Against the Grain Forget big marketing budgets--it's time to think outside the (cereal) box.
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Spending big bucks on advertising and product development is soover, proclaims marketing expert Seth Godin in Free Prize Inside: The Next Big MarketingIdea (Portfolio, $19.95). Today, if you want a successfulproduct, you must include "soft innovation" in theproduct itself. Soft innovation is innovation anybody can do. Itrequires initiative and curiosity, as opposed to a Ph.D. inmolecular biology. It-or rather the "free prize" of theinnovation-will cause the product to sell itself.
Godin presents techniques, tools and tricks for soft innovation.One of the most interesting is "edgecraft," orexaggerating a feature of a product or service to make itremarkable. For instance, make the permanent disposable-disposabledigital cameras. Or make the disposable permanent-$2,000 inkpens.
Much of the book deals with navigating corporate politics to getbacking for soft innovations, which may be of limited use toentrepreneurs. And the fact that the first edition comes packagedin a cereal box seems more gimmicky than innovative. But the restis packed with value-a brief, bright and useful approach toinnovation as a marketing tool.
Go With the Flow
In the classic Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience(HarperCollins, 1990), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi revealed howperformers produce great results while having great fun. InGood Business: Leadership, Flow and the Makingof Meaning (Penguin, $14), he shows how threethings-setting clear goals, giving feedback and matching challengesto skills-can make an entrepreneur as worthy of a gold medal as anyOlympic champion.
Mark Henricks is Entrepreneur's "SmartMoves" columnist.
