One of the consequences of the world we live in today is an increasing array of choices offered us, which then turns into a time problem, as we don't have enough of it to give our attention to many products or services companies offer us as solutions to our wants or needs.
To that end, Seth Godin gave a talk last year talking about the importance of differentiating through unique or strange ideas, rather than attempting to break into the mainstream of products and services.
That's another way of saying tapping into early adopters, or people that are always willing to try or tinker with something different. That's still another way of saying people who are willing and able to spend the time doing it.
Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights
A particular mantra opined by Godin in the video is to find something remarkable. He didn't mean this solely from the point of view of extraordinary, but from the view of something that generated conversation which would eventually go viral.
Something we need to consider when listening to gurus like Godin, is they are wrong as many times as they are right when they use examples of what they usually call "cool" companies or ideas. When you check out the performances of many companies and ideas they use as examples, you find they fail more than they succeed.
An example in the video I included is the use of Krispy Kreme (NYSE: KKD) as an illustration by Godin, which has plummeted in value over the last five years. Another is the current struggles former media darling Starbucks Nasdaq: SBUX)is going through, which I talked about here.
Now I don't think Godin would refute that, as a matter of fact he would probably embrace it as an example of throwing up different things to see which ones stick. That's the nature of the game concerning marketing products to early adopters; it's strength and weakness.
Either way, Seth Godin is always entertaining and worth listening to. Enjoy.
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