This is Marketing - Literature Notes

Last updated Aug 15, 2023

#literaturenotes

• If you want change in the world, then start making it happen.

The first step on the path to make things better is to make better things.

• ==Hijacking attention== is inexcusable.

Your emergency is not a license to steal my attention. Your insecurity is not a permit to hustle me or my friends.

• We impact people through marketing by ==understanding what makes them tick.==

Marketing is our quest to make change on behalf of those we serve, and we do it by understanding the irrational forces that drive each of us.

• Use ==psychographics== instead of demographics.
• Cards/Sonder is defined as that moment when you realize that ==everyone around you has an internal life as rich and as conflicted as yours.==
  • New definition:

  Cards/Sonder is the generous act of accepting that others don’t want, believe, or know what we do—and have a similar noise in their heads.

• Cards/Every purchase is a bargain.

Everything that we purchase—every investment, every trinket, every experience—is a bargain. That’s why we bought it. Because it was worth more than what we paid for it.

• Conspiracy theorists are motivated not by lack of control, but for the ==need to be unique.==

“Adherence to conspiracy theory might not always be the result of some perceived lack of control, but rather a deep-seated need for uniqueness.”

• Don’t find people who’ll like your product; ==make a product that people will like.==

You’re not running around grabbing every conceivable lock to try out your key. Instead, you’re finding people (the lock), and since you are curious about their dreams and desires, you will create a key just for them, one they’ll happily trade attention for.

• Cards/Build your own quadrant.

  The alternative is to build your own quadrant. To find two axes that have been overlooked. To build a story, a true story, that keeps your promise, that puts you in a position where you are the clear and obvious choice.

  The alternative is to find and build and earn your story, the arc of the change you seek to produce.

• Marketing can be a form of ==generosity.==

Marketing acts (interesting choice of word, acts) are the generous actions of people who care.

• Cards/We serve others through our emotional labor.

Emotional labor is the work we do to provide service.

• All you need to create a touching piece is work with the ==basic set of human dreams and desires.==

This core basket of dreams and desires means that marketers, like artists, don’t need many colors to paint an original masterpiece.

• To ==succeed== in the macro, you need to in the ==micro.==

If you can’t succeed in the small, why do you believe you will succeed in the large?

• Cards/Everyone always acts in accordance with their internal narratives.
• Cards/Marketers make change.

Marketers don’t make average stuff for average people. Marketers make change. And they do it by normalizing new behaviors.

Lazy marketers try to buy enrollment with flashy ads. The best marketers earn enrollment by seeking people who want the change being offered. And they do it by connecting people to others who want the change as well. And that change is precisely what marketers seek.

• To change a huge culture, start first with a ==small group.==

  In order to change a culture, we begin with an exclusive cohort. That’s where we can offer the most tension and create the most useful connections.

• Cards/The purpose of capitalism is to build our culture.

The purpose of our culture isn’t to enable capitalism, even capitalism that pays your bills. The purpose of capitalism is to build our culture.

• A marketing asset (i.e. a brand) is made up of ==connection== & ==everything non-quantifiable.==

If you want to build a marketing asset, you need to invest in connection and other nontransferable properties. If people care, you’ve got a brand.

• Without a brand, a logo is ==meaningless.==

If a brand is our mental shorthand for the promise that you make, then a logo is the Post-it reminder of that promise. Without a brand, a logo is meaningless.

• You’ll serve many people. You’ll profit from a few.
• ==Direct marketing== is measurable and oriented towards action, while ==brand marketing== is unmeasurable and oriented towards culture.

Direct marketing is action oriented. And it is measured. Brand marketing is culturally oriented. And it can’t be measured.

• The path isn’t to be found when someone types in a generic term. The path is to ==have someone care enough about you and what you create that they’ll type in your name.== That they’ll be looking for you, not a generic alternative.
• Cards/Publicity is costly.

Even “free” publicity costs you in terms of time and effort.

• Frequency shows that there’s a gap between ==boredom== and ==communication==.
  • But frequency teaches us that there’s a very real dip—a gap between when we get bored and when people get the message.
• Marketing and pricing are ==correlated==.

Marketing changes your pricing. Pricing changes your marketing.

• We ==can’t make a living== if we give all our ideas away.

We don’t know how to make a living if we give everything away. The road out of this paradox is to combine two offerings, married to each other: Free ideas that spread. Expensive expressions of those ideas that are worth paying for.

• Your stories ==can’t be made for everyone.==
  • That story isn’t for everyone, but for the right people, it transforms the experience. Who’s it for, what’s it for, and how is status changed? What will I tell the others?
• Cards/Low price is a last resort.

Low price is the last refuge of a marketer who has run out of generous ideas.

• Cards/Purple Cow

It’s almost impossible to spread your word directly. Too expensive, too slow. To find individuals, interrupt them, and enroll them, one by one . . . it’s a daunting task. The alternative is to intentionally create a product or service that people decide is worth talking about. I call this a Purple Cow.

• Don’t aim for breaking big on social media; start small with a Cards/Minimum viable audience.

The goal isn’t to maximize your social media numbers. The goal is to be known to the smallest viable audience.

• To target the Cards/long tail, you must create something ==extraordinary== for the market that ==connects== with them. This shows them that you’re in the Cards/short head.

This means that living on the long tail has two essential elements: Creates the definitive, the most essential, the extraordinary contribution to the field. Connects the market you’ve designed it for, and helps them see that you belong in the short head. That this hit is the glue that holds them together.

• You don’t get discovered through the Internet alone, but through the ==impact you make uniting the people you serve.==

Yes, the internet is a discovery tool. But no, you’re not going to get discovered that way. Instead, you will make your impact by uniting those you seek to serve.

• ==Build new things for your customers== instead of finding new customers for your things.

consider focusing on which steps to shift or eliminate. Explore what happens if people engage in your ideas or your community before you ask them to send you money. Invest in the lifetime value of a customer, building new things for your customers instead of racing around trying to find new customers for your things.

• The market consists of many short heads and many long tails.

by dividing the market into many curves, not just one, we end up with many short heads and many long tails.

• The narrative for ==action== consists of the story of ==self==, the story of ==us==, and the story of ==now==.

He has articulated a simple three-step narrative for action: the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now.