who is pitching a new edgy idea to the company, it is a no-brainer that the person will be ready with a slick, polished, tight and persuasive presentation that shows arguments in favor of the idea.

However, it is not as simple either. And that is because the underlying question, of whether the idea will work cannot be answered without proving that the idea works – a prospect that impossible since it includes venturing into unknown territory.

That said, one could get others to believe that the idea could work. And for that, one has to appeal to the emotional rather than the intellectual minds of others. In order to appeal to the emotional side, one has to be able to anchor the belief in others by showing them another time-tested example, along with the innovativeness of merging the two. 

For example, Toyota took a revolutionary, hybrid-electric engine, put in a sedan, and turned a boring old car into the Prius!

Another way of convincing others in the organization is to incorporate the organization’s way of doing things with the idea. For example, if the organization has a process of conducting focus groups to verify the probable success of a product, one could conduct a focus group to test out the idea, using the belief of others in the organizational process to convince them.

The Art Of Convincing: Is It Worth Pursuing?

Once others are convinced of the feasibility of the innovation, the next question that is bound to arise is, ‘Even if this is possible, will it be worth it after all?’

In any organization, while the base goal is the same and people work towards it, everyone has their own goals. It is essential that while trying to pursue everyone associated with the decision of moving ahead with the soft innovation, one keep in mind these differences.

Therefore, the convincing pitch has to be different for each, and it has to be aligned with what each of these members values. However, the biggest obstacle at this stage is to get these colleagues to steer away from their fear of the unknown. Essentially, they should be willing, if not comfortable, with getting out of their comfort zones. The feeling that ‘we’re not trailblazing, but we’re not in a bad place either needs to tackle.

What one needs to realize, is that the ‘we’re ok for now’ status quo itself threatens the future of any company. Staying in the comfort zone, the unwillingness to take on challenges, and the fear of change are weaknesses that eventually erode a company’s chances of success. 

It is this conundrum that one has to put forth and convince the others about. One has to make the other see that this is a way to strengthen the weaknesses that can bring the company down.

The Art Of Convincing: The Final Push

There is only one final bit of convincing left. Convincing them of the right leadership. Without convincing the others that you are worthy of leading the project, the project will only remain an idea.

Proving oneself worthy of leadership, is ideally easier if one has a track record of leading and bringing projects to fruition. However, if this project is a first, then it is essential to push hard and work harder to convince people. After all, it’s easier for a Steven Spielberg to sell an idea to a production house than a first-time filmmaker!

In order to convince, one has to start small. One can volunteer to take on small leadership roles for smaller tasks. From there on, one has to take on bigger projects that will show a wider range of leadership skills. The idea is to build a formidable reputation of leadership, a great asset when the day of the final presentation arrives.

The final ingredient to add to convincing is to have oodles of confidence. In order to champion one’s idea, one has to sound, look and be a champion.

Conclusion

Small-scale soft innovations are the buzz in a time when big advertising and R&D budgets are out of reach. A soft innovation gives any product or service that extra edge and works like a charm – just like the ‘free prize’ inside a cereal box used to work.

To give a product or service that extra edge, one should apply the principles of edgecraft that will surely give a boost to any product, to the sales, and eventually the business.

In today’s global village, the concept of a ‘tribe’ has become very important. As a word, ‘tribe’ means a group of people that come together (physically or virtually) due to a shared cause, under a leader or leaders who organize and represent the group. A ‘tribe’ is an essential unit of social organization. It can drive change and even resist it. Most importantly, a tribe helps an individual, a company, and a society grow.

How does a tribe have relevance in the corporate world?

Seth Godin, in his book Tribes, explains the importance of creating tribes in the corporate world. The book shows organizations how to create a loyal customer following towards their products and services and thereby creating a new status quo in the market.

Why Do We Need Tribes?

Humans have a need to socially connect and belong to a larger collective than a family unit. This need stems from the fact that man is social and needs to expand that social circle. Since the beginning of time, man has been a part of a tribe. 

While in the ancient days, tribes were groups of people in the immediate vicinity which slowly grew to include community, language, and ethnicity. Later it included cultural, religious, and political tribes. Today, a tribe is as far and wide as the Internet, and yet as close and accessible as the smartphone in your hand.

The definition of the word ‘tribe’ gives us its three main factors – a group of people, shared cause, and a leader. These factors are common to all tribes – big or small – in the world. The shared cause that binds a tribe is the most important factor, because it enables members to internalize their values, ideas, and feelings towards that cause, thus making them driven believers instead of mere followers.

If we look at Wikipedia that was co-founded by Jimmy Wales, we can see that it is a tribe of over five thousand editors and contributors, who work towards a common vision of communally created, freely available information.

Today, with the advent of the Internet, tribes have become global eliminating geography as a barrier. Simultaneously, the emergence of social media has shifted the relevance from the size of the tribe to the cause and its method of communication. Therefore, tribes are essential in the corporate world to enable social media to market one’s cause and promote one’s values.

Creating A Meaningful And Exclusive Tribe

Why did Nokia not do as well with smartphones as it did earlier?

The answer is simple. In their success of creating a product that appealed to the masses, they missed out on exclusivity and creating meaning (technological advancement). While in the past Nokia focussed on creating a phone that was cheaper and easily available to everyone. They created a product that would be mediocre and not truly resonate with people, making them love it. Creating a product that is appealing to the masses has been a marketing mantra of the past. 

Today, the answer lies in exclusivity, a trend that Apple found success in; that works even today. They chose to make a phone that would appeal to a select few. These few loyal customers would promote the product for the sheer love of it, creating a tribe of people who would have a shared cause – to believe in the superiority of the product they use.

Any product or service needs to have a meaningful story and should resonate and connect with the story of their users. A tribe around a new, exclusive product forms only when a user can meaningfully and personally identify and connect with it.

Anyone Can Create A Tribe

When we look at the third component of a tribe – a leader or a chief – we instantly think of a leading figure with exemplary qualities of leading people. However, today, creating a tribe has become as simple as opening a YouTube account and posting videos online.

Therefore, anyone can create and lead a tribe.

However, to lead it successfully, there needs to be intense communication not only between the leader and the tribe members but also between individual members of the tribe. Today social media platforms, blogging sites and websites, have made the technology available for the members of a tribe to communicate, share their ideas, and organize. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, Pinterest, allows the sharing of ideas, updates as well as discussion boards where all members can align their interests to a common goal.

If we see the example of Greg Glassman of CrossFit.com, we can see that he created a tribe by making one single platform for fitness fanatics to connect, exchange fitness ideas and programs, and even opt for certification and open CrossFit gym franchises. 

Meaningful Cause + Will To Lead = Followers

The formula is simple!

A person with a ‘willingness to lead’ that finds a group of people who yearn for the same common ‘meaningful’ cause, will be able to gather a group of members or followers. Once a person taps into that existing yearning and creates an opportunity for them to connect, it results in the creating of a movement.

A movement, as defined by the former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley contains three elements – 

• The narrative of the future or plan
• A connection between members and leader, and connection between the members themselves
• Having something to do.

A movement needs about 1000 invested members to be called a movement at all. At the same time, it needs a great story that creates a buzz among that group.

The success of Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth started a worldwide movement about climate change. What made the documentary so influential despite the fact that climate change and its effects were not new knowledge?

Al Gore’s documentary gave like-minded individuals something to talk about, to share, discuss, and have an opportunity to do something. Without a buzzing story and the opportunity to promote change, coupled with Al Gore’s willingness to lead, he would have never created a tribe, let alone be able to lead it.

It’s Not About Growth

The obvious (and age old) belief about leading a group with a common cause is to make it grow. Yet, It’s Not About Growth!!

The most important factor that drives a tribe to success is how close-knit the members of the group are and not how many members are there in it. In comparison to the channel of communication in normal marketing, the channels that tribes offer are much more and thus much more effective. A tribe has 4 main channels of communication – 

• Leader to members
• Members to leader
• Member to member
• Member to outsider

Of these, member-to-member communication is most important, because it promotes tightness within the group, strengthening bonds and increasing the feeling of exclusivity. This feeling can also be brought in, by focusing on differences between the insiders and the outsiders.

Steve Jobs ended up creating a whole bunch of passive rumor sites that were solely discussing new products, and sharing news, increasing the cult feeling.

Creating Motion From A Vacuum

The need for change or resisting the change emerges when there is something that is missing from the equation. Therefore, the vacuum that has been created needs a shift, a sense of motion. That is when change begins to take place.

The leader of a tribe – or say, in an organization – should first be the promoter of change. He should be able to step into the ‘vacuum’ and generate motion – or create a stir. How does one, therefore, become a tribe leader.

Leaders that generate effective motion, create, mobilize, and maintain a tribe are more than just famous, rich, or great orators, etc. Instead, they are charismatic by the virtue of being generous. The difference lies between being altruistic and authentic or egomaniacal and narcissistic.

They believe in the inherent value of the cause, even if means giving it out for free. That inherent value lies in spreading the cause to the right potential members who can add value to the tribe and its cause. The fact that Al Gore’s documentary was free for all, made it the starting point of the creation of his tribe!

More Leaders, Fewer Followers

Right from the time we are young, we get indoctrinated to follow others. Following parents, teachers, the school rules, are the rules of the society. However, those who always follow never become tribe leaders. 

To advocate change, create a stir, and change the status quo, we need more leaders. Leaders resist rules and ask questions, understand the reasoning behind movements, and to promote questioning. They are the ones who seek change passionately and find those who seek it with them. Leaders create tribes.

Organizations need more leaders to advocate change without fear of retribution and damnation of themselves and their tribe. It ensures that there is more dynamism within the organization, yet it offers consistency when it comes to creating a movement towards a shared goal.