Seth Godin's Small is New Big Part 2 Notes

Hope i can finish these in two parts, but i'm only on the M's. practicing typing, too.

• The challenge of marketing is to get ideas to spread. 
• Wrong way. Companies that have decided that the best way to make a buck is to race to the bottom, to be the cheapest or fastest to the market. 
• Needle and Vice. Best marketers use both. They apply their marketing pressure so consistently and in such a measured and relentless way that sooner or later, they profit from it. 
• Finding Purple Cow. Figure out what the always is, then do exactly the opposite. Do the never. 
• Make something worth making. Sell something worth talking about. Believe in what you do because you may have to do it for a long time before it catches on. 
• Permission. That's an offer about me, not them. 
• Pigeons. The problem comes when people in power are superstitious -- when superstition becomes part of the operating system. ... these managers as examples of the current crop of fundamentalists .. they have two traits: 1. they live according to a large body of superstitions; 2. they believe they are right and everyone is wrong. Fundamentalists decide whether they can accept a new piece of information based on how it will affect their prior belief system, not based on whether it is actually true. 
• You will succeed in the face of change when you make the difficult decisions first. They refuse to make the difficult decisions when the difficult decisions are cheap.
• Sayings. Products that are remarkable inspire conversation. People don't buy what they need. They buy what they want. You're not in charge. And your prospect don't care about you. What the people want is the extra, emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
• In the old days, people made stuff. You don't make stuff. You make decisions.
• Respect. Companies grow by treating people with respect. By marketing to people who want to hear from you. It's not just good manners, it's profitable. Everyone wants to be treated with respect -- all the time. When we treat people with respect, they're more likely to do what we want.
• "Who benefits?" Key question. Companies that work to benefit their customers will have no trouble treating the newly picky consumer with respect. Unlike the ones who work to trick and coerce their customers. 
• What's a rift? It's a big tear in the fabric of the rules that we live by. It's a fundamental change in the game, one that creates a bunch of new losers -- and a handful of new winners. 
• Rules. Market leaders make up the rules. If you play by those rules, you will almost certainly lose. The alternative is both obvious and scary: Change the rules.
• Sales. Make something people want to buy.
• Marketing that involves making the right product, not hyping it.
• Marketing and lying. Like fiction, tell a story that resonates. Be a true liar. 
• Scarcity is value. How do you deal with scarcity? Whining is rarely a successful response to anything. What's scarce now? Respect. Honesty. Good judgement. Long-term relationships that lead to trust. Ultimately, what is scarce is that kind of courage -- which is exactly what you can bring to the market.
• Secrets of success. Desire to be three steps ahead. Do something worth doing. Connecting people to people. Keeping promises. 
• People ultimately judge only thing about you: the way the engagement makes them feel. So how do you make them feel? 
• As long as we focus on the commodity, on the sharper needle, we're lost. Sharpest needle is rarely the one that gets out of the haystack. 
• Shortcuts, no such thing. Offer something the email/newsletter that people actually want to read. Promise people exactly what you intended to give them. Create content that was so remarkable that people wanted to share it. 
• Short sentences get read. Short words are better than long ones. 
• Easy to launch stuff, hard to figure out what will work. All about choosing the right model and being remarkable. 
• Marketing is all about making changes. Good way to sell change is not with the promise of gain. It's with the fear of loss. Sad but true. 
• Start now. What if you had no choice? What if you had to start something? What would it be?
• Stop working for the factory and start building something that people will remember. 
• "we don't care, we don't have to" economy. And there's not enough competition to harm the uncaring industry leaders.
• Reset button. Switch. Directions or careers. It's easier than ever. 
• Either their torchbearers or they're not. 
• Marketers stopped acting like real people. Successful marketers showed their customers respect. The magic kicks in when the marketers are smart enough and brave enough to combine trust with respect. Treat their customers like respected colleagues or admired family members. Have the courage to make promises and keep them. Do more than promised, not just what the contract says. 
• Secrets: 1. Take responsibility. 2. Pay attention to detail. All businesses are service businesses, and experience is the product. 
• Ubiquity (success?). Before ubiquity, product or creator wasn't in it just for the money, somehow it fel more real, more special, more authentic. [Aversion to marketing] comes from people's desire to have something real -- and to get it from someone who isn't trying quite so hard to sell it. 
• Is it authentic? People who create something authentic but then sell out almost always end up unhappy. Because once you sell out, any new success you have doesn't come from your authenticity. You're in a business now. 
• Could you be happy practicing your authentic task for the rest of your life?

Continued in Part 3.