The first step on the path to make things better is to make better things.
August 31, 2019
The compass points toward trust, p. 9
Your emergency is not a license to steal my attention. Your insecurity is not a permit to hustle me or my friends.
September 1, 2019
Chapter Three: Marketing Changes People Through Stories, Connections, and Experience, p. 20
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.
September 2, 2019
Chapter Four: The Smallest Viable Market, p. 29
use psychographics instead of demographics.
September 5, 2019
Empathy is at the heart of marketing, p. 42
Sonder is defined as that moment when you realize that everyone around you has an internal life as rich and as conflicted as yours.
September 5, 2019
Empathy is at the heart of marketing, p. 44
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.
November 7, 2019
Chapter Five: In Search of “Better”, p. 49
“Adherence to conspiracy theory might not always be the result of some perceived lack of control, but rather a deep-seated need for uniqueness.”
December 13, 2019
Empathy is at the heart of marketing, p. 51
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.
December 14, 2019
Empathy is at the heart of marketing, p. 60
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
December 16, 2019
Chapter Six: Beyond Commodities, p. 69
The alternative is to find and build and earn your story, the arc of the change you seek to produce.
December 17, 2019
Does it work?, p. 75
Marketing acts (interesting choice of word, acts) are the generous actions of people who care.
December 17, 2019
Does it work?, p. 76
Emotional labor is the work we do to provide service.
December 16, 2019
Chapter Seven: The Canvas of Dreams and Desires, p. 80
This core basket of dreams and desires means that marketers, like artists, don’t need many colors to paint an original masterpiece.
December 17, 2019
The most effective remarkability comes from design, p. 92
If you can’t succeed in the small, why do you believe you will succeed in the large?
December 17, 2019
Deep change is difficult, and worth it, p. 102
Everyone always acts in accordance with their internal narratives.
December 17, 2019
Deep change is difficult, and worth it, p. 104
Even when we adopt the behavior of an outlier, when we do something the
December 17, 2019
Deep change is difficult, and worth it, p. 106
Marketers don’t make average stuff for average people. Marketers make change. And they do it by normalizing new behaviors.
December 17, 2019
Deep change is difficult, and worth it, p. 111
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.
December 17, 2019
Chapter Eleven: Status, Dominance, and Affiliation, p. 134
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.
December 18, 2019
Chapter Twelve: A Better Business Plan, p. 143
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.
December 18, 2019
What does this remind you of?, p. 154
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.
December 18, 2019
What does this remind you of?, p. 154
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.
December 18, 2019
Chapter Fourteen: Treat Different People Differently, p. 159
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.
December 18, 2019
Chapter Fourteen: Treat Different People Differently, p. 163
You’ll serve many people. You’ll profit from a few.
December 18, 2019
Goals, strategy, and tactics, p. 171
Direct marketing is action oriented. And it is measured. Brand marketing is culturally oriented. And it can’t be measured.
December 18, 2019
Goals, strategy, and tactics, p. 177
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.
December 18, 2019
Goals, strategy, and tactics, p. 170
Even “free” publicity costs you in terms of time and effort.
December 18, 2019
Goals, strategy, and tactics, p. 176
But frequency teaches us that there’s a very real dip—a gap between when we get bored and when people get the message.
January 8, 2020
Pricing is a marketing tool, not simply a way to get money, p. 179
Marketing changes your pricing. Pricing changes your marketing.
January 8, 2020
Pricing is a marketing tool, not simply a way to get money, p. 184
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.
January 8, 2020
Pricing is a marketing tool, not simply a way to get money, p. 188
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?
January 8, 2020
Pricing is a marketing tool, not simply a way to get money, p. 182
Low price is the last refuge of a marketer who has run out of generous ideas.
January 9, 2020
Permission is anticipated, personal, and relevant, p. 195
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.
January 9, 2020
What’s fake?, p. 202
The goal isn’t to maximize your social media numbers. The goal is to be known to the smallest viable audience.
January 9, 2020
Chapter Nineteen: The Funnel, p. 216
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.
January 9, 2020
Chapter Nineteen: The Funnel, p. 216
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.
January 9, 2020
Chapter Nineteen: The Funnel, p. 207
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.
January 9, 2020
Chapter Nineteen: The Funnel, p. 207
by dividing the market into many curves, not just one, we end up with many short heads and many long tails.
January 9, 2020
Chapter Nineteen: The Funnel, p. 215
He has articulated a simple three-step narrative for action: the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now.