Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? Paperback – Illustrated, April 24, 2012

Seth Godin sums up the central and profoundly important point of this book right here -"The 'operating system' for marketers is now fundamentally changing. It doesn't matter how big your market share is today. If your product and your marketing are optimized for the older model, you will be defeated by the relentless tide of the New Marketing and the products and services that are designed for it." (p 182)I hope companies with traditional models are heeding this advice, because it's only a matter of time before those models are Model T's."Meatballs" are average products made for average people. "Sundaes" are the new online marketing tools we see evolving and morphing by the day. You can't market meatballs with sundaes because New Marketing is all about quality and niches. The meatball model doesn't mix with the medium of the Web.Godin tries hard to make his case, using several fascinating case studies and examples of how companies in the most mundane industries imaginable (blenders and notebooks, for example) have thrived by adapting their model to the New Market and then putting together smart sundae strategies.For all his eloquence,lucidity, and credibility, Godin himself sounds a bit uncertain as to whether he possesses the necessary skill to make his case, going for a hard sell close in the final pages. Boy. If he thinks it's a tough sell, that should give one pause.Despite the mounting successes scored by companies that embrace New Marketing, much of the business world is oblivious. While in some sectors YouTube is driving big sales, in many more sectors it is viewed as a mere source of personal entertainment. Blogs may be building loyal customer communities for some manufacturers, but for many more, blogs remain an utter mystery.This book is must reading for business owners and high level execs, no matter what the business or its size. It's an attempt to explain the new marketing imperatives and why you must change your business and embrace them. Its message is similar to that of  The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual , only told more politely, with less ideology and more practical illustrations.

Business as usual isn't working anymore.Seth Godin portrays the orthodox business practice trying to embrace the New Marketing as "Meatball Sundae". Meatball is straightforward and ubiquitious. The New Marketing is whipped cream and a cherryPart 1 speaks out the difference between the old marketing (mass media, TV, command-and-control) and The New Marketing (fashion, stories, permission and promises)The highlight of the book is in Part 2, The Fourteen TrendsTrend1: Direct Communication and Commerce Between Producers and ConsumersTrend2: Amplification of the Voice of the Consumer and Independent AuthoritiesTrend3: Need for an Authentic Story as The Number of Sources IncreasesTrend4: Extremely Short Attention Spans Due to ClutterTrend5: The Long TailTrend6: OutsourcingTrend7: Googl and The Dicing of EverythingTrend8: Infinite Channels of CommunicationTrend9: Direct Communication and Commerce Between Consumers and ConsumersTrend10: The Shifts in Scarcity and AbundanceTrend11: The Triumph og Big IdeasTrend12: The Shift From "How Many" to "Who"Trend13: The Wealthy Are Like UsTrend14: New Gatekeepers, No GatekeepersPart 3 is "Putting It Together", it is basically the conclusion with some nice case studies in the final partWhat I'm going to tell you is the breakdown of the dimensions of the content of the book into six dimensions: ease of understanding (how easy it is to understand), distinction (how unique it is), practicality (can it be done?), credibility (does it sound true and real or is it from out of nowhere?), insight (Is it deep of is it shallow?), and reading experienceIf a book is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience, I consider it an excellent book.Meatball Sundae:Ease of Understanding: 8/10: Seth wrote it very simply, each part is divided into small sections (blog-like) instead of a long chapter. 2 points taken due to a maximum use of technological stuffs which can be hard to understand by brick-and-mortar marketers unless he or she read it with an online computer.Distinction: 7/10: There have been books already about these trends, The Long Tail, far too many books on outsourcing and these technological trends, a famous The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman offers a great insight on this. However, Seth Godin is magical in the sense that he can thread and tie them together.Practicality: 5/10: Although there are many new and fun things to learn and the 14 trends, he did not offer much on how to ride the trend. I now have a blog, subscribed to Twitter, Squidoo, etc. Now what? The stories mostly stop thereCredibility: 8/10: Seth's words are honest and real, he wrote about blogs and communication and he is the master at it with examples of successes and failures and a long lists of examples from other sources in a small book.Insight: 5/10: Since the book is divided into many small chunks, there is no subject that is deep. It is understandable though, this is no Philip Kotler's textbook.Experience: 9/10: This book is fun. My feeling was like sitting with Seth Godin himself while he shows me what's in his laptop and what should we do with our browser.Overall: 7.1/10: A very good book on how marketing is and will be and the trends changing the marketing landscape forever but too little on the spot on methods and how-tos.

That pretty much sums it up:there are a lot of good, interesting, sometimes batty ideas stetched across 280 pages, all looking for a unifying theme that escapes Godin's grasp. but no mind: this book is a true long tail with segments for some but not for all, some of which are compelling(the internet creates a nicer culture since visible power is hidden), provocative(think what people want and then build, do not build and then cram down), left over from other books(get permission to market), and revolutionary(the old guard will continue to try and force the word into the configuration where they thrived and try to will the world to match thier offerings as opposed to the other way around). Not as good or as integrated a product as "All Marketers Are Liars"----the best book I have ever read on persuasion(if you have a job requiring you to convince someone of something, lawyer, salessperson, c level exec, or whatever, it is a must read), but still a worthwhile read.

It's not really a well written book, but more than anything else it will teach you to think differently about marketing in today's social media scene as opposed to more traditional methods of marketing, like TV and newspapers.The examples Seth gives points you in the right direction, but at the end of the day the ideas you will need to come up with will be your own and not his.You will still have to find your own way to cut through the social media jungle out there.I can't really complement the chef on this concoction as it does take a bit of chewing over and a little bit to digest.I just wonder what sort of meat was in Seth's meatballs, as I'd hate to think he was flogging a dead horse here ;-)

I am a big Seth fan, book arrived ontime and in good condition, many thanks

For those who born before social media's deluge, snapped and thrived insights. whorth reading for everybody and who tend to develope the new marketing

Book was not fresh.