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Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? [Hardcover]

Seth Godin (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)

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Book Description

December 27, 2007
?Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords . . . I don?t care, as long as it?s shiny and new.?

Wait. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great. But if you start with a bowl of meatballs . . . yuck!

As traditional marketing fades away, the new tools seem irresistible. But they don?t work as well for boring brands (?meatballs?) that might still be profitable but don?t attract word of mouth, such as Cheerios, Ford trucks, Barbie dolls, or Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch spends $40 million on an online network called BudTV, that?s a meatball sundae. It leads to no new Bud drinkers, just a bad case of indigestion.

Meatball Sundae is the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don?t.

The winners aren?t just annoying start-ups run by three teenagers who never had a real job. You?ll also meet older companies that have adapted brilliantly, such as Blendtec, a thirty-year-old blender maker. It now produces ?Will it blend?? videos that demolish golf balls, Coke cans, iPhones, and much more. For a few hundred dollars, Blendtec reached more than ten million eager viewers on YouTube.

Godin doesn?t pretend that it?s easy to get your products, marketing messages, and internal systems in sync. But he?ll convince you that it?s worth the effort.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Godin's latest business handbook (after Small Is the New Big and The Dip) revisits some of his most popular marketing advice, while emphasizing that it can't just be applied willy-nilly. In past decades, he says, companies were able to get rich by making average products for average people, but those markets have long since been sewn up; mass is no longer achievable [or] desirable. Rather than simply rely on mass media to raise product visibility, New Marketing treats every aspect of interacting with customers—including customer service and the product itself—as an opportunity to grow the organization. In order to be successful with such marketing techniques, a company must change its practices across the board. Otherwise, you're just putting whipped cream on a meatball. Godin has a perspective on everything from blogs (don't bother unless you really have something to say) to the long tail (if it's as valuable to your company as the top sellers are, why aren't you paying more attention?). His arresting conversational style is sure to once again set the business world talking. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Godin…is a clear-eyed visionary with strong and sensible ideas on how the new economy can, should and will function."—Miami Herald (Miami Herald )

[Godin's] arresting conversational style is sure to once again set the business world talking. - Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (December 27, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1591841747
  • ISBN-13: 978-1591841746
  • Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #448,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Seth Godin is the author of fourteen international bestsellers that have been translated into over 35 languages, and have changed the way people think about marketing and work. His Unleashing the Ideavirus was the most popular ebook ever published, and Purple Cow is the bestselling marketing book of the decade.

His book, Tribes, was a nationwide bestseller, appearing on the Amazon, New York Times, BusinessWeek and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. It's about the most powerful form of marketing--leadership--and how anyone can now become a leader, creating movements that matter.

His book Linchpin, and was the fastest selling book of his career. Linchpin challenges you to stand up, do work that matters and race to the top instead of the bottom. More than that, though, the book outlines a massive change in our economy, a fundamental shift in what it means to have a job.

Since Linchpin, Godin has published two more books, Poke the Box and We Are All Weird, through his Domino Project.

In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth is founder and CEO of Squidoo.com, a fast growing recommendation website. His blog (find it by typing "seth" into Google) is the most popular marketing blog in the world. Before his work as a writer and blogger, Godin was Vice President of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!, a job he got after selling them his pioneering 1990s online startup, Yoyodyne.

You can find every single possible detail that anyone could ever want to know at squidoo.com/seth.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I deliver keynote speeches and run seminars at companies, I am often asked for advice on how to convince the bosses that the new rules of marketing really work. Frequently people say something like: "My bosses make me prove ROI before I can do this online thought leadership and viral marketing stuff."

My cynical answer is: "What's the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning?"

But then I suggest that people to ask their boss if in the past few months, they've made a product or service decision based on a direct mail piece they received or based on a TV advertisement. (Almost no bosses have). Then I say they should ask their boss if in the past few months they've used Google or another search engine to make a product or service decision. (Virtually all bosses have).

Well now I have something else to suggest. Buy a copy of Seth Godin's Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? for your bosses.* Tell them it is an important book. Meatball Sundae will be your tool to help others in your organization to understand what you already get and what you are eager to implement. It will help you to get the buy-in to do the new rules of marketing that you know makes sense.

But first your bosses may need to transform your company.

Meatball Sundae lays out in a convincing manner the transformations that are taking place in business today. These transformations mean that everything needs to be looked at carefully, including marketing. But to just toss new marketing onto the top of obsolete business models is like putting whipped cream and a cherry onto meatballs to make a sundae. (Yuk).

Godin tells a story I really like. Josiah Wedgewood, a potter in England in the 1800's at the start of the Industrial Revolution, was the first to create a factory with a production line and job specialization. He built a showroom and shipped product around the world. And he sold bespoke pieces to royalty but first displayed those fantastic and expensive creations for several months so all could see. (Wedgewood was a marketing genius AND a business pioneer.)

Josiah Wedgewood took advantage of changes in society and technology and changed the way business is done, made millions, and founded a company still famous today. But his brother Thomas Wedgewood stuck to the ways that all potters have worked in the past, barely made a living, and is forgotten today.

Godin says fourteen trends are completely remaking what it means to be a marketer. And while these trends are transforming organizations that have the right approaches, they are crippling the organizations that are stuck with nothing but meatballs. Once again, marketing is transforming what we make and how we make it.

* > If you ARE the boss, you should buy copies for your board members and investors...
Was this review helpful to you?
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you had a bowl of meatballs and wanted to dress them up a bit before you served them, would you add whipped cream, a sprinkle of nuts, and a cherry on top? A meatball sundae doesn't sound attractive? Seth Godin knows how to write with snappy images to get his ideas across in crisp, concise, and memorable images. The idea of the meatball sundae is used to illustrate old style companies trying to "get with it" by using the New Marketing paradigm without updating anything else. One of the examples he cites is the $40 million Anheuser-Busch spent on Bud-TV to add zero new customers. I am not qualified to judge the appropriateness of the effort or what Bud was after, but I do agree with the author that the goal of all marketing, in the end, has to be to create more customers.

The book has three parts that each consists of multiple short sections that focus on aspects of the topic under discussion. Part 1 is "Thinking About the Meatball Sundae" and takes us through the history of marketing in the US and how it has gone through several upheavals and how those who got their marketing in synch with the new realities won.

Part 2 is "The Fourteen Trends", which discusses the realities of the New Marketing.
They fourteen trends are:

1) Direct Communication and Commerce Between Producers and Consumers
2) Amplification of the Voice of the Consumer and Independent Authorities
3) Need for an Authentic Story as the Number of sources Increases
4) Extremely Short Attention Spans Due to Clutter
5) The Long Tail
6) Outsourcing
7) Google and the Dicing of Everything
8) Infinite Channels of Communication
9) Direct Communication and Commerce Between Consumers and Consumers
10) The Shifts in Scarcity and Abundance
11) The Triumph of Big Ideas
12) The Shift From How Many to Who
13) The Wealthy Are Like Us
14) New Gatekeepers, No Gatekeepers

Part 3 is "Putting It Together" and Case Studies. The Case Studies are short illustrations of how these principles and trends support success or how failure results from ignoring them.

The book is a pleasant read and geared towards those trying to get a handle on what is happening now in the marketplace, especially to entrepreneurs thinking about their marketing efforts. It is written with energy and without academic jargon.

You will know if this book is for you. That is, if you are writing checks for marketing programs for your company, this book is for you.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Godin does an excellent job demonstrating why "old dogs" (the meatballs) and "new tricks" (the sundae toppings) often fail. His primary premise is that the techniques of Old Marketing (that is, interruptive marketing such as billboards, tv ads, and so forth) is dying, if not already dead. The problem for the adherents of Old Marketing is that they are unable to sync New Marketing innovations with their mass market products. They have been too focused on mass media, instead of consumer-to-consumer word of mouth marketing approaches. He then skillfully lists about a dozen other out-of-sync issues. The problem is that our societal changes and product individualization expectations have resulted in the consumer longing for altogether new (innovative) products through these New Marketing channels. We no longer want the built-for-everyone solution -- even if the maker starts a blog or other viral messaging about the item. I feel Godin does a great job of bringing together a number of key issues presented in some of his earlier works (such as Permission Marketing), as well as telling authentic stories (pick up "All Marketers are Liars" by Godin or "Why Johnny Can't Brand" by Schley and Nichols), along with some of the recent word of mouth marketing writings (such as "Word of Mouth Marketing" by Sernovitz and "Buzzmarketing" by Hughes). For good measure, "Make it Stick" is a great discussion of what makes certain events and ideas have lasting impacts on our psyche.

It is clear that Godin does not put forth his ideas as easy -- largely due to the decades (even centuries if you consider his Wedgwood example) of established marketing tradition, and the mega billion dollar machine that keeps the entire system going -- regardless of its increasing ineffectiveness. Nevertheless, Godin will make you a true believer in the need to make the changes -- not just to endure, but to thrive.

This is an A+ read and is worth your attention.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
It's Europe time now
Despite the fact that it was published in 2007 I do strongly believe that Seth's book is still up to date and might come in handy for people living outside the States. Read more
Published 4 months ago by FRANCESCO FERZINI
It's OK. It could be summarized in 20 pages.
The idea of the book is OK. It could be resumed in just 20 pages. The author repeats and repeats the concept a lot. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Iñaki
Great tips and entertaining case studies
"Although not so recent.. still very appplicable tips. Love the case studies with history of brands and how they have evolved."
Published 11 months ago by Juliana Loh
Convincing, relevant, riveting!
I simply can't recommend this book enough! If you're not already convinced that the rules of marketing have changed big time in our Internet-saturated business world, Godin will... Read more
Published 13 months ago by nrenicker
Advertising In 2011? You Need To Read This Book
I had heard that this book was a eye opener, but after reading it, I have to say that is a understatement. Read more
Published 15 months ago
Internet marketing great insight
Great book... it really makes you (the marketer) think twice about how you treat each individual customer. It's a great way to do business when you really think about it. Read more
Published 21 months ago by K. Christensen
Candy
I am like the proverbial kid in a candy shop! New to the world of marketing and finding myself having to make my own way in it, I find the journey one of the most enjoyable and... Read more
Published on December 2, 2009 by M. Swanton
Must Read for Those Interested in Internet Marketing!
If you are, or planning to, market your product or service on the Internet you have to read this book. Read more
Published on October 13, 2009 by John R. Sedivy
Odd Metaphor, GREAT BOOK
Meatball Sundae is a resource to share the differentiation factor between "old marketing" techniques and "new marketing" techniques. Read more
Published on September 13, 2009 by Lori Gertz
It's a poorly written book with great ideas
I am a fan of Seth Godin's writing, but this book seemed like a mish-mash of truths and half-truths. Read more
Published on June 24, 2009 by NK411
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Before Advertising, there were hundreds of thousands of companies. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
meatball sundae, new gatekeepers
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Marketing, Old Marketing, Josiah Wedgwood, United States, Yellow Pages, New York Times, Murder Ink, New Media, Ralph Lauren, Sick Puppies, Business Week, Tower Records, Super Bowl
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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