Summary of Spreading the ideavirus-Seth Godin

Summary of Spreading the ideavirus-Seth Godin

We recognise that ideas are driving the economy, ideas are making people rich and most important, and ideas are changing the world. In this book Seth Godin explains ingeniously how an idea virus is a tool for marketing. An idea that just sits there is worthless. But an idea that moves and grows and infects everyone it touches… that’s an ideavirus. He says: today, you don’t win with better shipping or manufacturing or accounts payable. You win with better marketing, because marketing is about spreading ideas, and ideas are all you’ve got left to compete with. The idea is to create an environment where consumers will market to each other. Seth firmly believes that the future belongs to the people who unleash ideaviruses. The currency of our future is ideas, and the ideavirus mechanism is the way those ideas propagate. We live in a winner-takes-almost all world. People are more connected than ever. Not only are we more aware that our friends have friends but we can connect with them faster and more frequently. Seth believes that interruption marketing is going to decline in effectiveness. There is a crisis in interruption marketing and it’s only going to get worse. Unless you find a more cost-effective way to get your message out, your business is doomed.

Seth mentions that ideaviruses are not just accidental events. According to him, the sneezers, people who are far more likely to spread an ideavirus than others are the heart of ideavirus. Seth divides the sneezers into two categories namely: the promiscuous sneezer and the powerful sneezer. He recommends you pay off promiscuous sneezers (someone who can be motivated by monetary remuneration to spread the ideavirus to almost anyone) as they can be highly effective in spreading your idea. Powerful sneezers are people who have credibility in the eyes of others; they are someone whose opinion can be trusted. The paradox of the powerful sneezer is that he can’t be bought. Every time a powerful sneezer accepts a bribe in exchange for spreading a virus, his power decreases.

Seth states that the single biggest mistake idea merchants make is that they ask for money too soon. On one hand you want to charge early and often, so you don’t waste time on people who are just looking, and so you can maximize your income before your idea fades. “Take the money and run” is a cliché for a reason. In many occasions businesses charge too soon for their product that they kill their chances of making a huge profit from it. Many marketers require people to pay the most when they know the least about your product or service.

Instead of putting your weakest people into customer service, what would happen if you put your best there? Instead of asking for reports on how much pain they’re alleviating, why not let them tell you about how much joy and delight they are adding to the customer service? Making sure your customers are happy is important in creating a good image about your company and in turn your customers could become sneezers as well.