This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See (2018) by Seth Godin, Audiobook Review

 
This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See (2018)
by Seth Godin, Audiobook

 What is marketing? According to Seth Godin: "If you need to persuade someone to take action, you’re doing marketing." Asking you to donate to charity is as much as marketing as asking you to buy a product for charity. If you are taking a selfie for your social media or showing off your stuff on Instagram, you're marketing. I write this review and using hashtag #1Book1Week is marketing because one of the reasons (other than selfish one) is I want to persuade you to read books through my page. We all involve in marking either you realize it or not. The questions are: Are you a good or bad marketer? Do you want to genuinely serve others or just want their money? Do you always use manipulations or ethical persuasions? Mind you, Seth doesn't concern with the last question, but I thought it would be helpful to remind the believers about ethics as we read secular books like this.

In this book, Seth Godin (the first time I'm exposed to Seth is through his short book, The Dip), a marketing guru, shares the culmination of decades upon decades of marketing lessons and advice that he learned all over the world and mainly through his The Marketing Seminar. I would like to recommend listening to The Akimbo Podcast and watching his interviews with Marie Forleo and Chase Jarvis. I listened to the audiobook, not reading the book, so I get the main ideas but not in detail. And most of the lessons I learned probably not very applicable to my areas of calling and job descriptions. Although as a Bible Study teacher and Christian preacher, I am involving in 'marketing' the Gospel indirectly but here I must be careful not to mix the two. Of course, there are similarities but some principles and methods in marketing are just Biblical compromise and to a certain extend - wrong. Apply discernment, okay? ���

Back to the book. The audiobook is narrated by the author (7 hours 2 minutes, but I listened to it at 1.25x speed, so about 5.3 hours. I love listening to audiobooks when I'm walking outside and cleaning the house). Here are seven quotes that stick with me and from the interviews about the book (I Google these quotes, by the way, based on keywords that I remember):

 #1 "Marketers offer solutions, opportunities for humans to solve their problems and move forward";

 #2 "The most important lesson I can share about brand marketing is this: you definitely, certainly, and surely don’t have enough time and money to build a brand for everyone. You can’t. Don’t try. Be specific. Be very specific";

 #3 "We sell feelings, status, and connection, not tasks or stuff";

 #4 "The smallest viable market is the focus that, ironically and delightfully, leads to your growth" (my favorite is chapter 4: The Smallest Viable Market);

 #5 "Empathy is at the heart of marketing" (This is a BIG point!) For example, Seth also writes: "When we find the empathy to say 'I’m sorry, this isn’t for you – here’s the phone number of my competitor' then we also find the freedom to do work that matters";

 #6 The title for chapter nine: 'People Like Us Do Things Like This' is worth exploring;

 #7 "When you’re the cheapest, you’re not promising change. You’re promising the same, but cheaper... lowering your price doesn't make you more trusted – it actually does the opposite."

If I'm working directly as a marketer, I will surely buy the book because it has many good ideas that are very practical in the ever-changing (evolving?) landscape of marketing today. Consider it ���⚡✌ #ServeToLead #LeadersAreReaders #GrowingLeaders #SethGodin #ThisIsMarketing #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

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THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

 

 

The Persuaders: The Hidden Industry that Wants to Change Your Mind (2016) by James Garvey, Book Review

The Persuaders: The Hidden Industry that Wants to Change Your Mind (2016)
by James Garvey

Brought this book (worth RM79.90) for RM19.90 @ BookXcess PJ. I'm one happy customer! Now, about the book, if you're new to the world of persuasion, this book is a good way of learning the basics. If you're already familiar with it, there's not much here that you haven't already heard before. Because I've read Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational, Robert Cialdini's Influence and parts of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow - must-read books - some of the information, scientific researches and arguments stated in this book are not new to me. Not to say that it's a bad book (it's not) just that it's a primer. By the way, his historical and current examples are superb, scary, and mind-boggling. His view from philosophical perspectives is refreshing, deep and thoughtful.

If I were to retitle this book, I will put it as "The Persuaders: How We Let the PR Industry Control Our Minds." James Garvey shows that we are no longer thinking, reasoned and argued (well) - instead, our opinions and behavior are manipulated by advertisers, lobbyists, marketers, politicians, companies, organizations and more, especially in the way they go about selling their ideas and products. Persuasion is now big business and big politics. In the technological era today, you'll never see the world in the same way again after reading this book. For example, in the case of near election periods, Google might change its algorithms and support one candidate rather than another. And because those algorithms are secret, the people wouldn’t know. And they wouldn’t be able to tell that that was going on. When people search for more information about the election on the internet, they thought they have come to their own conclusions, having read the different articles that they searched for, even though they didn’t know that those articles were slanted in one direction or another. They thought that it was their own conclusion they were arriving at, so they believed (presumably) it in a way – in a sense – rationally (this also happened when we were persuaded to buy a product or to respond to an idea).

If you've ever wondered how the hell we ended up in the post-truth world we inhabit today, this is the book that you want to read. You see, we are constantly manipulated in our everyday lives. We were nudged, anchored, and incentivized in barely noticeable ways. Whether the ability to reason is something we've lost or something we've never really had, being at least vaguely aware of the methods used to make us spend our money or distract our attention or cast our votes gives us some small defense against them. This book makes a great service to its readers by explaining how powerful individuals and groups take advantage of the natural irrational weaknesses of human beings. By reading this book you will learn how to be more aware of them. You will also be more prepared to advance the discussion about the ethics of Public Relations.

"[If] you are now asking yourself what you can do about modern persuasion, its sometimes enough to think that if a critical mass of us learns to listen to reason again, maybe then we'll realize that there's power in the simple but very difficult act of withholding assent and insisting on good reasons. Sheer numbers can change things. They always do," writes James. Thanks man!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (2006) by Robert B. Cialdini, Book Review

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (2006) by Robert B. Cialdini

This is interesting, Cialdini writes, "What I'm talking about is pre-suasion, directing their minds to the moment before they experience the content. There's this interesting study. A guy goes to a shopping mall in France. And he tries to get women's phone numbers as they pass various shops so he could call for a date. But in neither of those cases was he very successful. He only got a number 13% of the time. But there was one kind of shop that doubled his success rate when women were passing it, a flower shop. Why? Because flowers put women in the mindset of romance." Wow! I love to learn psychology and the human mind. When I listened to Les Brown, my favorite motivational speaker, he had a list of books he recommended. Top 10 on his list was this book, which was a really fascinating and enlightening read. It reminds me why being a skeptic and a cynic sometimes are so valuable and necessary – particularly in today's world.

In my observation, today the word "persuasion," especially in the Christian circles, have a very negative connotation. Sometimes we (wrongly) equate it with "deception" or "intimidation" – but not so. There are principles of persuasion that are both moral and ethical (In Acts 28:23, it is written that Paul "explained and testified about the Kingdom of God and tried to persuade [others] about Jesus from the Scripture." This is not a Christian book, but what I'm trying to say is that there is such a thing as ethical persuasion). In this book, Robert Cialdini, a well-known expert in the field of influence and persuasion, outline 6 Ethical Principles that are helpful not just for sales people but for anyone who wants to become a skilled persuader:

#1 RECIPROCITY. "In many social situations, we pay back what we received from others." When you offer something first, people will feel a sense of indebtedness, which will make them more likely to comply with your subsequent requests. We're deeply wired to be reciprocal. There are three factors that will make this principle more effective: 1) Offer something first – allow them to feel indebted to you; 2) Offer something exclusive – allow them to feel special; 3) Personalize the offer – make sure they know it's from you.

#2 COMMITMENT & CONSISTENCY. "We tend to stick with whatever we've already chosen." We are bombarded with hundreds of choices to make every single day. For convenience, we simply make a single decision and then stick to it for all subsequently related choices. Cialdini suggests three ways to leverage off this principle in sales setting: 1) Ask your customers to start from small actions – so they'll have to stick to it; 2) Encourage public commitments – they'll be less likely to back out; and 3) Reward your customers for investing time and effort in your brand.

#3 SOCIAL PROOF. "We tend to have more trust in things that are popular or endorsed by people that we trust." For examples, we tend to trust more on experts – approval from credible experts in the relevant field; or celebrities – approval or endorsements from celebrities (paid or unpaid); or users – approval from current/past users (ratings, reviews and testimonials); or ‘wisdom of crowds' – approval from large groups of other people; or peers – approval from friends and people you know, etc.

#4 LIKING. "We are more likely to comply with requests made by people we like." That can range from our closest friends to complete strangers that we are attracted to. This explains why we trust word-of-mouth recommendations from our peers, as well as stuff endorsed by our favorite artists. In marketing line, the Liking principle work like these: 1) Physical attractiveness – make your website well-designed, function and suit what you're selling; 2) Similarity – behave like a friend, not a brand. Show them that you can relate to, and understand them; 3) Compliments – have a voice; use social media platforms not to broadcast, but hold intimate conversations and form relationships with your customers; 4) Contact and Cooperation – fight for the same causes as your customers. Nothing builds rapport and closeness like good old-fashioned teamwork; and 5) Conditioning and Association – associate your brands with the same values that you want to communicate and possess.

#5 AUTHORITY. "We follow people who look like they know what they're doing." This holds especially true in fields where we aren't experts. Most headlines utilize this principle by including phrases like "Scientists say", "Experts say" or "Research shows". You can give off the air of authority if you pay attention of these factors: 1) Titles – positions of power/experience; 2) Clothes – superficial cues that signal authority; and 3) Trappings – accessories/indirect cues that accompany authoritative roles

#6 SCARCITY. "We are always drawn to things that are exclusive and hard to come by." We assume that things that are difficult to obtain are usually better than those that are easily available. We link availability to quality. You can learn to trigger your customers' sense of urgency with these methods: 1) Limited-number – item is in short supply and won't be available once it runs out; 2) Limited-time – item is only available during that time period; 3) One-of-a-kind special offers – sometimes utilize one or both of the above techniques. Also from one-off events (e.g. collaborations, anniversaries); and 4) Utilising competitions – our inclination to want things more because other people also want them is often utilized in auctions or bids.

There are lots of good, interesting and memorable examples that Cialdini used to clarify and apply each of the principles in our daily lives. Every principle is so basic that you may not realize that you’re using it all this while or were being used to you. If you're in the marketing business, definitely you have to buy this book. If you're interested in how people think and make decisions – persuading and influencing others – read this book. If you're a leader, this is a book that you must own. Why? Because Robert says, "If leadership, at its most basic, consists of getting things done through others, then persuasion is one of the leader's essential tools."

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Young Men and Women, Be Christ's Ambassadors (End)

"[We] are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.
We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!'"

(2 Corinthians 5:20, NLT)

Paul used many metaphors to illustrate the privileged ministry to which God had called him. One of the most impressive is that of "Christ's ambassadors." An ambassador, in Dictionary.com, is a "diplomatic official of the highest rank." It is rightly considered one of the highest honors any country can grant on one of its citizens. Even in chain, Paul delighted to use this term for himself: "I am in chain now, still preaching this message as God's ambassador" (Ephesians 6:20). It is told of John R. Mott, the YMCA leader, that he was once offered the post of ambassador of the United States to Japan. In declining the honor, he said to President Coolidge, "Mr. President, since God called me as a student to be His ambassador, my ears have been deaf to all other calls."

An ambassador has both privileges and responsibilities. First, as to privileges, he actually represents his absent king or president or prime minister, whose honor is in his hands. He does not go aboard at his own expense. All the resources of his country are behind him. He has personal fellowship with and access to the highest authority. While on nation's business, his personal safety is guaranteed. It is not difficult to relate these privileges to the post of an ambassador for Jesus Christ, the King of kings.

Then, as to responsibilities, he is required to have no associations, however seemingly innocent, that would any way compromise his country. He must keep in constant communication with his higher authority. He must live and conduct himself in a manner worthy of the one he represents. He is expected to watch over and protect the interests of fellow-citizens living in the country to which he has been empowered.

And this is important: he has no right to either add to or subtract from the message of his government but must deliver it as it is. Nor he needs to apologize for his message. He is not expected to originate his own message, but to receive his government's instructions. He is to present his government's viewpoint – not his own. He may use persuasion but not manipulation.

It is not difficult to connect this worldly ambassador's responsibilities to the ambassador of Christ. Do you qualify for the post?

We Are Christ's Ambassadors

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus Used Parables to Teach. Why? (A Reflection on Mark 4:1-2)

“Again Jesus began to teach beside Lake Galilee.
The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it.
The boat was out in the water, and the crowd stood on the shore at the water’s edge.
He used parables to teach them many things” (Mark 4:1-2, GNB)

Understand that as you read this Jesus didn’t have access to chalkboards, PowerPoint slideshow, live video, audio recording or all other sophisticated teaching aids. He just used whatever around Him. I admire Him for being a Master at using objects available as tools in His teachings. He sometime pointed at ordinary fig trees and gave lessons to teach the people. He pointed to sheep, water, grain, farmers, bread, the Temple and other physical objects as illustrations of spiritual values. He even knew how to avoid large crowd from crushing Him by “got into a boat” – and at the same time this position (see picture above) can provide a good echoing sound system to the large crowd! Brilliant!

Here we read Jesus “used parables to teach them many things.” What is parable? A parable, in the simplest meaning, is a simple story drawn from ordinary nature or everyday life which conveyed spiritual truth. A parable is like a story to make a comparison (Jesus always do this). Why Jesus used parables? Because most people just like you and me today have closed minds to many spiritual things. The people at that time were illiterate and most of them only received their knowledge of the Scripture from the synagogue. We on the other hand, are often being spoon feed by everyone or anyone else that speak at the pulpits. They need to hear more but we hear too much. Thus, both effects may cause instead of having critical, analytic and open minds, we become closed mind and often not thinking. Because of this, parable serve well in communicating and understanding truth – verbal and images – that make people think, imagine and respond.

I find that parable (instead of direct doctrinal teachings) is very interesting, down-to-earth, thought-provoking, and refreshing. It is also accessible, powerful and memorable. Here I learned 3 important lessons from Jesus on how to communicate the Good News based on His used of parables in His teachings: Firstly, Jesus taught me to tell the truths in simple-ordinary everyday language. In order to do this, I need to imitate His examples. He knew the people and places around Him very well. Secondly, Jesus taught me to engage people’s hearts and minds to response to the Good News message. Examples and questions. Prayer and persuasion. Thinking and feeling. Reality and imagination. And lastly, Jesus taught me to maximize the use of common knowledge, daily news and the Scripture. Try to avoid or minimize the use of massive technology tools.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.