Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea

I went into this book with low expectations and was greatly surprised. Not only did it live down to those expectations, I was amazed that a book could be created from such an amalgam of disconnected stories and hindsight predictions of success. This book is nothing more than platitudes and stories, then more platitudes, then a lot more stories. And, while success stories are the realm of any consultant, it doesn’t even appear that the stories used in this book are the result of anything the author has done; rather just pick and chose from the Wall Street Journal to match his needs. This combination of pithy comments and stories reaches its lowest point in the third chapter when there is literally a ten-page list of ideas – starting show more with a paragraph that begins “The rest of this chapter can’t help but be sort of random.” Well, actually, if it was a well-written book, it could keep from being random. But then, why should it be any different than the rest of the book. And the book really digs into the depths at the end, where there are 38 pages of notes. First, if it was important enough to say, why wasn’t it included in the text? Second, it wasn’t important enough to say. Oh, and did I mention the author goes overboard being self-referential to his other book – Purple Cow? The only Free Prize Inside! was the fact that the company gave this to me for free. (Wonder what I’ll get at the used book store?) show less

Seth Godin has some wonderful ideas, and some wonderful case studies and anecdotes to back them up, but this book could have been half as short and possibly have been more powerful without losing any content at all. The points can become a bit laboured, particularly as many of them seem totally obvious once they've been pointed out. But you're not reading the book for the writing, it's for the marketing concepts and those are absolutely fascinating.

This inspires the reader to think of ideas that will get attention and differentiate in sometimes extreme ways. The champion must also have the heart to believe it and sell it. Business is full of obvious cases where the sole winner did just that. They need to sell it at the top, at the bottom, wherever will work. He also talks about "edgecraft" as superior to brainstorming. Take a good concept and make it more by taking some dimension to the edge (flexibility, cheeriness, cleanliness, organizational parameters, tradition, etc).

I recommend all of Seth Godin's books for business and marketing. Always something new to learn and add to your business. Very simple and practical. This is a solid book.

Seth's books are chock full of ideas. I am not sure if he is a marketeer or entrepreneur but the result is the same. Do what is needed to make sales.

business markering ideas