second serving | MEATBALL SUNDAE

Earlier I shared a summary and some sound-bites from Seth Godin's newest book, MEATBALL SUNDAE.  I've collected a few cast-offs from the editing room floor that didn't make the initial sound-bite cut.  Just because these money quotes and action-figure photos didn't make the cut, doesn't mean they aren't chewy. They are.  Enjoy.

---

---

---

---

---

---

Comments

[Scott White]

Hey John,

I know you're a big fan of Seth, I'm not. I think he's really full of crap and doesn't know the first thing about branding.

He obviuosly doesn't know anything about search engine optimization because that quote about Google and the back door is completely wrong. Google ranks pages for value and the homepage always has the most value/power. So typically 95% of the time the homepage will be served up in the serp's. He probably doesn't even know what serp's mean.

Here are some of my thoughts on Seth Godin:

http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=458

http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=479

http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=455

http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=484

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Scott ... Seth must know something about branding otherwise he wouldn't have built a personal brand that elicits such a strong opinion from you.

As for his "backdoor" Google quote, I tend to agree. 95% of people that visit this blog come from a Google search which directs them to a page deep within this site and not to this blog's homepage. Furthermore, a majority of visitor's to my brandautopsy.com website enter via the "backdoor."

[Scott White]

I guess if you consider a strong negative brand image desirable then yes. I honestly think he does not know much about branding in general to make some of these quotes. But that's my humble opinion as a branding guy.

[Eamon]

Hello John,

Sorry, different subject.

I was wondering what your views are on brands / marketing and the current economic decline.

- Will luxury brands be affected this time (and how might that affect mid-value brands).
*** john: I believe there are three strateggies to growing sales (1) get new customers to buy; (2) get current customers to buy more, more often; (3) raise prices. Anytime the economy is sluggish it's tough for luxury brands to get new customers to trade up and its tough for luxury brands to raise prices. That leaves going after current customers. My advice for luxury brands is to focus on making their current customers happy (i.e. better customer service) in hopes they will not choose to make purchases elsewhere.

- General advice for mid-value brands during economic decline
*** john:Mid-value brands will always struggle in good times and bad times because they are caught in the middle. Customers generally trade up or trade down no matter the economy.

- Should mid-value brands lower prices during economic decline (if yes, which sort of brands)
*** john: I wouldn't advise lowering prices. Doing so only trains customers to expect lower prices. And, you'll have a hard time raising prices once the economy improves because you've just trained customers to expect lower prices. Dig?

- General advice for marketeers during economic decline
*** john: Focus on making sure your current customers are happy.

Thank you

Eamon Mahony

[Scott White]

That sounds like a new topic post to me...

[Aurelius Tjin]

I always look up to Seth Godin and his work, he always never ceases to deliver! Great post, it was fun reading through the what looked like banner-comics. Thanks! :)

[Balistic Fox]

All really good snippets of advice.

[Jon]

It's not that Seth Godin is wrong.

It's just that everything he says is so bloody obvious and 'sound-bitey'. His mantras are like perfectly formed pop songs - catchy but entirely forgettable....and ultimately not that rewarding or interesting.

But then I guess that's what the best brands in the world do to.

I'm all for Seth though - he makes it easier for me to talk to clients about the difficult bit...that is, what we actually do...

[Jon]

incidentally, I just clicked through to Scott's sites and thoughts about Seth..

hmmm....let's just say that, if ever it came to a live debate, I think Seth would make a Meatball Sundae of Scott...

not a whole lot of BRAIN POWER going on at brandidentityguru.com....but a whole lot of hubris.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

"he makes it easier for me to talk to clients about the difficult bit...that is, what we actually do...

BINGO! Jon. That's a lot of what Seth does. He makes difficult marketing stuff easier for us all to understand and talk about.

[David Webb]

Man very nice! I like the 4th one the most, about small importance of homepage, and about big importance of google :) Check out my quotes database http://quoteshall.com