Update 03/12

Looks like I wasn’t as clever as I thought with the “shrinking Steve Jobs” thing – Rocket Fuel apparently thought of this gag before I did. Well, it is kinda obvious. Regardless, the actual point of this post still stands:

Marketing Tip: Selling Mediocre Stuff

Seth Godin, who (rightfully) says that one needs to have something truly remarkable in order to strive in today’s markets, is gonna hate this but here it goes…

You know, while the iPad has garnered some of the most negative views I’ve ever read from folks on forums and gadget comment sections, you have to remember that marketing is where it’s at.

Mediocre, crippled shit doesn’t sell – unless you’re Steve Jobs. I truly consider Steve Jobs one of the greatest marketers of all time (caveat below…). Steve can present a card board box  and we all think we can’t live without it. He is a master at ‘locking in’ customers. Everything Apple makes is ‘ground breaking’ and ‘revolutionary’, even though almost everything they’ve come out with had already been done in one form or another.

Reasonable, well informed people know this. But most consumers are neither reasonable nor well informed it seems. So you need to take this into consideration if you market something mediocre.
But Apple knows how to pull in the masses with the right words, the right design, the right hype, and fostering a cult following second to none in the gadget world. Steve Jobs is a marketing god – which is why even the iPad will sell well. Regardless of how you feel about Apple products, you should study the man.

Here is the problem: you are not Steve Jobs. So mediocre don’t cut it. Seth Godin is right after all…

Seth Godin is one of the most prolific marketers of our time. I have been devouring everything this man has published since Idea Virus and a lot of my marketing incorporates his ideas in some form. Any serious marketer needs to stock up on his books, especially All Marketers Are Liars,  and Purple Cow, and check out his blog musings on a regular basis.