By Dominika Jankowska

The author of Tribes, Seth Godin, argues that people like to align themselves with other people like them. He also says that we like to be in tribes, we like to be connected. Therefore, it is so much easier to be led as a group and the author of Purple Cow strongly believes that marketers should use this opportunity to target their products/services. Also I really liked the ‘life’s too short, you should quit’ concept which I strongly believe is the way out from the job you haven’t got faith in. Taking into account creative industries sector, for instance, if you don’t believe you will make it with your deadlines and the overall strategy you will fail. The markets change too quickly to having the organisation piggybacked without  serious consequences. Mr Godin, not without a reason draws our attention to ‘changing from within’ which, he argues, is also marketing. If there are like-minded people in your organisation it is possible to align them to make change which is critical here, since the overall result is delivered together, in a tribe.

It is also crucial that apart from changing from within there is a presence of a manifesto and wanting the things to get better. It really makes me think of the current economic climate and the tendency of thinking ‘survival’ and hoping for the things to get better. So does that make marketers better in their jobs now? Does it tease out the deepest of their skills due to facing the recession? Maybe, in fact what people wait for is someone to say, “Here’s an idea or here’s a service or a product or a candidate that will take us somewhere new, let’s go.”

Moreover, the whole essence of building a tribe in the organisation as he suggests is having people bringing them new members instead of reaching for them. I think word of mouth which is a final result of how the clients/customers perceive the service/product delivered to them. The better customer satisfaction, the bigger chance to gain new members.

Internet is the next crucial element for building tribes. ‘Real tribes almost always come from a sense of authenticity, people who have connected to the real world.’  Such connection, as the author suggests, can be done through press releases which help being noticed by people. And here, I’m almost grateful for mentioning press releases, since I believe they’re the most effective way of communicating with the world ‘out there’ and you might be also interested in reading a short piece on this magic tool of communication here.

Summarising, the credit crunch became the biggest opportunity the marketers and other organisations have ever had. ‘It’s the biggest opportunity of your lifetime. It’s during the recession that great companies and great brands are built’. And I completely agree with that and you can see that here.

In the first paragraph of Big shot, Godin mention about the new marketing is leadership. This point of view let me associate with Oliver Leggett’s lecture in Media Lab, both of them think leadership is very important in business. However, in Godin’s concept, leadership is not only about how to lead your employees, but also your customer, or your “tribes”.

We got hundred of TV channels or magazines, and there are thousands of advertisements in these mediums. Here comes a question: How to catch the audience eye? Nowadays people want something different, we cannot touch the audiences by “creative” anymore. In the book All Marketers Are Liars, Godin mention that a lot of businessman has creative, but how to make it become a “story”? It is the key point that makes your idea and advertisement extraordinary.

In brief, no matter we are a little project marketing planner or a big industry manager, if our story is just like our competitor, even how hard we work, it’s still not enough. We must tell something extraordinary and not only catch the audience eye, but also lead them to become part of our “tribes”.

How to make journalists love you?

By Dominika Jankowska

NESTA is committed to supporting small and medium enterprises and recognises innovation as the key to success in the current economic climate:
“Innovation is the single most important condition for transforming the current economic crisis into an opportunity. Never before has innovation been so critical to the UK’s economy and society.”

Media Skills Masterclass was the event held by Creative Republic in Fazeley Studios, Digbeth on Tuesday 21st April.
This short piece constitutes the 2nd part of “Attacking the recession” series which presents useful skills needed in your media organisation.
The appointed guests from the West Midlands region shared their ideas with their colleague journalists, pr and digital media personalities and other entrepreneurs.
Anna Blackaby, small business journalist for Birmingham Post answered the following questions: How to get yourself in a newspaper? and How can you better your own PR? Having taken a look at creative industries sector she emphasised the importance of the role of press releases and how the businesses can communicate better through them with the target audience. These short pieces of writing should be as concise as possible, catching eye and containing new current ‘stuff’ (the recession subject would always be on top and definitely catching reader’s eye!). Journalists will love you for that especially if you save them long-hour-coffee-after-coffee researching of what you want to say! Secondly, try to avoid adjectives (facts only!) and get the habit of including quotations. Thirdly, use your own creativity (“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself”, Alan Alda); send the picture over etc. Fourthly, establish yourself as a commentator – if you have an opinion share it with others. Finally, if you have any stories, opinions etc, send them over through e-mail to the press office and therefore you will maintain a great relationship with them.
Now you will not only be loved but absolutely adored by a journalists’ team for your perfection at press release writing!
Another key point is Birmingham itself, the city of numerous opportunities, the creativity hub and economy city. If we pick up key segments and try to develop the mentality of the key sectors that drive the Birmingham economy we will be able to beat the recession. Targeting and attracting journalists should become catchphrases for each entrepreneur in the WM region. Why not target travel journalists (nota bene, probably most influential journalists among all); get them to the city and let them experience it? Why not using the hooks (case studies, extraordinary people in the heart of the real story etc.) they are absolutely mad about?
Finally, don’t be afraid to put your ‘stuff’ on the website, be noticed by your target audience and keep this relationship closely. Inform them through RSS feeds, tweets, direct mail etc. Social media is the answer.

Seth Godin, Author of the Purple Cow, The Dip, Meatball Sundae and he’s latest book Tribes. Some points and thoughts from the article in ‘the marketer’ (12.08/01.09)
Godin describes how marketing has changed; it’s no longer thrusting marketing to the masses but being leaders of tribes. “The new marketing is leadership”.

There are two routes you could go if as a marketer you find yourself in a company your values don’t align too, either quit or lead a change of culture from within. Seth Godin states that organisations need people who are the later.
What struck me is that Godin says that conservative people do not follow tribes. People who do not join tribes do not want to improve life and want to keep everything the same, so they aren’t looking for a new product or service therefore not looking at your ads. Your audience are the ones who want change, who gather like tribes and connect with each other. Adding to this most people want to follow and to be lead by someone. The new leader according to Godin is the marketer.
‘What people are waiting for is someone to say, “here’s an idea or here’s a service or a product or a candidate that will take us somehere new, let’s go.”

He goes on to say that tribe building is easy, as long as your customer/member is delighted in what you do and not feeling ripped off, they will help build your tribe by recommendation. Spreading your ideas freely also attracts interest, membership and sales.
“Once you have it, a tribe makes money all by itself. If you go into it saying, ‘I want to make money from this’ you fail.“
Personally, what I’ve got from this, is that I want to create that kind of feeling in my business, becoming very tribal!!!! This is how I see the business culture at IE Design and the customer relationship and philosophy with keepandshare.co.uk.
Godin ends this article on advice to marketers with the recession in mind.
• That this is the biggest opportunity any of us will ever have.
• He believes that great companies and brands are built in this environment.
• To create real value and real change.
• And to hire amazing people who can’t get ordinary jobs because there aren’t any.
“This is what you’ve been waiting for and I hope you don’t miss it.”

I’m going to take this on, that he is right and see what I can create in the world!

See Seth Godin really cool blog! http://sethgodin.typepad.com
Look you, if you are a Seth Godin tribe member you can get a doll to!