Thoughts on Seth Godin’s “Meatball Sundae”

Meatball Sundae is 10 years old. 10.

In Internet terms, that means it was published in 1785 and the thing that I found fascinating about revisiting it was how useful it is to revisit the origin of the change that we all now live through ever day. It’s like learning about evolution for the first time, when you can stitch together the “where we are now” with the origin story of modern marketing.

The core of the book are 14 trends facing us “today” and I feel that of all of them, the one that sticks out the most for me is the shift from “how many” to “who”. Seth often talks nowadays about the “minimum viable audience”, the smallest number of people you need to keep doing that you do. This idea flies in the face of get-rich-quick business models and instead paves the way for a more empathetic, considered and thoughtful approach to marketing.

Who is your customer? Not the usual “45, middle class, plays golf, mother of 2” description but one that makes me sit up and say “I know that person. I amthat person”. Its the first of many lessons in worldviews and empathy that Seth expounds on so well in this and later books.

Meatball Sundae is slightly dated, but worth a read if you are looking for a foothold into how effective marketing *actually* works now.