Product Description

“Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords . . . I don’t care, as long as it’s shiny and new.”

Wait. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great. But if you start with a bowl of meatballs . . . yuck!

As traditional marketing fades away, the new tools seem irresistible. But they don’t work as well for boring brands (“meatballs”) that might still be profitable but don’t attract word of mouth, such as Cheerios, Ford trucks, Barbie dolls, or Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch spends $40 million on an online network called BudTV, that’s a meatball sundae. It leads to no new Bud drinkers, just a bad case of indigestion.

Meatball Sundae is the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don’t.

The winners aren’t just annoying start-ups run by three teenagers who never had a real job. You’ll also meet older companies that have adapted brilliantly, such as Blendtec, a thirty-year-old blender maker. It now produces “Will it blend?” videos that demolish golf balls, Coke cans, iPhones, and much more. For a few hundred dollars, Blendtec reached more than ten million eager viewers on YouTube.

Godin doesn’t pretend that it’s easy to get your products, marketing messages, and internal systems in sync. But he’ll convince you that it’s worth the effort.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10350 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Godin's latest business handbook (after Small Is the New Big and The Dip) revisits some of his most popular marketing advice, while emphasizing that it can't just be applied willy-nilly. In past decades, he says, companies were able to get rich by making average products for average people, but those markets have long since been sewn up; mass is no longer achievable [or] desirable. Rather than simply rely on mass media to raise product visibility, New Marketing treats every aspect of interacting with customers—including customer service and the product itself—as an opportunity to grow the organization. In order to be successful with such marketing techniques, a company must change its practices across the board. Otherwise, you're just putting whipped cream on a meatball. Godin has a perspective on everything from blogs (don't bother unless you really have something to say) to the long tail (if it's as valuable to your company as the top sellers are, why aren't you paying more attention?). His arresting conversational style is sure to once again set the business world talking. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Godinis a clear-eyed visionary with strong and sensible ideas on how the new economy can, should and will function."Miami Herald (Miami Herald )

"Godin…is a clear-eyed visionary with strong and sensible ideas on how the new economy can, should and will function."—Miami Herald (Miami Herald )

[Godin's] arresting conversational style is sure to once again set the business world talking. - Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly )

From the Back Cover
"Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords...I don't care, as long as it's shiny and new."

WAIT. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great. But if you start with a bowl of meatballs...yuck! As traditional marketing fades away, the new tools seem irresistible. But they don't work as well for boring brands ("meatballs") that might still be profitable but don't attract word of mouth.

Meatball Sundae is the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don't. Godin doesn't pretend that it's easy to get your products, marketing messages, and internal systems in sync. But he'll convince you that it's worth the effort.

Customer Reviews

Essential Reading for Nonprofit Execs
Seth Godin is an expert on the use of new web-based marketing techniques. In the Meatball Sundae, he provides big-picture descriptions and examples of fourteen trends that are changing the business and marketing world. The book is visionary and easy to read but does not provide how-to details.

This is essential reading for not-for-profit executives whose organizations live and die based on the success of their marketing and fundraising efforts. While the book is aimed at the private-sector, imagine how you can make use of eBay, YouTube, Digg, and blogs to fundraise and draw attention to your cause.

Perhaps the best example of these strategies (not discussed in the book) at work in the public sphere is the success of Obama's online fundraising and community organizing machine. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032702968.html?nav=rss_politics

This is must-reading for everyone who wants to change the world.

Thinking Through Your Decisions
One thing about Seth's books is they always get me to thinking, and re-thinking. This time, I'm thinking about marketing in today's crazy upside-down new world. Every entrepreneur worth her/his salt should be thinking through their decisions about adopting new techniques, such as blogs and Twitter, and not just tag along with the crowd. Seth helps us sort it all out. For an expansion of concepts found in my own book, "The Expert's Edge," put this book on your study list too!

New Marketing vs. Old Marketing ( Do not miss it!)
Hi Seth,

i have been following your blog like a year and reading your posts almost everyday. I also bought your book " Meatball Sundae" it is a great book everyone who has "gatekeepers"(who does underestimate technology and power of online marketing tools and love their dark caves) in their company should buy, read and apply, give the same examples or similar ones to their executives and you will finally win the challenge(i did it and it is working).You may easily convert them into "new marketing" lovers. i have been thinking to write you since along time but could not find time because i am reading your intelegence whenever i have time( always excuses:)).You have changed the way i look at the new marketing. Anyway soon i will order all your books from Amazon they are making everythng crystal clear and easy. I highly reccomend everybody to read them. I hope you will continue to write them.

All the Best,