This Is Marketing

Empathy, connection and emotional labor, rather than attention-stealing ads and spam email funnels, shape the approach Seth Godin lays out. Godin, known for ideas such as Purple Cow, Permission Marketing and Tribes, brings the core of his marketing thinking into one compact volume and argues that strong marketers use marketing to solve other people's problems. He covers earning trust and permission, positioning that decides who a product is not for as well as who it is for, why older advertising and branding no longer work, the role of tension in buying decisions, and the stories people tell themselves about social status. He frames it for startup founders, small business owners and staff at large corporations.

PiperCreative CEO Aaron Watson called it his favorite of Godin's work, praising it for not running too long and for succinct, actionable insights, some of which he has already put to work at Piper and Going Deep.