Recommended by Marc Andreessen (http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/07/book-of-the-w-1.html ):

In a nutshell, Steve proposes that companies need a Customer Development process that complements their Product Development Process. And he lays out exactly what he thinks that Customer Development process should be. This goes directly to the theory of Product/Market Fit that I have discussed on this blog before -- in this book, Steve provides a roadmap for how to get to Product/Market Fit.

Don't really know anything about this book but got a copy for free.

Quoted: Good marketers know that customer-centered marketing is mandatory. However, we are not the customer. What the customer perceives as relevant is the thing successful marketers must anticipate, plan, and deliver on. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing offers Persuasion Architecture, a proven Persona-based methodology. Persuasion Architecture enables marketers to anticipate different angles from which customers frame their questions and then coordinate messaging across multiple channels so that marketers can create predictive models of customer behavior. Don't miss out on learning about this six-sigma marketing approach that can skyrocket the effectiveness of your interactive marketing.

Looks interesting.

Quoted: Unlike "red oceans," which are well explored and crowded with competitors, "blue oceans" represent "untapped market space" and the "opportunity for highly profitable growth." The only reason more big companies don't set sail for them, they suggest, is that "the dominant focus of strategy work over the past twenty-five years has been on competition-based red ocean strategies"

Putting this on my toread list.

Quoted: My buddy Andy Sernovitz, the CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, is coming out with a new book called, duh, Word of Mouth Marketing.

Quoted: Seth Godin is author of six books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, entrepreneurship, and work. He is also a renowned speaker and a helluva nice guy. I cornered him and got him to answer ten (really eleven) questions about his latest book, Small is the New Big, and “life.”

read this on my seattle-vegas connection. some takeaways: 1) good marketers don't focus on features or benefits. instead they tell a story that the audience *wants* to believe. 2) if your release failed...it's probably four reasons: a) no one noticed it, b) people noticed but didn't want to try, c) people tried but didn't stick, d) people liked it but didn't tell friends.

on the title...it is attention grabbing but unfortunate. in fact, much of the book is centered around authentic storytelling. the point is if you the marketer genuinely feel a $50,000 Mercedes will make you happier then you by all means have the right to market accoringly. on the other hand, if you have data to prove that smoking is unhealthy -- but you advertise it as healthy -- he argues this is unethical.

Quoted: Obviously, the purpose of this title is to attract attention. And it does. When you begin to read this book, ignore the title (at least for a while) and focus on Godin's narrative. The appropriateness of Godin's title is best revealed during a careful reading of his lively narrative. As always, his ideas and writing style have Snap! Crackle! and Pop! Think of Godin as a cereal thinker.

Guy Kawasaki's review of "The Long Tail". He highly recommends the book (so the post title is misleading). I guess his point is that the entrepreneur still has work to do in defining the "how" after reading this book.

Quoted: But it’s one thing to write about, or read about, a successful company after-the-fact and analyze how it achieved success. It’s another to build that successful company from scratch. Everyone knows that the innovator’s dilemma is to find a tipping point in order to cross the chasm. The question is not “why?” but “how?”.

Free ebook from Seth Godin

Quoted: Knock Knock is now available for you to read for free. It's a short take on how to use the new online marketing tools to ...