I just finished reading Godin's Meatball Sundae. I have read All Marketers Are Liars, The Purple Cow, Free Prize Inside, The Dip, and of course Meatball Sundae. Here are the 5 take home ideas that I learned from Godin:

1. People don't want to change their mind. It is far more profitable to tell someone something they want to hear, then, to convince them against their will. Instead of marketing an uphill battle, market to people who already want to believe you.

2. Create something remarkable. Consumers have too many choices to settle for second best. The internet has changed the way consumers purchase. Having unlimited access to information on virtually any topic gives consumers power to rank your product or service effortlessly. If you want to be competetive, you must be remarkable. You can't just be good or great. Your product or service has to be worthy enough to merit a conversation when you aren't around.

3. You can't rely on television and radio to grow your business any more. Television and Radio advertising used to be enough to take any regular product and bring it to the masses. Businesses used to need to be just regular. They wanted to reach the middle part of the consumer curve. Television and Radio reached them. The problem is that today consumers have been saturated with interruption ads. They ignore them and have too many other options even when they retain the ads message. Being in the middle and relying on mass media to get your regular product out doesn't work any more.

4. Decide to quit early or not at all but never quit in the middle. The Dip describes a barrier of entry in all fields. If you want to enter into a new industry, work with a new company, start a business, or increase your company's market share, then, you need to know about the dip. The Dip is the part between trying to start something new and thriving in the new field. The Dip is a steep curve. Some "Dips" are too steep and too expensive to conquer. Getting through any dip is hard work and if you are suffering the expense of your "dip" and quit in the middle you wasted your resources. When evaluating opportunities decide early to quit and not go through the "dip" or stick it out to the end but never, never, never quit in the middle of the "dip".

5. Build your marketing into your product or service. Don't build something and as an after thought try figuring out how to sale it. Instead each phase of development should take on a marketers perspective. Recognize that nobody can "Out Amazon, Amazon". In otherwords, Walmart.com realizes that they can't beat Amazon.com. Simply because Walmart.com is not built to be an internet business. Walmart.com is "tacked on" to Walmart. Amazon was created to be only an internet business. Build a business and your marketing together.