Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department

Great article on integrating marketing with your core business:

http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2009/07/seth-godins-talk-from-business-of-software-2008.html

My takeaways:

• Products for your customers, not customers for your product.
• Commitment before success!
• Be Remarkable. People remember and talk about purple cows, not brown ones.
  
• Don't sell to everyone: Products on the edge are unique and sell when other struggle (Hummer & Mini).
  
• BMW spends a fraction on marketing compared to GM. They spend that extra money on engineers.
• Get people to talk about your products: mismatched socks for teenage girls. "Look at my socks"
• Longtail companies sell what other don't have. 50% of Amazons sales are not at BN.com.
  
• Joel on Software built his own media channel and can easily market products
• Threadless has brilliant marketing... get lots of your friends to go to the site and vote for you so you win.
• 37Signals was brilliant in getting people to share.
  
• Runners in Newton shoes wave at each other.
• Martin Luther was a "heretic", but formed a tribe by being different and stand up.
• Enrich your customers lives and connect them to each other.
  

Really Cool Commuter Bike Company

Check out this cool company. Great idea. Mass customization, great design. Very cool.

Tragedy of the Commons

Jon Udell: Information routing: "In the 1968 essay that popularized the concept, 'The Tragedy of the Commons,' Garrett Hardin wrote:
Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit -- in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all."

Ineresting. I've been thinking a lot lately about how the world is a closed system, and how perpetual increase (revenue, house values, market share, etc) is not sustainable for everyone.

Business Review

I am going to start blogging about exceptional businesses that I run across; exceptionally good and exceptionally bad. Most businesses I interact with are just mediocre, so I want to spotlight the ones that really stand out.

Nerd Test

Katie sent me a link to nerdtest.com. I only got a 30%, but I IM'd it to all my programmers at work and they are fighting over who got a higher score. Most of them are in the 90-97% range. :)

I did find this picture on that site that I thought was pretty cool:

Wasatch Colors

I was reminded tonight of how much I love the wasatch range. I was driving home and it was the time of day when the sun is just starting to go down, and all the colors are super vivid. The sky was blue, and the mountains were covered in snow and were lit up in pastel pinks and purples. It's an amazing site, and always lifts my spirits to see that all around me. I need to remember to start carrying a camera to capture images like that when I see them. I love that we live somewhere that I can see that regularly. On my mission is Fresno, I remember how depressing it was to just be surrounded by ugly apartment complexes, empty lots, concrete, and the general grunginess of a city. Kind of makes you go crazy to be stuck in a place like that. I always wondered why people stayed there. Why don't they just pack up and get out? Don't they realize how many more great places there are to live?

Katie and I have been thinking alot about where we would want to live if we move. It's funny how some places just seem to fit. There are places where you feel at home, and it's interesting how that's different for everyone. Some people love the Avenues, or Cottonwood Heights, or even St. George. For Katie and me, the Highland/Alpine area just feels right. I just wish our family was closer, and maybe the ocean; then it would be perfect.

Powder & Fish Tacos:

Ok, I've been inspired by all my blogging friends and wife. I am going to try to start blogging regualarly. It's a good creative outlet and I'm hoping it will help me focus more on the good around me, take more pictures, take note of things I like, etc. I'd like to commit to blogging daily, but I don't know if I will actually be motivated to stick with it, so for now I'll just say that I'm going to do my best.

So here goes:



Powder & Fish Tacos: that's the perfect way to start off your day. Katie, Dalls, and I went up to Solitude this morning and enjoyed the several feet of new powder that we've gotten here this week. It reminded me of just how much I love being on the mountain on a good powder day. It's one of by favorite pleasures in life. Everything is right with the world when you are carving big turns in bottomless powder. It made me very happy for the rest of the day, and I think I've got my fix for at least another week or so. We ended the great morning the right way with fish tacos at Lone Star (a tradition started with Rob). It never fails, now whenever I go to Solitude, at about 11am I start gettting intense cravings for Fish Tacos. I got to work at about 1 today, and now I have to work late to make it up, but it's well worth it.

I really miss Rob (he moved to MA for grad school), so I had to send him a txt msg when I got back. Here's how the conversation went:

me: "Powder & Fish Tacos rule"
rob: "Bastard"
me "I take it your morning wasn't as good?"
no reply from Rob.

At least he knows I care. :)

I need to finish up a little bit of work here tonight, and then go run 6 miles at the gym, so this is all for now. Another post tomorrow?

Fred