In the past couple of weeks I have mentioned Seth Godin’s new book, Meatball Sundae. SpinningSilk Multimedia is pleased to host a stop on the virtual book tour for this book. In the past few days the tour has stopped at Brand Autopsy, Make It Great! and Brand Mix.

Excuse the pun but after I started reading Meatball Sundae I ate it up. While a literal Meatball Sundae is meant to be unappetizing the book Meatball Sundae was a treat and gave me food for thought for the year ahead. After reading the book I asked Seth the following questions. I hope you find some of them to be unique and whet your appetite to read this book.

1.)Patrick - I found the acknowledgments section in the book fascinating and that’s very unusual to say that about a book. I hope to research those you credited to get a deeper understand of this subject area. Our business already uses the products of 37 Signals so I definitely know about them. Other than the obvious book titles mentioned do you have some additional resources you would like to direct people to?

Seth - I think you’re giving me too much credit for unlocking a treasure chest of resources. In my experience, most people don’t suffer from a lack of data, they suffer from too little insight and too little willingness to take what feels like a risk. How much do you need to now? If the people seen today as successes online had known everything they needed to, it’s unlikely any of them would have actually gotten started.

There are literally dozens of blogs that you can glean great info from… and my guess is, you know what they are. Sometimes, though, reading my blog and hundreds of others can lead to a sort of paralysis that leads to too much analysis and not enough hard decision making.

2.) Patrick - While reading the book I realized how important a tool the Internet is in regards to new marketing, appealing to niches and engaging people in conversation but I couldn’t help but think of “pre-internet” examples where impassioned individuals sold a product despite being “killed off” by large corporations. The one that springs to my mind immediately is the letter writing campaign that not only brought Star Trek back but eventually made it one of the most successful franchises in history. What can we learn for this in our current age of new media marketing tools to learn from this?

Seth - Star Trek benefited most, I think, from having an obsessed and uncompromising creator. Gene Roddenberry did lots of things differently than you or I would, but he had a singular vision. He refused to create something ordinary. As a result, he touched people. Not a lot, but enough. And then it spread. This is almost always what happens, in fact.

3.) Patrick - I often hear the term “story” mentioned in your book. Can have expound on the term “story” in terms of marketing our products or services?

Seth - People don’t buy products or features or even benefits. What they buy is a story that they can tell themselves. It’s all about the way things make us feel. That’s why placebos work… the story matters. So, you as a marketers can facilitate that by telling and living that story directly.

4.) Patrick - I have a feeling a lot of business people may fear a lot the ideas mentioned in the book even though what they are producing is not about them. What would you say to someone who is afraid of “losing control?”

Seth - I’d tell them not to worry about it–they can stay in control if they like. BUT, if they do, they should stay in the meatball business. There’s plenty of room for money and excitement there. Sometimes, you can even have a fashion-based hit like the ipod (itunes is a different story). If you want a different kind of growth, the new kind, the kind that’s fueled by the new marketing, I think you have to give up some of the old-time top-down control.

5.)Patrick - I’m learning more and more the Internet and new media marketing is driven by niches. What would you suggest to someone who is “multi-talented” or is a “big picture” person who either struggles or fears concentrating on a particular niche they or their company excels at even if it means giving up or putting other things on the back burner?

Seth - Most things in business that are worth doing feel risky. So they get avoided, which is precisely why they are worth doing!

6.) Patrick - I recently told someone about your book but I was careful not to tell them to “forward” my e-mail. My experience with “forwards” is that over 90% of the forwards I receive are interruptions that I consider “spam” which goes against what the new media tool of e-mail is all about. I know more often than not I am getting a form letter and the words are not those of the sender but hastily endorsed. do you feel the availability of the forward button on e-mail programs hampers people from telling their story?

Seth - I think viral forwards are a whole different kind of spam, one that’s less morally reprehensible than the real kind, but annoying nonetheless. The ‘Forward’ button wasn’t invented by viral marketers, but it could have been.

Thank you Seth for agreeing to the interview and thanks to the Idea Sandbox for choosing the SpinningSilk Multimedia Blog to be a part of this virtual book tour. Visit the 800-CEO-READ blog tomorrow for the next stop on the virtual book tour.

Note: while this interview is scheduled for Thursday it’s still Wed. in my time zone as I post this. However I have already had requests from people in time zones ahead of me where it’s already Thursday so out of respect for the future time zones across the World Wide Web I am releasing this a little early my time.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Book Reviews, Compelling Content, Innovation, blogging, branding, marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.