Unleashing the Ideavirus

Rating:
Summary: Unleashing the "lazy-marketers.com"
Review: "Unleashing the IdeaVirus" is a manifesto that prays that in the new economy the ideas that spread more quickly are the winners. The central message is that the ideas, like the viruses, can be contagious. And, in contrast to the traditional concepts of marketing, that tries to measure and to handle the spreading of the information, the book suggests that the information can be propagated in a more efficient manner from customer to customer then from company to customer. When creating an idea-virus, marketers produce an environment where the idea can replicate and therefore propagate itself. It is the virus that makes all the work and not the Marketing Department.

In a nutshell, which is actually where this book could have been fitted instead of 197 pages, it says that anyone can make easy-money out of the internet. All you need is to have a dot.com business. I believe the late NASDAQ history says the opposite...

Rating:
Summary: You've got the cooties making profit
Review: I recommend Unleashing the Ideavirus as an accomplished reiteration of many prevalent marketing principles. The book recognizes the importance of new ideas, change, and innovation within product or services. It also acknowledges the efficiency of creating a word-of-mouth atmosphere, as opposed to the more direct approach of marketing at people through excessive and expensive advertising.

The author correlates an idea to the term "manifesto", which can be expressed through different media. Among several other key marketing concepts, the book seems a bit repetitive in stressing the prominence of choosing the best and most efficient medium. It is rather capricious to distinguish an ideavirus from a fading word-of-mouth ploy. This so called new and powerful tool of an ideavirus has in fact always been an intricate part the down-played, declining traditional marketing. In essence, to start an ideavirus, an initial interruption must be assumed - somewhat contradictory to the author's message.

Still, the book can be of great value for marketing diligence. It is a provision of the history of many success stories, such as hotmail and netscape. It also hits upon the basic concepts of paying special attention to the launching of an idea through concentration and focus, while providing information on being cost effective and persistent, manipulating market velocity, and being on the cutting edge.

Rating:
Summary: Much Ado
Review: Seth Goldin states the obvious when he explains in this manifesto that "word-of-mouth" advertising works. Unfortunately, his manifesto is just that - too many words used to state the obvious. He differentiates between word-of-mouth and his concept of IdeaVirus, but his IdeaVirus is just a sort of controlled word-of-mouth driven by our access to the internet and e-mail.

Mr. Goldin kept coming back to his central theme that advertising is wrong-headed. It may be true that his sort of virus is the most effective way to promote a product, concept or service. However, Mr. Goldin never offered a concrete way to start the spread of the virus. He states, "There's so much clutter, so much noise, so many ideas to choose from that the vast majority of them fail to make a dent". That seems to be his point.

I found the text rambling and uninformative. At 197 pages, it is certainly "Much Ado about Nothing".

Rating:
Summary: Sneeze on me. *grin*
Review: Godin's done it again. Not only has he practically shown us how to leverage the power of technology, he's given us a new vocabulary: sneezing, infecting, permiscuous sneezers. I'll never look at a Flooz commercial the same again. I love that Godin lists his recommended reading both in the text and at the end. (I read the e-version of this book)

Rating:
Summary: Good concept, no practical advice.
Review: Since I'm not a marketing person, I found the book useful.What I got was a different perspective on how to market to customersvia the Internet. It also stimulated my thinking on some alternativeways to market my business ideas. Where the book falls short is thatthere is little "how to" information for implementing theideas. However, if it gave "how to" information, thenpeople would just copy the techniques rather than taking the conceptsand creating orignal ideas of their own. Also, the information in thebook is somewhat repetitive, but this does help to reinforce thecontent.

Will this book become an ideavirus? Probably not. But ifyou are new to Internet marketing, it's a good read. ...

Rating:
Summary: A must read...changes the Internet, again.
Review: Just as Permission Marketing forever changed the way businesses thought about the Net, Unleashing the Ideavirus marks a major rift in online thinking.

Before you start an online business, work for an online business or even open and send an email, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Hey, you can even read it for free by clicking on the box to the left

Rating:
Summary: A marketing revolution is brewing...
Review: I tend to agree with the previous reviews. Seth has definitely tapped into a great idea, but I think the free portion he provides is sufficient for you to get a sense of the book. Unlike "The Tipping Point," Seth does not breakdown the structure of the idea virus as effectively and therefore his book is not as educational.

However, as I pointed out in my review of "The Tipping Point," this is not easy stuff to figure out. There is no step-by-step directions and if you intend to practice it, I recommend Seth's book, "The Tipping Point," "Anatomy of Buzz," and "Crossing the Chasm" to get your brain thinking in the right direction.

Rating:
Summary: I got the Ideavirus and I'm sick
Review: First I like Seth Godin. He's now gotten my money for three books. The first two were money fairly well spent, the thrid one, Unleashing the Ideavirus, well . . .

I found the book to be full of ideas that had a virus.

For example, on page 29, under the heading "Seven Ways An Ideavirus Can Help You" #6 says, When the demo recording you made becomes a best seller on MP3.com and you get a call from Sony, who wants to give you a recording contract.

Poor sentence construction aside, how hard did Seth have to work was that to think up that idea?

Back up to page 27 and you'll find six "key steps for Internet companies looking to build a virus". #2 says, Have the idea behind your online experience go viral, bring you a large chunk of the group you're targeting without haveing to spend a fortune advertising the new service.

Now that's a revelation. It's kind of like the joke, "Do you want to know the easiest way to become a millionaire? First, get a million dollars."

On page 141 we're counseled, "One of the best ways to facilitate adoption of your ideavirus is to find a bestseller list that makes sense and then dominate it."

Further down we're given insight into some not so novel ways of how to stuff the ballot box. How do you artificially boost the bestseller status of files for download on the Web? Download the file over and over again, increasing the counter of how often it has been downloaded.

Want to launch a new liquor? Pay the bar to post a bestselling drinks list. "Now, bribe enough folks to go in and buy themselves a drink."

While this may not be the most ethical advice it's certainly not new. Ask the folks at Heineken how they got to be the number one beer import way back in the 50's.

The book of course has some high points and it is a fun read at times but don't look for any breakthrough ideas here or else you just might get sick.

Rating:
Summary: Virus Killer
Review: Hats off to the author for practicing what he preaches. "Free" was exactly what I needed to engage in this virtual buy-in. I regret that I just couldn't buy the concepts.

I'll limit my criticism to three issues. First, I can only conclude from the author's logic that every successful product/service is an ideavirus. On page 36 he introduces the OXO brand vegetable peeler as an ideavirus. Others include Polaroid brand instant cameras, Carmine's Restaurant, Beanie Babies, Moser Furniture and Tommy Hilfiger. If it's popular and a lot of people want it-which of course makes folks talk about it-you've got yourself an ideavirus. According to the author, the difference between this and word-of-mouth promotion is (1) the transmission medium and (2) the duration. He says, "...word of mouth tends to spread slower, be more analog....word of mouth dies off" (p. 31). These differences seem arbitrary--at least underdeveloped--however true to the pervasive obsession with things digital. The entire book would be easier to handle if the author didn't try to apply the concepts to every ostensibly successful venture.

Second, wholesale advertising bashing, which can be found in "Permission Marketing," appears again. The lockstep mantra equating marketing with advertising is unfortunate. The author's exuberance served as an early-and unnecessary-inoculation to the ideavirus.

Third, while the author never pretends that the foundational concepts upon which he draws are his original ideas, my academic training makes it difficult to quietly accept the lack of attention to the original authors and works from which this "manifesto" is really created. Godin defines a manifesto as "a powerful, logical 'essay' that assembles a bunch of existing ideas and creates a new one" (page 13). I believe creating a new manifesto is better served when the old manifestos are acknowledged with sufficient detail. Indeed, many missing concepts from original works would have improved the ideavirus. Rather than just pulling a graph from the 1990's work by Geoffrey Moore, decades of insight on the adoption curve could have been drawn upon from any of Everett Rogers' books, most recently the fifth edition of his "Diffusion of Innovations." Rogers and other researchers detail the characteristic differences between innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. Godin lumps together the first two adoption groups and obscures helpful knowledge related to the "chasm" that an ideavirus must traverse. Also, competitive advantage concepts can be traced to Michael Porter and beyond. Positioning concepts used in the ideavirus can be traced at least to Trout and Ries; and branding to David Aaker and others. I realize Godin never intended to write a dissertation, but even a little homework may have put some meat on this skeletal work.

Seth Godin is to be admired. He's mastered much and has the track record to prove his prowess. I openly admit my dot.com envy. My general problem with this book and others like it is that it feeds on the hype of the global digital obsession only to deliver the same one-dimensional perspective that preceded the current reality check now hitting the dot.com world.

NOTE: Page references taken from the .PDF version.

Rating:
Summary: aaaaaaa-CHOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Review: "give it away, give it away, give it away now" -- red hot chili peppers

the most amazing thing about this book is the uncanny ability of the ideas it contains to appear and disappear, like the cheshire cat and its smile ... now you get it, now you don't ... there it is, no, there, over there ...

seth rocks ... he's been rocking for a while and he's still rocking ... i was there when it was all first happening at yoyodyne, lo those years ago, and, gosh darn it, the email ads that were a curiosity then are the stock in the trade of every ecommerce site today ... pass it on, pass it on ... the forward button on a piece of email is the most powerful idea virus on the web ...