Seth Godin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Seth Godin | |
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| Born | July 10, 1960 |
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| Occupation | Author, Marketing expert |
| Spouse | Helene Godin[1] |
Seth Godin (born July 10, 1960) is an American author of business books and a popular speaker with appearances at Google, TED and a number of charities. His blog is one of the most popular blogs in the world.[2] Godin popularized the topic of permission marketing.
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[edit] Background
According to his biography, Seth's earliest fascination was with a short-wave radio his grandparents bought for him. In an interview with UXPioneers Seth recalls that talking to people without the use of wires felt like "magic".
Aged 14, Seth took his first steps into entrepreneurship printing Biorhythm at the local University, and selling them for $30 each. At 16, Seth founded the High School Ski club and took a group of 50 - 60 children to ski by his house in Buffalo every week. Around this time Seth is also know to have worked at a fast food outlet, before dropping 3 plates in one shift, and in media sales.
Godin graduated from Tufts University in 1982 with a degree in computer science and philosophy. He later claims to have abused a major loophole in the system to skip difficult engineering classes in favour of philosophy. Seth earned his MBA in marketing from Stanford Business School. From 1983 to 1986, he worked as a brand manager at Spinnaker Software. For a time Seth commuted every week from California and Boston to do both his new job and complete his MBA.
After leaving Spinnaker Software in 1986, Seth became a book packager. It was in the same offices that Seth met Mark Hurst, and founded Yoyodyne. After a few years Seth sold the book packaging business to his employees and focused his efforts on Yoyodyne, one of the first online marketing companies. It was with Yoyodyne that Seth came up with the concept of permission marketing.
Seth sold Yoyodyne the company to Yahoo! in 1998. As a part of the sale to Yahoo!, Godin became Vice-President of Permission Marketing at Yahoo!. For a period of time, Godin served as a columnist for Fast Company[3] and in late 2005, Godin founded the "recommendation network" website Squidoo.[4]
[edit] Sales and Success
Seth is the author of 11 bestselling books.[2] Godin's book Free Prize Inside was a Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004.[5] In its first two years of release alone, Purple Cow sold over 150,000 copies and more than 23 printings.[6] The Dip was a Business Week and New York Times bestseller.[7][8]
[edit] Viewpoints
Godin combines three elements in his writings. First, the end of the "TV-Industrial complex" means that marketers no longer have the power to command the attention of anyone they choose, whenever they choose. Second, in a marketplace in which consumers have more power, marketers must show more respect; this means no spam, no deceit and a bias for keeping promises. Finally, Godin asserts that the only way to spread the word about an idea is for that idea to earn the buzz by being remarkable. Godin refers to those who spread these ideas as "Sneezers", and to the ideas so spread as an "IdeaVirus". He calls a remarkable product or service a purple cow. Yahoo! currently has a model of a purple cow in the lobby of its Sunnyvale campus.[citation needed]
Advertisements on TV and Radio are classified as 'interruption marketing', which interrupt the customer while he is doing something of his preference. Godin introduced the concept of "permission marketing" where the business provides something of value to the customer and thus obtains his permission and then does marketing.
[edit] Personal
Godin and his wife Helene live in Westchester County, New York.[9] Helene is Corporate Counsel at Audible.com.[10]
[edit] Bibliography
- Godin, Seth. The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2790-5.
- Godin, Seth (1995). eMarketing. New York: Berkley Pub. Group. ISBN 0-399-51904-1.
- Godin, Seth (1999). Permission marketing: turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-85636-0.
- Godin, Seth (2002). Survival is not enough: zooming, evolution, and the future of your company. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2571-6.
- Godin, Seth (2001). Unleashing the Ideavirus. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8717-6. Excerpt online - Detailing the idea of Viral marketing
- Godin, Seth. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. Portfolio. ISBN 1-59184-021-X.
- Penguin USA Portfolio; Godin, Seth. Free Prize Inside!: The Next Big Marketing Idea. Portfolio. ISBN 1-59184-041-4.
- Godin, Seth. All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-100-3.
- Godin, Seth; the Group of 33. The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-103-8.
- Godin, Seth. Small Is the New Big: and 193 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-126-7.
- Godin, Seth. The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-166-6.
- Godin, Seth. Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-174-7.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Teeter Talk
- ^ a b Etsy Interview: "I'm Seth Godin. I write one of the most popular blogs in the world. I've written 11 bestsellers about marketing, how ideas spread and treating people with respect."
- ^ Seth's Blog: So long to Fast Company. Retrieved on 2008-02-16.
- ^ "About Squidoo", Squidoo, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
- ^ "Forbes.com Business Book of the Year", Forbes. Retrieved on 2008-05-25."
- ^ Hogan, Ron. "How to Succeed in Business (Books)", Publishers Weekly, 5/16/2005. Retrieved on 2008-05-20."...reports that the two-year-old title has more than 150,000 copies in print after 23 printings"
- ^ Business Week Bestseller List: October 8th, 2007
- ^ New York Times Bestseller List: June 8th 2007
- ^ Amazon.com: Meatball Sundae: Books: Seth Godin. Retrieved on 2008-02-16.
- ^ audible.com Investor Relations:: Biography. Retrieved on 2008-02-16.
