Have you ever had that feeling that things are just slotting into place around you?
Yesterday I finished reading “Meatball Sundae”, the new book by Seth Godin. It’s a small book in which Mr. Godin lays out why forcing "meatballs" (things we need) with "sundaes" (new marketing methods) don't work. He uses various examples, hopping between Wedgewood in the 1800’s up to his own Squidoo in the present day and outlines 14 trends that could help.
It was a good book, most of the trends and pitfalls I was aware of and been educating our clients about for a little while, but there are also some new spins in there that sparked the occasional “ah-ha” moment.
Today I crashed the Web Association lunch panel entitled “B2B and the Digital Transformation” with our very own Megan Hauer as moderator. As I sat there listening to the panel describe their methods they are trying to get to clients in the B2B market one thing struck me.
All of them mentioned some of the very things that Godin touched on his book:
- proving to upper management
- treating each customer as an individual
- include online and "traditional" marketing in the same budget
- winning small battles
These were guys seeing this transformation happen for themselves and got it. I also saw nods around the room and also some head shaking. The head-shakers were in the minority, but they are the ones that Godin is going for in his book.
Things are changing and people (management) are going to have to accept that you will have to start changing the way your company works to make use of this new marketing, because just adding some web2.0 topping isn't going to cut it.
2008 is definitely shaping up to be an exciting year.
Technorati tags: “meatball sundae”, marketing, "seth godin"
