I’ve just devoured a book handed to me by a friend titled Meatball Sundae (or to give it it’s full name- Meatball Sundae: How New Marketing is Transforming the Business World (and How to Thrive in It)) written by self-proclaimed business guru Seth Godin. Now I must admit, I’m not a regular reader of his blog but sometimes I get referred to a post that really drives home a point that makes me want to scream out loud “Thank you Seth, why won’t everyone else understand this!” but sometimes I read posts that seem just a bit too common sense, as is the way with marketing. Of course, you may know Mr. Godin more for his controversial post on SEO so I was very intrigued when given the book.
It doesn’t really disappoint but it’s not exactly inspiring either. In a nutshell, Godin declares Old Marketing (meatballs) is dead, New Marketing is brilliant (ice cream) but a traditional organisation can’t just employ New Marketing for the sake of it and expect massive results (a meatball sundae). Old Marketing, as you would expect is TV advertising, paying for shelf space, newspaper estate and so on. New Marketing isn’t just blogging and social media, though they are mentioned a lot, it can be the entire business model of the company itself, such as CafePress allowing thousands of people to open their own “stores” selling custom printed shirts and products which CafePress then produce and distribute.
Seth keeps the metaphors and frustratingly short case studies coming at an almost blisteringly fast point, regurgitating points made only a couple of pages ago. In parts it feels very limited; fluffy feel good stories about new businesses offer no actual analysis or statistics and sometimes you question whether the businesses mentioned are actually making profits despite employing this lovely New Marketing. Seth also shies away from actually telling you what or how to do New Marketing and so this is less of a manual and more of a guide to change your mindset about marketing. This it does do well.
Some of the points he make might seem common sense to A-Level Business students but it has to be said that there are many insights and case studies that force you to take a breather and really think about marketing from every perspective; as a consumer making a brand choice, as a current employee trying to achieve results and imagining what you would change if you worked for a big FTSE 100 company.
Overall it’s not a bad book. It won’t tell you what to do but it might change the way you do it. Click here to buy from Amazon.
