Seth Godin Promotes the "Remarkable"

The crowd chuckles at the idea of purple cows, a 55 foot lava lamp, and other "remarkable" marketing ideas. This is typical Seth Godin communication style. Best selling author and entrepreneur, Godin puts forth a fresh perspective to his captive audience.

The biggest message Godin expresses February 2003, is to be out of the ordinary . Be remarkable with your product. His stories bring up points in a humorous way. for example, if you see a cow on the side of the road you won't notice, but if you see a purple cow on the side of the road, you'd definitely stop the car.

His point is this: American consumers have too many choices, making it easy to overlook the normal, but the extraordinary calls attention. "If it's very good it's not going to work," Godin says. He goes on to encourage people to instead come up with remarkable products because they become known. "Remarkable means worth making a remark about."

Godin brings up the example of sliced bread. The first 15 years after it was put on the market, sales were low. Then "Wonder" came along. This company knew how to spread ideas. Wonder bread was created. Godin explains how this spreading of ideas happens. "What marketers used to do is make average products for average people." Godin then states "I don't think that's a strategy we want to use anymore." He believes the answer is "sell to people who are listening." People need to care about what you have to say.

The last idea given to the audience is not to play safe. That's the riskiest thing you can do and because "very good" is now boring, consumers want more. Figure out what people want, Godin urges, and give it to them in a form they will remark about.