PDX marketing experiment features Fiesta, clothes and concerts

Interesting story in the Oregonian about "lifestyle marketing" and creating a "cultural hub" around a product. In this case, the Ford Fiesta, which is being displayed in a downtown Portland store space that serves as a "lounge"/clothes boutique during the day and concert space at night. The story, "Ford taps local flavor to sell Fiesta," was written by Oregonian reporter Elliott Njus.

And while we're thinking of creative, innovative, interesting ideas, check out "Ten Inspiring TED Talks for Startups," a blog compiling 10 favorite TED videos focusing on innovation and creativity. (It includes two of my favorites by Seth Godin and Clay Shirky.) It's on the ReadWriteStart blog.

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Get a Free Copy of Seth Godin's New Book

Those of you who follow my blog, know that I'm of huge fan of marketing guy Seth Godin.

If you'd like to find out why, I'm guessing you will find the answer in his new book, "Linchpin." The best part is if you act NOW you can get a free copy of the book. Really. I just did.

So don't delay.

rob

Seth, you're welcome for this free plug...

Class Assignment: Seth Godin and Standing Out

Recently students in my News Reporting class practiced taking notes and writing a speech story. Their speaker was marketing maven Seth Godin, and the speech was a talk he gave way back in 2003 at a conference sponsored by TED - Technology, Education, Design.

The talk is about standing out, being remarkable, and the topic is every bit as relevant today as it was when he first delivered this talk.

It's worth 18 minutes of your time if you've never seen it before. I learn something new every time I watch it.

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Godin Talks Blogging with Groundswell

Most who read this column already know that I'm a fan of Seth Godin.

So here's a unique opportunity to pick up a few tips from one of the masters of marketing and media -- an interview on Groundswell by Josh Bernoff.

Asked about his daily blogging routine, Godin responded:

One reason I encourage people to blog is that the act of doing it stretches your available vocabulary and hones a new voice. You won’t get it for a while, but you’ll get it. To one person who wrote in and said he didn’t think he had anything interesting to say, I asked him whether he was boring in person too? Boring at breakfast? Boring on a date? That boring?! Probably not.

And on inspiration:

How come some people can visit a place like New York and see a thousand amazing things, take hundreds of great photos (like Thomas Hawk) or even write a novel... and other people visit, eat at Applebee’s and send home a John Lennon postcard? It's not where you go, it’s what you look for.

As a daily Godin reader, I find value in most of what Seth shares. (I have to disagree on "not eating bacon," however.) And my classes have enjoyed watching several of his speeches on TED.com. I think you will too.

Finally, as Seth urged on his own blog yesterday: "Go ahead, do something impossible."

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Seth Godin's "Amazing" MBA Experiment

Many of you know that I'm two-thirds of the way toward earning my MBA, which is why I'm fascinated by this "MBA" program put on by marketing guru Seth Godin.

Essentially, Godin set out to teach a select group of people everything he thought they should know to become expert entrepreneurs. They read books, went on field trips, considered great ideas (discover why Ideastorm and MyStarbucks "are brilliant"), met interesting speakers and challenged each other and challenged themselves. As Godin notes, "It’s surprising and disappointing that real companies don’t expose their people to this sort of learning. Too busy working, I guess."

The premise for the endeavor is fascinating; also fascinating is reading the class blog -- SAMBA -- where the "students" share all the interesting ideas they've pondered over the past six months.

Here's one example:

Do something amazing

The Zen Habits guy - Leo Babauta - made a rather radical suggestion recently. One that came down to essentially working for just a few hours a day, then rewarding yourself with a nap. (Not Seth, obviously.)

The difference in this kind of day versus the eight, nine, 10 hour days someone else worked?

That two to four hours was only to be spent on something amazing.

The kickers (which he doesn't get into) are these:

1. Amazing isn't necessarily fun. So picking that something amazing to work on doesn't mean the time is going to fly by. It's work. And sometimes the most amazing results come from doing the stuff we hate most.

2. Can you even pick something amazing to do for that time? Or has your job come down to so many unimportant details that you find your plate doesn't actually have any amazing projects on it to work on?

Do you have something amazing to do for a couple of hours a day? Can you find it? Less than amazing is just wasting your time. And you don't get your nap.

Excuse me, now, while I go do something amazing ... then take a nap...

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