This Is Marketing

This Is Marketing argues that marketing success in today’s world comes from focusing more on the needs, values, and desires of our target audience, rather than spamming as many people as possible with our message.

To understand marketing today, we need to take a quick look at history. In the 1960s only three major television channels existed in the United States. If you wanted people to see what you were selling, you’d want to run an ad on one of these channels. After getting millions of eyes on your product, you’d likely meet your marketing goals and make more money.

Maybe you’re sitting there thinking “Great! Internet marketing; let’s go!” Not so fast. While advertising on the internet might sound like a simple idea, it’s not that easy. Even with the targeted ads, the 24-7 availability of your message, and measurable results that weren’t available in the industrial age, you still have a problem. You now compete with every other company that is trying to utilize these same tools. It’s hard to get to the top when there are so many clamoring for attention, even in niche markets.

The answer, Godin suggests, lies in finding a basic need or desire and creating something that solves that demand. Take any human need like freedom, belonging, connection, strength, or adventure and find a way to fulfill that need. Once you can do that, you’ve got the beginnings of a great marketing plan. As Simon Sinek teaches in Start With Why, you aren’t selling a “what,” you are selling a “why.”

Your audience already exists; it’s your job to find them. These people currently have the values, needs, and desires that you are looking to attract to your offering. But how do you discover the people who already want what you’re offering but don’t know it because you haven’t yet reached them? Creating a tribe is the way to get your people together. Doing this is a simple matter of sharing stories that speak to the way they see the world. Fruitful stories that bring your tribe together contain a promise in language that is familiar to those you seek to reach. You help them see that buying your product or paying for the service you provide will fulfill their wants how they like. Make sure your message is one that they can understand. Use words and phrases that help your people believe what you are offering. Appeal to the sometimes hidden assumptions that your audience uses to form their world view. An example of a good story that went wrong is JCPenny. The narrative their audience wanted and that the company told was that getting a deal when shopping is important. Giving…