Week 6- All marketers are liars youtube questions

Make sure you take notes as you watch the video and answer the following questions:

1) When talking about Yahoo auctions, what did Seth Godin mean by 'billion dollar decisions do not have anything to do with technology'?

When Seth Godin talked about “billion dollar decisions do not have anything to do with technology” he meant that just because a company puts a lot of money into an idea does not mean it will work. When Yahoo created Yahoo auctions this was not successful. The functions of Yahoo auctions were not successful compared to eBay which was simpler and appealed to consumers. When discussing the 'billion dollar decisions do not have anything to do with technology' this ideally is shown through Godin’s example of Google. Google used a simple format and had adverts on the side bar which was not in the way of the user who were looking up information. This ideally made Google successful because the adverts were there for users to see but not in the user’s way. Google become successful through word of mouth which is a good promotional tool because it is free for the company and gives good recognition. Google made revenue through adverts in the side bar which allowed users to seek the information if need be (Godin, 2006).


2) What has story telling got to do with cat food?

When Godin discusses the story telling and cat food this is just an example of how people buy products just for the story that goes with it. Godin uses cat food as an example of that the cat does not really care about the brand, this is just the story that goes with that product which the owner buys for the cat. Godin uses the example of bottled water and Chanel no5 stating that when consumers buy these products it is not because they need this, it is the story which is associated with the product. Ideally stating the worth of the product reflects back on the user. Godin states that consumers are “buying wellbeing” (Godin, 2006). Consumers buy products for the story telling (Godin, 2006).


3) Explain the concept of funnel marketing, and how would 'flipping the funnel' help the marketing of a product?

The concept of funnel marketing seems to be when marketers market to people which means “put them in the funnel” some people fall out but some come out the bottom. This means that the advert or what the business is selling some consumers have bought the product or the message has reached the consumer “half way down the funnel”. My interpretation of this is that marketers send out the adverts or the message which goes into this fictional funnel and the consumers more prone to listening to the message will be caught and buy the product or are being reached. Godin later talked about the flipping the funnel would help marketing a product because it would act like a speaker type thing. Ideally word of mouth is a very influential way of marketing because consumers listen to people who have experienced the product or service. By having the funnel flipped this would help in marketing products because word of mouth is a very strong marketing tool(Godin, 2006).


4) What does the term 'remarkable' mean in the context of purple cows?

When Godin talked about the term remarkable in the context of purple cows this ideally just means that remarkable is worth making a remark about. Godin uses the example of his children being bored and seeing cows but if the cows were purple the kids would want to go and touch the cows. This is because it is worth talking about. It is worth making a remark and to tell people. This is a good example of how something different causes people to talk about something. Just like when the new iphones came out consumers made remarks because it was worth talking about since it was new. Just like the example of the cows being regular the children would not say anything but would just go along and do their regular thing. If the cows were different or unusual then the children would say something and make sure they told someone (Godin, 2006).
As eMarketers we all want 'happy surfers'. Godin talks about the fashion/permission complex. He lists four parts to the fashion/complex.They are

1) Make it (the message) worth listening to
2) Tell it to the people who want to hear
3) Tell their friends
4) Get permission to tell about your next fashion.

Can you think of an example from your experience that demonstrates the fashion/permission complex?

Sadly enough the only example which comes to mind was when I was looking for a job I seen an advertisement for Seek.com which is a website which is advertising for jobs. So when I started uni I realised that I needed to work so I seen the advert on the television and looked up jobs in the area which I was interested in. I then used one of the links to the email for a job in the city. Which when looking for jobs I tend to tell people to look on the internet before anything to see what is out there. Ideally when I graduate from university I plan to have looked up jobs from these type of websites and receive a job in the marketing field. I am hoping this is an example which represents the fashion/permission complex.

All the following information was sourced from the youtube video made by Seth Godin. 'All Marketers Are Liars’ Youtube video.