Disruption by Connection
In this week’s prompt we are writing what we notice about Godin’s approach to marketing that is disruptive to the more traditional viewpoints cited in the Kerin text.
First off, the presentations of material in a way represent the differing perspectives; the Kerin material is a text book with visual aids, diagrams, scenarios and supplemental quizzes, whereas Godin’s is part storytelling, part conversation, part quasi-inspirational lines that engage the reader. The traditional approach to marketing involves seeing your target market as a collective, and analyzing them objectively as a group where people share the same characteristics . Godin’s disruption stems from the perspective that your target audience is not cookie-cutter, but rather emphasizes engagement by seeking a personal connection. One word that can sum up this feeling is sonder, and as he quotes, “Sonder is defined as that moment when you realize that everyone around you has an internal life as rich and as conflicted as yours.”
The marketing perspective of Seth Godin is about connecting with people in order to inspire, rather than simply push a product or service. It does not operate in a linear format, or operate on systematic psychological principles. The Kerin text notes Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and presents the idea that motivation comes from a need, and one must fulfill the needs at one level and once those needs are fulfilled, “it’s no longer a motivator, so a higher-level need becomes the motivator.” A person progresses through the pyramid of Physiological, Safety, Social, Personal, and Self-Actualization, with progressively more complicated needs at each interval. However, Godin disrupts this progression by seeing one’s audience as dynamic, noting that “linear comparisons don’t make sense when we’re building stories and opportunities for humans”
Godin’s approach disrupts the traditional view by saying how a marketer “is curious about other people. She wonders about what others are struggling with, what makes them tick. She’s fascinated by their dreams and their beliefs.” In other words, the power of connection.
