How to Spread Your Ideas When Mass Marketing Fails (Video)

The great talk I want to share with you today is about what may be the most important part of any new idea, product or service: how it spreads. No matter how brilliant it is, or how much it would help the customers it’s meant for, it’s worth nothing without the right way to spread it.

Take sliced bread (it comes up in the video, too). It took more than 15 years to go from invention to acceptance to store shelves. Hard to believe, since today it’s the most common way bread is sold!

As Seth Godin puts it, “The people who can spread ideas, regardless of what those ideas are, win.” Want to be one of them? Here are a few tips:

• The TV advertising model no longer works, because “in a world where we have too many choices and too little time, the obvious thing to do is just ignore stuff.” So we, as customers, have learned to tune out ads and every other mass media marketing trick.
• Don’t make “average products for average people.” In a world where mass marketing is (almost) dead, you need to focus on the right niche.
• “The riskiest thing you can do is not take risks.” Ordinary products for the masses no longer have what it takes to succeed. Make remarkable, specific products instead, and don’t be afraid to try new things (otherwise you’ll never know what works).
• Find out who cares. Under the new rules of marketing, you first need to find your fans and only then offer them the great product you’ve made. Either they’ll go crazy for it and you win, or they’ll shrug and you learn your lesson.

Here’s the original talk, where you’ll find all these ideas explained, plus plenty more food for thought: