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Book
Review
Unleashing
the Ideavirus
Seth
Godin
Published by Do You Zoom, Inc.
In Unleashing the Ideavirus, Seth Godin writes
that we live in a world where consumers actually
resist marketing.
So how do entrepreneurs market their burgeoning
companies? Godin recommends that we stop
marketing at people. The idea is to build an
environment where consumers market to each
other. Godin calls this unleashing the Ideavirus
to sell a company's goods and services.
What's an Ideavirus? Godin says an Ideavirus is
a fashionable idea that spreads through a
section of the population, teaching, changing
and influencing everyone it comes in touch with.
Godin points to Hotmail as a successful example
of Ideavirus. Hotmail, produced by Microsoft,
became popular not by TV ads but because it was
free e-mail that people found intriguing and
told each other about it.
Advertisers spent the much of the 20th century,
trying to control, measure and manipulate the
spread of information. But Godin argues that the
most successful ideas are those that spread and
grow because of the customers' relationship to
other customers. Godin applies intuitive
understanding of the contagious power of
information (Ideavirus) to the art of successful
communication.
Word of mouth is nothing new but still one of
the most effective ways to market a business.
So, the idea of a product becomes as important
as the product. For example, Grodin sites Nike
Air Jordan sneaker that became the rage of the
sneaker world because of the idea and mystique
around it, creating the Ideavirus that it's a
top shoe.
Call this fad marketing but Grodin believes
everything is driven by fads today. Hotmail, Air
Jordans and Napster all became mega-products,
seemingly overnight. In lively and
easy-to-understand language, Godin spells out
for readers seven ways an Ideavirus can help
market a product or business, why an Ideavirus
is so important and five things an Ideavirus has
in common.
He also shows how to unleash an Ideavirus and
the basics of the successful Ideavirus formula.
Godin collects case studies to show concrete
examples of how major companies rode Ideaviruses
to big profits.
Unleashing the Ideavirus is a book of powerful
and practical advice for businesses. Godin says
the marketer is not at the center of successful
marketing - but the customer. For more
information, visit www.ideavirus.com.
By Frank
Szivos
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