Seth Godin is one of the most innovative and respected voices in the world of marketing. He thinks deeply and creatively about how to reach prospective customers in the niches of a market or industry. His wisdom is incredibly useful for entrepreneurs and innovators.
Your task is to watch this video and respond to the questions below by creating a comment in response to this post.
1. Identify 3 key ideas that caught your attention and write a sentence or two about how they caused you to think or inspired you.
2. Identify a concept in this talk that you can apply to your elevator pitch idea. Explain how Godin’s thought might lead you to refine or change some dimension of your concept.
3 key ideas that caught my eye were how people look at things wrong, Focus on external issues first rather than internal issues, and how you should sell a product that captivates an Identity and loyalty from your customers. These particular ideas inspire me to rethink my approach to products. I nee to focus on my internal issues first and find ways to inspire loyalty in my customers. I will definitely consider how much loyalty my service could inspire and what internal issues I should focus on first. I also should appeal to above average people who are interested on what I am offering. Godin’s way of thought definitely will make me reflect on ways i can refine my service and who i should target.
1. Godin said a few things that I really thought were interesting and presented information in a way that I have never heard before. The first was that “the guy that invented the ship also invented the shipwreck. I thought this was interesting because a lot of great ideas come from a lot of trial and error but I had never heard this analogy before and it really caught my attention. The second thing that Godin did was an interactive exercise that the audience participated in. He instructed the audience to “raise your right hand as high as you can”. He then paused and the camera panned to the audience showing the crowd with their right hand in the air. “Raise it higher.” Everyone’s arm extended just a little bit farther. I thought this was a very cool interactive exercise proving the fact that oftentimes in the workplace even when you work your hardest you don’t go all the way in case more is expected of you. The final thing that Godin said was in regards to finding niches in the market place. He humbly said, “I might not be for you but if so, here I am.” Again, this was a very insightful way to frame the topic at hand. It also touches upon the value of differentiating yourself in the marketplace so that you can be profitable because you can’t be all things to all people.
2. Godin’s definition of marketing is “people like us do things like us.” I thought this was applicable to my elevator pitch idea because thinking of an idea is difficult when someone puts you on the spot but if you just sit back and think about the daily nuances and how they could be improved or changed multiple ideas come to mind. Godin’s thought actually expanded the dimension of my concept by realizing that community-based partnerships among unlikely individuals can create a beautiful thing but also allow the party to grow in their own way.
The tree ideas that caught my attention:
1. There is always a way to do something better. An example of this would be the guy on the bike did something different and it ended up working very well for him. Eventually everyone else caught on.
2. Change how you look at a picture. When he pulled up the picture of the bats trying to go to sleep he flipped it upside down giving the viewer a different perspective– they were having a party.
3. People love to be in sync with others around them. The people who look at things differently set a trend. Those who follow the trend will do so in order to be in the same clique as those around them.
1. The guy who invented the ship also invented the shipwreck.
A couple years ago I was in a small boat caught in a big storm in the Pacific Ocean. I haven’t felt a more helpless or terrified or out of control feeling in all of my life. So in my mind, I need to be willing to feel those emotions of helplessness, out of control, fear- that’s a side of risk. And if the business or venture that one starts doesn’t feel that way, maybe it isn’t big enough.
2. Raise your right hand as high as you can. Now raise it higher. You all held back.
I believe that in many ways throughout my education and childhood, I was taught how to hold back, to blend in, to avoid confrontation/ conflict. I do feel like it was something taught to me by society, not just a few individuals. Although I see some value in some of it, I am learning since graduating high school that people don’t appreciate it when I hold back. Even, that it is often pointless and fruitless to hold back.
3. The Beatles didn’t create teenagers, they were there to lead teenagers.
I often overthink who the market is. The market already exists, I don’t need to start a movement and create a group of people, I just need to find the people and know how to lead them.
Elevator Pitch:
I think the thing that spoke to me the most was how he told the audiance that holding back, would hold them back. That no one was ever ready, but they could be prepared. I often look at my ideas and say “that would be cool for another time off in the future”, and that I feel really holds me back from really diving into the full potential of the idea.
1. There were three things that stood out to me after watching this video. First, Godin discussed how humans have been described today as having the attention span of a goldfish. This statement was powerful because it was bizarre, but perfectly described how difficult it is to capture people’s attention by just marketing through advertisements online. The second statement was that you can’t interrupt yourself into success. We talked about this in Content Marketing because it used to be the style to have ads pop-up on web browsers, apps, etc…and interrupt the user. However, that is not enough today because people are ignoring them. The third statement was that you don’t have permission if no one would miss you when you don’t show up. Permission marketing is the way to reach your audience. If you have permission, you have attention, which allows you to treat different people differently. These concepts inspired me to recognize everyone is different and they cannot be reached by the traditional means.
2. The concept that I think will help me in my elevator pitch is the concept about being human. Godin talked about that you shouldn’t worry about the critics, worry about what you see. Build it the way you want, and his example was Frank Lloyd Wright. Godin also said that we do it wrong until we do it right, which is interesting to think about when creating your own product. There were two other concepts I want to keep in mind are sowubana = I see you, we are present together (this is what people want…to be seen) and enrollment = folks are on a journey to learn something from you. I can keep these terms in mind when writing my elevator pitch.
1. You cannot cause somebody to be interested, but you can amplify it. This idea inspires me because it made me realize that you cannot physically get someone to be interested in a product, but a good enough idea can spark them.
2. Mass marketing= average products for average people. This key idea came to my attention because I never really thought of it this way. Usually when I see advertisements for big products I think the product is unique, but really it is just an average product for an average person.
3. When you’re going to the market with your product, nobody cares, just the early adopters. This concept caught my attention because it is truthful. Whenever you create a new product, very few are going to be interested in it. The bulk of sales will come once the early adopters purchase your product and give reviews.
Elevator Pitch: A key concept that I can apply to my elevator pitch is to begin at the edge with interesting people. Everyone sees things differently, so you have to earn their attention. Godin’s thought might lead me to change my product’s target audience. My original target audience was a big group, but now I have learned that I might have to shoot for the people at the edge because they could understand the true use of my product.
1) It was really interesting to see how he explained that ordinary products don’t work because no one cares. No matter how hard you try, it is VERY difficult to compete with your competition if you’re selling the same product. There is no reason why someone should pick your product over the other. BUT, if you are doing something unique, you can pick up tons of the “really weird” customers. That is what you should be focusing on in your product, not trying to get into an existing market, although there are times that this is a good idea, but you really should be thinking about opening a new market for a small amount of people AND THEN expanding to reach more people once you are established.
2) I was really interested in the bell curve that he showed. I’ve seen this before but it was interesting to hear how he tied the early adopters, the mainstream, and the laggers all help to bring a product to the market. His examples of the iPhone and fax machine were really good ways of illustrating how these ideas took off. It was the company’s targeting of the weird outcasts that helped bring it to millions of people.
3) That leads me into my third takeaway, that social interaction has a greater impact on our daily lives and buyer behavior than most people realize. From the clapping and hand-raising examples to the walk-a-thons, people are influenced by the world around them. Today, people will buy products only because others have them. People spend an absorbent about of money to look like everyone else. If you can tap into this personal sociology, then you can find those weird people, give them a product, and then others will want it too.
A major take away from this whole talk for my elevator pitch is pretty much not to create a product like anyone else already has. Even if you can do it better, someone else will come into that market and do it better than you can. But if you can create something new, find that market and establish a brand and a promise before someone tries to undercut you, your customers will stay loyal to you and help build your business through their loyalty.
1. You can’t cause someone to be interested
This is an interesting concept because a common marketing tactic is to continuously talk about your product or service, plaster it all over ads online and in print, and in essence, try to force interest, or at least convince the audience that they need your product. Now, I do not think that you can just sit back without any promotion and expect people to find your product or service, but I do think you need to be specific about who you are trying to encourage interest from by targeting people who have in some way demonstrated that they feel a pain that can be solved by your product.
2. Seeing Clearly
In class we have talked about changing perspective, taking a step back and looking at the problem from a different angle. While I think this was part of the point of Godin talking about “Seeing Clearly”, another aspect he incorporated was to take something you already know how to do, using your current knowledge, and create a new idea or a new way of accomplishing a task or solving a problem building on your prior knowledge and experience. This was a new angle that I had not heard before.
3. Target the smallest possible audience
This is a concept that I have been reading about in my marketing textbook. The struggle is to find the balance between a small segment that needs your product and a large enough segment to support you and your business.
Concept to Apply to Elevator Pitch:
A concept that could by applied to my Elevator Pitch is creating a brand that is Remarkable by Godin’s definition. Godin said that Remarkable is if someone else decides your idea is worth talking about. Is my idea something that other people would value enough to decide it is worth talking about to others?
Alex Minotto
1. Identify 3 key ideas that caught your attention and write a sentence or two about how they caused you to think or inspired you.
• It is inevitable someone else will hear of your product and make it cheaper. The only way to get people to willing spend more money on the same product is by targeting the fringe customer’s attention.
• Remarkable means something someone has talked about, because it is worthy to be mentioned. I often deter my self from exploring markets that are niche. Ones I have only seen maybe a 100K people show interest because it wouldn’t have universal appeal. But he is saying that is the prime target area.
• I liked his concept of turning a funnel into a megaphone. To find that interest you share, and that handful of other people do to and then open it to everyone else.
2. Identify a concept in this talk that you can apply to your elevator pitch idea. Explain how Godin’s thought might lead you to refine or change some dimension of your concept.
The concept about targeting a fringe audience helped me decide something I was on the fence about with my product. My initial thought was that targeting a small audience would turn general consumers away from a product. His genius idea pointed out that the reality of todays market is that whatever idea you come up with someone will make it cheaper in a heart beat that is why the initial idea has to be specifically oriented toward a target audience.
1. You cannot cause someone to start being interested, but what you can do is amplify and connect it. That is the work of the crafts person.
I thought this was so interesting because it so true. When I heard this, I thought of the phrase “you can’t make people like you”. We cannot make people interested in anything, but if we pitch and market it in a way that people are able to connect with it, then we have done our job.
2. Most people you are trying to reach don’t have the problem you are trying to solve, or at least they don’t think they do.
When I heard this, I thought of the customers wants and needs that I have learned about in my marketing class. Even if they have not experienced the problem yet, they probably will in the future. Most people can be with competitor companies. We have to differentiate our problem/solution by standing out and presenting to be different than the rest.
3. The internet is saying: who wants to innovate? Innovating is failing until something works. The guy who invented ships invented shipwrecks. There is no shipwreck free journey if you want to innovate.
I think Seth Godin explains this perfectly, as this is the true nature behind innovation. We are not truly innovating until we fail, learn from our mistakes, and make improvements for the next time. There is no failure guaranteed when trying to innovate, its just how innovation works. We do not learn unless we come into issues and problems during the journey. It is totally normal to go through these things.
A concept that I can apply to my Elevator Pitch: targeting the smallest possible target audience. It will be ignored by competition. I think this is a great idea as I was thinking of marketing it towards a bigger audience. This confirmed my thought after hearing Seth Godin’s explanation because my product will get ignored and lost by bigger competitors. Marketing it smaller will help gain recognition in my target market for potential sales and the chance to go bigger.
3 key ideas –
1. We have to learn to tell a story when we sell a product. The story must resonate with the customer, and make them WANT to buy it.
2. Re-examine the way you are approaching a problem. You need to see a problem clearly. Don’t see a blank slate, see a solution. I.e. the biker who re-examined how to go down the hill.
3. More isn’t always better. Actually more is probably worse. Because we live in a world of oversaturated markets, we need to learn to make our product different.
Idea for elevator pitch –
A big takeaway for elevator pitches here is to learn how to make your product unique. But make it unique in such a way that it solves the problem a way that all the other products don’t. Give your customer a reason to buy the product. I think that a lot of this comes from the narrative you tell.
To answer the first question 3 things that caught my attention is when he talked about why you should market to a smaller audience, why you should “own yourself”, and how people want to be like other people so they are going to follow the crowd so what you can do is be a leader of those kind of people. This is inspiring in the sense that I can differentiate myself in the market and it will actually be beneficial. It is important to differentiate yourself because you dont want to market to people in the middle of the curve because they dont car. Instead market to the people that do car and what you are passionate about.
To answer the second question, a concept that he talked about was that you need a story for people to connect to you. I can incorporate this idea into the elevator pitch by explaining my story. A second concept is to market to a smaller audience so they can get connected to you and your story. I can incorporate this idea to my elevator pitch so people can connect to my product and story. I want to incorporate heartfelt, connecting story for people to connect to so I wouldn’t change that, but something that I can change is to look to market toward smaller market so my company can connect to people.
Three concepts that caught my attention and inspired:
1. Mass markets are resulting in average products
2. Customer needs to know what sets your product apart from others in the industry
3. The only way to be special is to not be average and the only way to not be average is to ignore almost everyone and make it for a few people.
These ideas work together in that a product should be specific and special. The customer should want to engage with the story that your product represents. The product you create needs to be something that they can ONLY get from YOU and that transforms the people it touches. There is a need to treat customers differently and with more thought rather than creating something for the masses.
Applying these ideas to my pitch idea was very helpful from the way I thought about my idea while creating it, to my methods and purpose in carrying it out. Two aspects that I considered were whether my product will be a lasting product (why or why not) and do peoples lives get better from it.
1. Gordin said not to differentiate yourself in the market by lowering your price. I found this interesting, because it seems like a good idea on the surface, lowering the price. However, it doesn’t work because customers can easily find someone who can do it cheaper. “Trying to win search by price is a game you’re never going to win.”
2. “If you can get something worth talking about, it’s remarkable.” This is a good point, along with the idea of people checking out Twitter simply because other people said to follow them. Our connections with other people are key in bringing in business. One of the reasons social media is so popular is because everyone has it. When you don’t have it, you feel like you’re missing out. If someone can create a product that gives the impression that everyone is doing it, people will bandwaggon off the idea. It can start with “nobody’s using it” and turn into “everyone’s using it.”
3. “People like us do things like this.” Godin said to find your “people like us.” I feel like it’s easy to try to find a product that everyone will like and want to use. However, it’s important to find your market audience and go for them. With the situation with the no-kill shelters, he didn’t focus on the people who didn’t listen to him. He focused on those who did and ended up establishing something revolutionary with those who did listen.
Idea for Elevator Pitch
“The only way to not be average is to not ignore almost everybody…” The best way is to go to find people and a niche and give them something they haven’t seen before.
When Godin was talking about the ordinary, it made me think of my elevator pitch. Marketing a product as functional and something everyone will use isn’t going to help you to get business. It’s good to find a group of people with a certain need and cater to that need. You might not reach everyone, but you can have a big impact on the people that you can reach. Differentiating your brand and stepping out of the box and taking risks is a better way to succeed than following what we’re told to do. Because, as Gordin said, “We don’t need more plumbers.”
1. Identify 3 key ideas that caught your attention and write a sentence or two about how they caused you to think or inspired you.
1-We cannot create interest. Mr. Godin stated that we cannot create interest but we can amplify and connect interest. He illustrated this by having the audience clap. If we cannot create interest then how does interest originate? Does interest develope naturally?
2-We are taught to hold back. Godin emphasized this point by referencing the fact that nobody holds their hand high in school or outside of school to answer a question. Nobody ever raises their hands very high regardless of their education and if someone does raise their hand high in an enthusiastic manner they are considered nerdy or judgment worthy.
3-“We do it wrong until we do it right.” We have a propensity to fear failure because we often believe that failure is the end.
2. Identify a concept in this talk that you can apply to your elevator pitch idea. Explain how Godin’s thought might lead you to refine or change some dimension of your concept.
Selling to a small market is better than selling to everybody. I am having trouble determining which set of customers to target because I am unsure which group would be more effective.
1. we don’t need to address every external idea and we need to focus more on internal ideas and figure out that system has changed
2. Target the smallest audience that you’re comfortable with and the bigger stuff will take care of itself
3. begin at the edge where people are thirsty
Focusing on a small group of people and letting the big idea of everything take care of itself. Learn how to be brave and take the leap of faith. there is a difference from being ready and being prepared, i can incorporate this into my elevator pitch by being ready to change orphans lives. Also by having foresight and being able to see what it is that people want before they want i.
1. We need to focus on the internal ideas or problems before we can focus on the exterior issues. This is a sharp contrast to many modern strategies that focus on sales strategy, marketing strategy, or how they can make production more efficient ect. If we are able to focus on the internal problems first, then we can make our product, idea, or business better.
2.The systems that we are operating in today are changing faster than ever. Markets, like the book for example, used to last much longer than they do now. Since technology is continually improving, we have to continue to innovate in our field and try to discover new fields or “blank slates”, which are ready for innovation or change.
3. Many people that will buy your product or solution do not know that they have the problem that you are trying to solve. Since internet browsers have such a low attention span, which the speaker says is equivalent to a goldfish, marketers are treating customers like literal goldfish. If we want to truly innovate and make an impact in the market and people’s lives, we need to not make mass market or average products, we need to make good products and focus on marketing our products to people, not goldfish.
I think that his statement that every good product or service needs a good story to go along with your elevator pitch idea. If you are able to develop a great story or a great narrative to go along with a creative and innovative product, you are much more likely to success. The marketing/ story that goes along with a product or service is almost as important as that product or service is itself. I will work on developing a great narrative to go along with my product for the elevator pitch in order to inspire others and help them understand the usefulness and functions of my product.
1) I think that the first idea that caught my idea was, “Average stuff for average people” This is an interesting idea because Godin is saying that average stuff is how you reach average people. You need to know your target audience so that when you are trying to catch people’s attention they will actually listen. You the need to make a decision of whether or not you actually want to market for the average. He used the visual of a graph that talked how up and to the right leads to compromise. This caught my attention because it shows that even ideas that are compromised can still lead to success.
2) Another idea that I found interesting is when he introduced a normal bell curve. He talked about earl adopters, the majority and late adopters. These groups are always going to be relatively consistent, so some questions are raised as a result. How do I transform the customer? How do I get the customer to identify? Finally, how do get loyalty? I think that this causes me to think because it gives goals that I can strive towards as an entrepreneur. This all helps build a successful brand.
3) I found that his exercise where he had the audience clap in rhythm was very insightful. He said that people are always inclined to do what other people do. He gave his definition of marketing that I found very interesting. He said, “People like us (do things like this)” This struck me because it shows that marketing and trying to sell things to people is very much based on trends and on what the majority of people are doing
I think that a concept that I can apply to my elevator pitch idea is to target my smallest possible audience. This is the smallest audience that I can live with. This is to satisfy my customers. I would not usually have assumed this because I would have thought that you should try to target as many people as possible to reach the most people possible. I think that this could refine my idea so that I am reaching the people that I know will use my service. This would mean that I might stay much more local with my idea before trying to go country-wide
1. Identify 3 key ideas that caught your attention and write a sentence or two about how they caused you to think or inspired you.
– “Competence is no longer a scarce commodity.” We live in a world where there are so many ways to outsource ideas that if you can create something, someone else in India can do it cheaper. The way to overcome this is to create what Godin calls “Art”, which he explains as “human beings doing something that might not work, connecting us and drawing us closer.”
-Godin described marketing as “People like us (doing things like this)”, which he explained through a story f his friend who worked at an animal shelter in San Francisco, who was able to stop animals from being killed by the SPCA by using “permissive marketing”, which is talking to an audience who wants you to talk, rather than talking AT an audience. He got the support of “weird people” who really cared, which amplified his message and resulted in real change. In how he describes marketing, he is saying that you can’t appeal the an apathetic mass market, because they “don’t care”. You have to find your “tribe”.
-Godin referenced Metcalfe’s Law, which states that the power of a network is the number of connected users squared. He talked about how the first guy to buy a fax machine had to tell his friends to buy a fax machine, because with out those connections the entire system was worthless. Same thing in how you innovate. You don’t get the entire system to buy your product, you only need the people who will connect your product to others (early adopters, as Godin calls them).
2. Identify a concept in this talk that you can apply to your elevator pitch idea. Explain how Godin’s thought might lead you to refine or change some dimension of your concept.
-I don’t need to create a product that will encapsulate an entire mass market, instead I should focus on what makes the product unique and desirable to a niche market, of people who will be willing to proselytize the product because they derive real meaning from it. People don’t care about another product because of how cluttered the system is. You won’t win people over by making something cheap, someone else can always make it cheaper. Instead you should focus on the value of your product to your “tribe”, and that requires risk. In my idea, I should find who the specific kind of customer I want to reach, instead of a broad picture of who it is.
1. Seth Godin’s comparison of abundance and “goldfish” was extremely interesting to me. Advertisements are everywhere: on the side of city buses, pop-ups on our Instagram feed, and spam in our email. With an abundance of products to choose from, companies send out millions of messages to uninterested consumers. The irony of it is that the more advertisements we see, the less we want to buy what they’re selling.
2. Seeing markets like tribes of people was another interesting idea brought up in the video. Businesses are so focused on developing the biggest target market, that they forget the group of people who will actually buy. Finding a group of people who share the same niche needs and goals allows for a business to successfully fill those gaps.
3. The artist vs. plumber metaphor seemed a little off-the-wall at first, but after further explanation made a ton of sense. Someone who creates a product for the first time will have much more success than someone who sells another bland version of a previously developed idea.
One idea that I would like to utilize in my elevator pitch would be the idea of targeting the outsides of the normal curve. As amazing as 68% of market share sounds, the odds of being on top and actually selling to that many people are miniscule. Targeting the outsides allows you to “treat different people differently” in a space that is open for innovation without competition.
1. The first interesting idea that he introduced was the idea about the bats. He discussed how perception is everything and that if you see something differently once you will never see it the same way again. He also tied in the video of the biker with this. It is closely related to how entrepreneurs think, the biker discovered that everyone else was doing this the wrong way and that peddling faster wasn’t the best way to get down the mountain. When he started doing this a different way than everyone else he quickly got into first place.
2. A second interesting point he made was that everyone is aiming to make average products. He gave the hotel example of how every room is the same so people just chose the cheapest one. This is happening with every product on the market, so we are going toward the generic brand when we buy something. He explains that this is going to happen with digital products as well, because they are all becoming the same average products.
3. Another idea he introduces is that you should target the people on the outside of the bell curve. He says this because those are the people who have chosen to care about your product. They will buy it time and time again even though it is a small audience. The competition won’t even notice you developing until you become mainstream. This is a genius idea to introduce new products and break into the market without being bothered.
Elevator Pitch:
He introduces the idea that marketers are telling a story with their products. People buy into the story that they are trying to tell. You have to sell something that transforms the type of people you are trying to reach. To really be successful you have to make them loyal to your product and idea, this will make them buy your product over other products. To incorporate this into my elevator pitch I can try to tell a story with my idea. I will tell about who is affected by my product and how it will benefit them as a part of my presentation of the product.
1. Target the smallest market possible: I’ve always though an idea isn’t good enough unless everyone would like it, but he busts this myth. As Pink pointed out, we live in an age of abundance, so making something everyone would like is no longer an option, we must differentiate by focusing on the human touch that mass marketing simply cannot provide. In a world so connected people ultimately feel disconnected and lost, making a customer feel like they are important, that they matter is worth far more than anything else.
2. We need more grit…maximizing profit is not my goal: It is tempting to see money as the end of your venture, but making this your goal is a trap. Having a cause that matters to you will inspire you to continue striving to serve your market whereas riches will blind you and leave you feeling empty in the end. We need to have the grit to do something for a meaningful purpose.
3.Turn a funnel into a microphone: Ironically, if the mass market is your goal, you won’t even gain a small market, but if you focus on a small group that you can serve well, there is the potential for that impact to eventually spread to a mass market. People trust other people they know, not impersonal corporations to tell them what they should do,buy, etc., so the key is to gain trust with individuals and inspire them to market for you spontaneously. The best way to do this is to focus on a small group, but make something they will want to share with others because it would make their experience with the product better if others joined them. This made me think of Venmo: Venmo is a great product, but it is useless unless my friends have it also, because I can’t use it alone. Successful products link communities through spreading.
Godin’s thoughts are inspiring me to narrow my elevator pitch’s focus by refining my market to just one specific group. I should cater to their needs rather than trying to convince the judges that my product has potential for expansion by appealing to the masses. Especially with only two minutes, it is better to do one thing well than to spread myself too thin trying to satisfy everyone.
1. The first interesting idea that he mentioned that stuck out to me was the hotel at 3am comparison. We all look at hotels differently and think that some are better than others, but when we look in our room at 3am they are all dark, and look the same. So why do we pay extra money for the expensive rooms when we could just spend less money for a more convenient and cost effective room that looks the exact same as a high end room at 3am?
2. The second thing that stuck out to me was his bowling example. He explained that if bowling pins were moved an inch closer to each other that we would get a strike every time and if we moved them an inch away from each other we would never get a strike. Then he used that example to show us that we need to be linked in such an intricate way that we can make connections and not be so overpowering it doesn’t work or be too distant that we never connect either.
3. The last thing I found interesting was his point on how the “sort by price” game is something that you will never win because there are millions of things that are the exact same price and the only way you can differentiate between them is the actual features and what they have to offer, not just the price. Also with this point, he said that most people want to target the biggest market possible, but you should actually target the smallest market. He said by doing this it will fly under your competition’s radar, but you will be satisfying your target market’s needs to the max since it is a small market, and from there the business will grow.
Elevator Pitch: One thing I will take from this lecture and implementent into my elevator pitch is the fact that if something is “remarkable” it is something that is “worth making a remark about.” If my product/company is going to be remarkable, people need to think that and start talking about it in order for it to be truly remarkable.
I will also make sure to answer the question “who’s it for?” and “what’s it for?” Those are simple questions but as Godin mentions, they are essential for any company to answer.
Three things that caught my attention:
1. Change how you view the picture: The example of flipping the bat picture upside down from sleeping to partying. That’s something I can definitely try to do more because I tend to view things from my perspective and mine only. I don’t typically try to see things from other angles.
2. Turn your funnel into a megaphone: I found it interesting how he talked about taking things that interest you and others and open it up to a wide variety of people.
3. Target the people outside of the bell curve. These people care more about your product and will buy it over and over. This will cause your product to develop better and will be the gateway to becoming mainstream. I found this very interesting and it’s a great way to build your product.
For my elevator pitch idea, I don’t have to reach everyone! I need to find a market that will buy my product and produce for them. Working for a small group of people, improving upon my product will cause others to jump on board if my improvements have made it better and better. This made me realize that my product isn’t for everyone. It’s only for a small market. I can’t make everyone happy and I shouldn’t try.
1. What stood out to me was Godin’s discussion on mass marketing and the analogy he used of goldfish. As products become more and more targeted to the masses and become more average, customers will soon tune out to almost everything. The idea that marketers treat humans like goldfish, who have short attention spans, was interesting to hear. While mass marketing does usually aim to catch the attention span of people very quickly, Godin thinks that tactics like that could soon run their course. I think that marketers will have to shift their focus for the future to stand out from the average.
Godin talks a lot about the concept of “search by price.” He uses this concept to illustrate how easy it is for many sellers to be left out of consumers minds immediately when searching for products online. There are many products that are all similar in features and price to choose from, and the lowest price will usually win. Godin says that marketers will have to find a way to escape the “search by price” trap and find a way to be different.
How do you become a purple cow? To become a purple cow is to be remarkable. To simply have 1 person decide that something is worth talking about means that it is remarkable. An idea needs to have interest generated around it. Godin connects the concept of purple cow’s to Metcalfe’s law. Metcalfe’s law states that the value of a network grows by the square of the size of the network. Essentially, if nobody knows about an idea then it has very little value. This thinking can be used to help shift my focus for my elevator pitch by helping me to see what I can do to make my product stand out among other average products.
2. One of Godin’s biggest ideas was his take on mass marketing. Godin focused on the reverse of mass marketing, where he thought that one way for marketers to stand out was so actually focus on targeting the smallest possible audience. Doing so means you can satisfy a small group of people, while your competitor neglects that small group and markets to the masses. This is an interesting idea because I was focused on marketing to the masses for my elevator pitch product. This made me reevaluate my focus for my elevator pitch and change my entire approach. Godin’s unique way of looking at marketing helped me to understand that my product does not have to be marketed to the masses to be successful.
1. Strangely enough, I found one of his most interesting points to be the first one he made. “You cannot cause somebody to start being interested. But what you can do it amplify it.” We can’t start at the top and market our idea to everyone if they don’t know they even have the problem we’re selling a solution to. This led into a later point – that you win by targeting the smallest possible audience because they *care*.
2. I’ve never thought about this phenomenon in this way, but the presence of companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook allows other companies to become more average and even preys on this behavior.
3. Perhaps my favorite point of his was when he gave the example of the blank slate. You don’t look at it and think “what do I do”. You look at it and think “what do I already know how to do”. This ties in very well to our class topic of looking at areas we already have a passion for.
As for a concept I can apply to the elevator pitch, he made the remark that people don’t have the problem you are trying to solve – or at least they don’t think they do. This goes back to our class discussions on framing the idea in a way that makes people realize they have that problem. We need to think about who our solution is for and what it is for before we can do this framing, though. Godin made an interesting point in telling us to not target the center of the bell curve. We don’t want to make an “average product for average people,” but we do want to make something transformative and special. To do that, we need to sell it to the people on the edge of the curve who care.
1. I really loved what he talked about in the beginning when he said, “maybe you are doing it wrong”. I think a large part of life is realizing that we are doing it wrong and finding a new or finding the right way to do it. However, the hardest part sometimes can be to realize that we are wrong.
2. Technology is great and has changed the entrepreneurial world by connecting people in greater ways, but it has also changed the way we view our ideas. In some ways we take our great grand ideas and make them smaller with the hope of one of the bigger websites finding us out. So instead of doing things on our own we almost bank off of using some other platform to help.
3. Despite the fact that technology has made us disconnected in some way, there are still things that draw people together. He gave the example of the “red hat people” and how they signed up for Iron man races that were thousands of dollars, knowing that they would loose yet still did it anyway and they did it because of the experience and to be a part of something. As disconnected as our world is, we still love to feel like we are a part of something.
That point is also something I thought I could use in my elevator pitch and was actually something that I had thought of while coming up with the idea. Although my idea is based off of the bible and is completely mission oriented, people love to know that they are helping someone else. The sense of belonging and purpose is something that we all long for, so regardless of the fact that it is a ministry people will want to help just for the sole purpose of helping someone else. It is also interesting to try and find ways to unite people using the thing that has caused separation, technology.
1. Fancy Feast Gourmet Cat Food is for people, not for cats.
Obviously, people are the ones who buy the cat food, but I never looked at how it was marketed towards people before. He mentioned how people buy into the story of being a good cat owner, which in turn makes you a good person. It’s important to remember your customer and how to interest them in your product with a story.
2. Treat different people differently.
This is a really simple idea, but it is one that is often lost in the world of advertising/marketing. You have to treat people differently based on a multitude of different factors, but also remember that they are human beings. I also liked what he said about how you should target the people on the ends of the normal curve because they’re the ones who really care. “Make stuff for the weird people on the edges” is a good thing to keep in mind when trying to differentiate your product/service.
3. Purple cows: if someone decides it’s worth talking about, then it’s remarkable
The people using your product/service are the ones who decide if it’s good enough to share with other people. If they do, then it’s remarkable because it’s worthy of being talked about. It’s important to strive to make people want to talk about your product/service.
Elevator Pitch:
I really loved the point he made about how we naturally hold back on our ideas because it’s what we’ve been taught to do. I really want to put all of my creativity and effort into my elevator pitch and not hold back in my idea. I also want to make sure it’s clear to the judges that I’m targeting a niche market and not just the “normal” curve.
1. Everyone in the world can engage with each other which means everyone is our competitor. We have turned our neighborhood into the world and the world into our neighborhood. Good jobs cant really be jobs, the good jobs have to be art.
2. Great companies were not founded trying to please the majority. They were started to try and help the weirdo people who would actually listen. The majority does not care. But the people who want to be different will listen.
3. People like being in groups and doing what others are doing. Clapping in unison happens naturally. No one has to lead the clap, it just happens. This leads to the 7 word marketing phrase, “People like us, do things like this.”
Elevator pitch- For my pitch i realized it is not so much as how good or bad the idea is, it is more so about starting something and learning what it takes to succeed or learning what it means to fail and keep going. But the only way to do this is to start.
1. Be transformational; don’t just target a mass audience.
This caught my attention because this has been the same issue we have struggled with at my place of work (my church). For a long time, we acted as though our goal was to get people through the door. Over the past few years, after a major leadership change, we have realigned our thinking in a way that reflects what Godin said here. We have realized that our goal is to be a church that is not just transactional, but transformational – which points people to the Gospel.
2. Stories cause people to engage.
This stuck out to me because of a recent conference I attended, called the Global Leadership Summit. One of the speakers asked the audience to back a cause they knew nothing about, so no one expressed interest. The speaker then told an emotional, heartfelt story of how this particular cause had a lasting impact on his life (he was led to Christ because of it). Afterwards, he asked the audience again if they would back the same cause, and the entire room cheered and wanted to back it. Godin’s point that stories cause people to engage is very true. Stories can leave an impact and cause people to, in his example, keep coming back for more.
3. In order to win [succeed], you must target the smallest possible audience.
Godin pointed out that many companies mass produce stuff to appeal to the mass audiences. He said that these companies are basically striving to be average. In order to win, Godin said, people must target the smallest possible audience. Competition will be lessened and the customers will be satisfied and engaged.
Elevator Pitch:
Godin’s point about targeting a small audience stuck out to me. Though my idea seems like somewhat of a niche, his point inspired me to think a bit more creatively to craft an end product/service that appeals to a more specific group of people.
1. I thought he made a good point when he was talking about “maybe we are doing it wrong”. It can be so difficult to admit that we are on the wrong path and might need to change things up. Being able to realize that can be a huge help when trying to create a new product/idea. It’s ok to be wrong about something, and we should not shy away from making mistakes.
2. When he had the audience clap together, this showed how we tend to follow others and do what they do. Understanding this in a business context can be helpful in marketing your product. If you can get passionate, influential people to promote your product, many others will buy it just for this reason. This is certainly the case with top brands today, as no one wants to be left out.
3. When he talked about how its OK to have only a small segment that is interested in your product. If you can get these people interested and on board with your product/idea, you will do fine. I think a lot of times we want to come up with products that appeal to everyone. However, this is often not realistic, and having a small target audience can still be beneficial.
I think the idea that your product is not meant for everyone will help me in my pitch. Like I said above, being able to define your target audience and solve their particular problem is important. My idea is not for everyone, so understanding that and making my pitch specific will have the greatest impact. If I try to pitch the idea like it’s for everyone, then it will get watered down and it will be harder to see the true problem.
1. “Understanding the system has changed.” He uses the biker video of a guy becoming more aerodynamic to help us see that there is always another perspective of seeing clearly and things earlier then others. We need to see that there is a change and be prepared for that and there is constant change.
2. “Average products for average people.” Don’t treat your customers like goldfish. Make your product different and for a specific group of people not the average group or the biggest group of people.
3. ” the story is where we engage.” The only way not to be average is to be special, be the only one, tell a story that connects you with the smallest possible possible audience. We need to target the smallest possible group not the biggest possible group.
Elevator Pitch:
A lot of things stood out to me in applying things to my elevator pitch but one thing that especial stick out to me that i will apply is targeting the smallest group possible. I naturally want to include as many people as possible in my idea but this explained to me how it is important to only have a small target group and to make the best thing for them instead of changing it to fit in more people and making it average.
Three things I found interesting:
1. The idea of Perfect to Impossible
When he explained that we live in a world of change and talked about the vinyl records, I thought it was a really interesting set of words to describe that. It really made me think about how many things in this world look so perfect, like that couldn’t ever fade away, but then within a matter of years they are practically useless.
2. Looking at things from a different perspective
When he had the example of the bats and he was flipping them upside down, he made some little jokes but the base concept was still there, there is always a different perspective and we should look to discover these new perspectives.
3. Fancy Feast is not for cats, it’s for humans
They cater to you and try to tell you a story that makes you believe the cat food is actually good but you have no idea. This whole example and concept was really cool and I have never thought about it that way.
Elevator Pitch: When he showed the data and did the example with height and smartphone, it showed that you don’t always want to target the masses which is what I think most of us initially think to do, and I think this can be applied to what I have for my Elevator Pitch
1. Identify 3 key ideas that caught your attention and write a sentence or two about how they caused you to think or inspired you.
“Most people reached through marketing don’t have the problem you’re trying to solve or at least they don’t know they do.” This is crazy to me how we can be so inefficient, wasting millions of dollars. It also means that we don’t do a well enough job of making people aware that they have that problem.
“Source by price is a game that you will never win, so you have to figure out why you’re going to win because someone didn’t bother to sort by price.” This caught my attention because it sounded similar to what Professor Sweet told me when discussing my product. He told me that price is not going to be the reason people will buy this product so forget about it. There will always be someone bigger out there to make your product cheaper, therefore you have to differentiate and protect it.
“There’s a huge difference between being ready and being prepared. All of you are prepared, but none of you will ever be ready.” We will never be fully ready and I think that is important. Just do it and just jump in.
2. Identify a concept in this talk that you can apply to your elevator pitch idea. Explain how Godin’s thought might lead you to refine or change some dimension of your concept.
A key concept in his talk is the touch or empathy a product or service has on someone. I think I can use this concept to apply it to my product by marketing it as an experience that is very comfortable.
1 – The first idea that caught my attention was that great companies were not started with the mindset of pleasing everyone, or even most people. They rather market to a small market that will buy into their product.
2 – The second point was the quote of his; “You cannot cause somebody to start being interested. But what you can do it amplify it.” This caught my attention because it seems like you would have the goal to make everyone interested but that’s not how it works in reality. I just thought that was an interesting quote from his lecture.
3 – The third point I found especially interesting and somewhat connects with the first point is that “people love to be in sync..” This means that companies want to appeal tho those that are the first to buy into a product (early adopters), and it causes a “snowball effect” to take effect as people want to be like others and adopt the product as well.
What I could take away for my elevator pitch is the themes from points 1 and 3; that a good product should target the small market of early adopters, so that when people see the innovators latching onto the product more and more start to adopt as well.
1)You can not cause someone to staring being interested in your product but you can amplify it and connect it and amplify it and connect it. I think that this is very interesting and I never thought of it in this light.
2)Looking at things differently with different perspectives. The example of the bats. There are always different perspectives that you can take on products and it’s important to realize this.
3)He talks about that search by price concept. The lower price will usually win always win. So, marketers will have to find a way to escape the search by price attitude and find a way to be different.
Elevator Pitch:
I think my first point is the most useful example, you cant cause someone to staring being interested in your product but you can amplify it and connect it and amplify it and connect it again. Its a battle of perception not product.
The 3 key ideas that caught my attention when watching this video were these.
1. The guy that invented the ship also invented the shipwreck. This was very interesting to me as it shows that even with your best intention, there will always be a bad side to a product. Even though the guy who invented the ship never meant for millions of people to die over the years due to shipwrecks, unfortunately, that is something that has happened and us as entrepreneurs need to keep that in mind when thinking of a new product.
2. When he flipped the picture of the bats upside-down. I had seen that before but it was really fun to see how it went from bats sleeping to bats to them having a party. It goes along with what was on the midterm as a way to have a new product, you need to look at it from a different perspective.
3. People have the attention span of a goldfish. I think that is interesting because 20 years ago, people had a much longer attention span. Also since this video has come out, we have actually lost our attention span even more, so that human being’s have an attention span of less than a goldfish. As a musician, I know that my attention has to be kept on the music, which has been advantageous to me in so far as having a longer attention span. It scares me that people now only have an attention span of a few seconds, especially with cars and pilots and surgeons who should be focused for hours on end.
A concept that I could apply to my elevator pitch is this one.
Godin talked about niches and saying “I might not be for you, but if so, here I am”. I think that is important to my elevator pitch just to remember that not everyone will want my product and not to get discouraged if the judges don’t seem overly excited. With niche marketing, there is a niche that a product appeals to, and it is not everything. I think it will be important for me to explain my niche as my product is slightly out of the ordinary.
1. I found the sentence “Remarkable means worth making a remark and telling others about it. If someone else decides its worth talking about then its remarkable” very interesting. Although it may seem obvious, just the way he phrased it a light bulb went off in my head. No one is talking about the ordinary or basic things in life, but the things that catch peoples attention and make them question it. Another phrase that I caught was that the people wants two words from you; sowubana- I see you, I am here with you, I am present and enrollment. What I understood from the word enrollment is how engaged they are in what you are doing. If they aren’t then it isn’t remarkable. Lastly, one other phrase that caught my attention was “People like us (do things like us). It is a true statement and it is a good reminder to continually come up with better ideas. Once you invent something and people start to catch on, they won’t change unless they see change. In saying that, you are going to have to be the one to make that difference.
2. Godin said in his speech, “If failure isn’t an option then neither is success”. I quickly grasped onto that and it made me feel more comfortable with not being the greatest at everything. This lead me to think about the elevator pitch and how it is okay to fail and reconstruct your idea because nothing is perfect the first time through.
1.
One take away I had was that you cannot force someone to like a product.
2.Another take away I had was to look at things with a new perspective. When he flipped over the card to reveal the bats partying, it really drove his point home.
3. A third take away I had was how stories help people get emotionally invested into the product.
Elevator pitch:
These insights were beneficial to my elevator pitch. It helped me realize I should tell a story to market my product in order to get customers emotionally involed. I also figured that I should try and think of how to make my product different by thinking of it from a different perspective.
1. The 1st idea that stood out to me was how he talked about everyone being a competitor. You can engage with anyone and everyone about your product and use others wealth of knowledge to grow your own product but the more you share it with others the more you in-turn give them ideas as well. It takes a delicate balance of putting your idea out there to improve it and make it better but also not giving the product away to someone else.
2. Targeting the smallest possible audience was the next thing that stuck out to me. So often the focus is getting as many people as possible to know about our product and buy it but that isn’t always the best option. Making a product for a very selective group of people you know the need is strong within is equally as effective and powerful.
3. The last one was treating different people differently. Not everyone is the same looking for the same thing. People don’t all come from the same cookie cutter mold so don’t make a product or service that assumes everyone is the same. Make it flexible and adaptable to each persons individual needs.
The points in the talk were beneficial to my product for a few reasons. It helped me remember that I don’t have to make the product so out of this world that anyone ever will want to buy it. It’s totally okay for it to be pointed to a more narrow audience and make it more functional for those specific people then a crazy mess for anyone and everyone.
It was also interesting because when you think about everyone being a competitor it makes you strive for your product to have excellence that much more. What stops anyone from doing the same thing? Absolutely nothing, so make it as great as you possibly can and don’t ever settle.
1) We may be doing something wrong.- The fact that he could really see that things we do on a regular basis like even biking we do wrong and can find new ways to do things.
Mass Market- I like how he points out that even though people think that the mass market is really good, he realizes that it is just creating an average product for an average profit.
Make your self special- You cannot target large audiences and be special, if you target a small audience competitors won’t be after you. you can just make your price more expensive and call yourself special.
2.) Godin’s way of capturing the audience at the beginning but while still pertaining to his topic and keeping peoples attention is really great. I would like to figure out a way to get a good starter on my elevator pitch that will not just get the judges attention but will prove a point and benefit my idea.
1) I thought his point on placing our focus on the wrong end of the spectrum. In trying to please the mass market as a whole with one product leaves the consumers not fully satisfied. However, giving a specific group exactly what they want gives them the best satisfaction and makes you wildly successful in that realm – Also, being not just an entrepreneur but being an artist. Like Frank Lloyd Wright. Also, looking at the bats upside down – changing your perspective is huge.
2) For the elevator pitch, the deal with the raising hands, and people are always holding back. My elevator pitch deals with students being held back and holding themselves back… This illustration might be actually perfect in the pitch itself.
Three things that caught my eye:
#1. Stories cause people to be engaged– this really caught my attention because it made me to actually understand why having a story can be effective. A story can allow people to understand you, your product, and your mission. This would then have them more invested in your idea and in you because it adds a lot of value. Having a story to your business can really make a difference.
#2. The 3am hotel idea– it didnt quite make sense to me, as we are talking a lot about luxury and how we live in a culture of abundance and so therefore we are willing to pay for more luxury items. The hotel at 3am idea talked about how hotels at 3am all look and do the same thing so why pay more for the same outcome?
#3. They said that you cannot cause someone to be interested but you can cause your idea to be “amplified”. This was interesting to me because I thought that you would want to reach and catch the attention of as many people as possible but this idea made it seem like you shouldnt.
Something I can use for my elevator pitch competition:
I think the idea that great companies were made trying to please a small audience but ended up reaching a lot of people needs. I always thought that i would need to find the most popular and cool idea on the market these days, but it really made me think about successful companies. They normally arent mainstream but only think about something that would apply to a lot of people but are only on the minds of few. I think it will help me phrase things the right way in my pitch and try to understand my audience a little better.
1. All products have become the same and the old system of marketing and advertising to the masses no longer works. Consumers will take the cheapest or most convenient thing because every product has been made average because they are targeted to the masses. In the back of my mind I always knew this because typical commercials and advertising doesn’t make me change the type of products I buy. However, I never really thought about it because we are always just taught the same old system so I assumed it worked.
2. The way to win is by targeting the smallest possible audience. This is a counter intuitive statement. Most people would think that you want to target as many people as possible to sell as many products as possible. However, everyone is targeting the masses which means every product is the same. In order to win, you need to corner off a small section of the market and sell to those people.
3. When he said nobody knows how to create a computer mouse, it really got me thinking. A computer mouse seems like something so small and simple, however nobody can just make one from scratch. You need multiple different people with multiple different skill-sets in order to make a computer mouse. That is the same way with everything. No idea is completely your own. You take small parts from many different people and sources and you craft your own idea.
For my elevator pitch, I really need to focus on the fact that it only takes one person to make something be considered remarkable. I have to have something unique and new that catches the eye of someone who thinks that my business is worth talking about. That also ties in with the idea that you need to target a small group of people. I don’t need to sell an average product that everyone has seen before, I just need to sell something brand new that one person thinks is worth talking about.
Three key ideas that Godin covered:
1. Most people do not think that they have the problem I am trying to solve. I find this intriguing because thats essentially the idea of entrepreneurship, solving problems people did not know they had.
2. The idea that my product is not serving its own market. My dog collar is not to serve the dog, I am targeting the owner.
3. People are not interested until it is a good product. I have to make a great product and it has to draw attention to itself. I am not able to just throw something together and hope enough people buy it, it actually has to do well for interest to increase.
A major concept that Godin covered that really changed my elevator pitch is the combined idea that a. it is not always the important people who help you to make an impact and b. there is always someone who can do it cheaper. These two things, especially when combined helped me to see that I need to target a specific audience and that I will build a following, not be placed in front of an audience. So for my pitch, I will have to alter who I am talking to, accept that only those people will be my audience, and that someone will probably come along to do it cheaper, but I need to stand by what I believe.
1.a Mass Marketing, “Average stuff for Average People”
Godin spoke on the market transition that we have seen take place over the last several years. This transition to the metaphor, and application, of the “sort-by-price” effect. This effect leads users, particularly your average user, to choose the cheapest option that fills their need. In Application to innovation and business- by starting a business and targeting the masse- you are doomed to fail as you immediately compete with business who have a lower price-point due to economies of scale.
b. “Loyalty is when they pay extra when they have a choice”
By developing a brand and loyalty- that is delivering value to a the smallest group you can identify/ survive on- users will opt to choose your product over another. This seems a simple concept but it is one that rung as important to me. The idea that by driving value to the customer you simultaneously drive value to the business makes loyalty an often undervalued asset.
c. “Purple Cow”
Godin said that- instead of a herd- it is better to have one ‘Purple Cow.’ Although an odd metaphor- an effective one in demonstrating what it means to be ‘remarkable’. That by standing out, by not having an average product for the masses, people will talk, or ‘remark’ about your product/business/service and it will grow from the edges and a small market, to the masses, and the market at large.
2. Godin’s idea of ‘Beginning at the Edge’ will impact how I present for the elevator pitch competition. Initially, I was worried that since my product did not appeal to the masses, right away, it was doomed to fail. However, by starting at the edge, in my case those concerned with security, and working ‘in’- this idea may take root and grow to larger markets, as long as it is ‘remarkable’. I will adjust my strategy to start with the smallest group possible for the business to function and survive, with the knowledge that if the product is good and reliable- the business will grow, and grow in a scalable capacity.
1. Everyone is your competitor. The market of most products and services has become so clustered with others that it is difficult to stand out. Being an early adopter of something new is one way to break out of this.
2. The individual who created the ship also created the shipwreck. What you do or make, no matter how large or small, will typically create something new that can be problematic. However, this is called risk and can be solved.
3. People are inspired by other people. Seth talked about how people pay $15,000 to enter the Ironman Race in Hawaii and how despite these people knowing they most likely won’t win, they are doing it because of who they are, which was shaped by the people around them.
The idea of risk is something that has always held me back from doing things. The possibility of messing up worries me and will typically prevent me from presenting something to the best of my ability. My commercial elevator pitch is an idea that I have always had in the back of my mind for three or so years from now, but I didn’t do anything about it because I was afraid and didn’t take the risk. For my elevator pitch, I intend to fully devote myself to my ideas to ensure that I am proud of how I presented each idea afterward.
1. His ideas about not catering to the majority instead cater to the minority or the select few that will be your target was incredibly insightful and something I didn’t expect him to say.
2. I also liked his analogy of bowling where if you move the pins closer by an inch, you’ll get a strike every time, but also if you moved them away an inch, you’ll never throw a strike. I like how he used it as a similarity to how we connect and link to one another is crucial to what we want to accomplish.
3. Finally, I liked how he talked about how we were told “not to fly too high” and we should take our own risk and stand for something and have more “grit”, I agree with him that in America we are lacking that and before we had a lot of it but now it just seemed to disappear.
4. “What is our best work for?” I like this concept he talked about because it gets down to the idea of redemptive entrepreneurship and making a change in the world that we want to happen. Why are we doing it? Is it good work? Does it benefit other people in a positive way and change their lives for the better? These are all questions that is addressed in his argument and that’s what stuck out to me the most. Hearing that part of his message made me reanalyze my project and ask myself all those questions and find a good answer for all of them.
3 Key Ideas
1. It’s very important to try to see things from different perspectives. This allows you to deviate around the normal ways of thinking to find new and innovative solutions. Understand why the pain is happening, and focus on healing the pain instead of fixing the perceived problem.
2. The world is more connected then ever. This means you have many more resources at your disposal, but also much more competition. The internet brings us together, and it can and should be utilized as an advantage.
3. In order to avoid “interruption”, seek to be invited by the audience. This is the best way to reach a potential customer, as it allows you to understand everyone’s individual story/needs and focus on working with them instead of using a general and uninformed strategy.
Elevator Pitch Concept
The way to win the audience is by targeting the smallest, most niche audience you can sustain. This is because it will be ignored by your competition, and the growth will come from that. To implement this into my elevator pitch, I will focus on a smaller group of people that I can market my product to and understand their specific pains.
1.treat different people different- this one is interesting because it makes me think about statistics. Usually we aim for within the first standard deviation but now we are moving towards a niche market
Do it wrong before you do it right- I liked this one because so many entrepreneurs want their first idea to be the best. Their first vision to be their only vision but it is vital to see that envisions and ideas adjust
I people like us, do things like this-walkathons don’t raise much money but they get everyone else out doing the same thing. Come out with an idea that can be universal for people to lead.
2. “Who it’s for and what’s it for”- if you are not seeking to make a change, then what is it really going to do? That helps me insure my elevator pitch but possibly pitching this idea of “Leftovers” to multiple charities, such as other food supply charities, so that they may be able to give some money over to pay for delivery for these such meals.
1. Industries are constantly changing and ending.
a. One product can change an entire industry, like the music industry was changed. Companies have to constantly be adapting and can’t get complacent or they’ll be left behind.
2. Most of your audience doesn’t know they have the problem you are trying to solve.
a. The idea that most of your audience doesn’t know they have the problem you are trying to solve shows how important marketing is.
3. Everyone in the world is your competitor.
a. Godin said that with the internet, everyone in the world is a competitor. Everyone can reach the same audience you’re trying to reach. Companies have to be creative in their marketing and grab the attention of their audience.
A concept I can take away is the world being my competitor. I have to differentiate my product so that I can compete with other companies in my market. There needs to be something about my product that is unique that will attract my target market. If there is nothing to differentiate me from my competitors, then my product will not be successful.
Most of the people you are trying to reach don’t have the problem you are trying to solve or at least don’t think they do
– Average internet consumer today has the attention span of a goldfish
– This is important to remember when trying to market a business—I think people who are so set on a goal or dream sometimes get caught up in it and forget about who they are trying to appeal to—without appealing to people you cannot have any measure of success. It is important to know how you are going to convince people they want your product
– “We have branded ourselves to death
o We have made it so people are desensitized to sales— how will you distinguish yourself? This is an interesting concept to contemplate from both sides of the spectrum—both advertised to and advertising/ trying to promote a product.
– The “story” is where people engage
o It is interesting to consider the “how” of being sold products—the fancy feast example made me consider why I choose one brand of something that is a mundane necessity (say body wash) over another thing and it all comes down to the story and narrative I have been sold about the product. You have to transmit your product in a way that is pleasing to buyers.
– Sowubana + Enrollment
o You have to take advantage of the “connection economy”
2.
Elevator pitch— “purple cow” remarkable
If someone else decides it’s worth talking about then it’s remarkable
For the elevator pitch, I should aim to make my idea something remarkable—anything less is a waste of time and customer’s time. For people to want to buy it, it has to be remarkable.
1. To be a good marketer you want to tell someone what they want to heart by simply giving them what they want. Use your idea to amplify a greater synapse in the brain that directly focuses on a need. It is impossible to cause somebody to be intrigued by your idea, but you can amplify it in a way that connects with the consumer. This made me realize that you must go and physically find the way to do so.
2. The average internet consumer has the attention span of a goldfish; this makes me think that we must create a better promotion base of consumers. “Dumbing it down”, I feel like that is most people these days because many people don’t pay attention to the details. I would implement a better strategy in trying to grab the attention of the target.
3. The truth when it comes to marketing your product is that you must make sure that the early adopters like your product. Because if they give bad reviews then your product is going to fail, and nobody will buy it. It will only be a good product if you efficiently have a good launch.
Elevator Pitch: What I would apply to my main points is that the idea has a potential to have great interest. Making it direct as possible to get the attention of the audience. I am going to shoot to get their attention immediately. I may ultimately change my target market to a wider range of people instead of directly just trying to target college students.