TED Talk Tuesday: How to Get Your Ideas to Spread

Seth Godin discusses the importance of marketing to the right audience.

SPONSOREDUpdated 4:16PM • 10/20/15

There’s a harsh reality marketers have to understand about modern consumers: they don’t care about you.

Unlike generations of yesteryear, people nowadays have too many options and too little time to care about what’s being peddled, because quite frankly, they’ve seen it before. And according to Seth Godin, in a world with too many options, the obvious thing to do is ignore the information overload.

An author, entrepreneur and marketer, Godin compares this indifference to seeing a cow on the side of the road.

“Cows are invisible. Cows are boring. Who's going to stop and pull over and say, ‘Oh, look, a cow.’ Nobody,” he said. “If the cow was purple, you'd notice it for a while. I mean, if all cows were purple you'd get bored with those, too.”

The question all businesses should ask themselves is what makes the product remarkable?

For decades, marketers used to make products for average people—they appealed to the masses. However, Godin suggests that approach no longer works and the target audience is to target the early adapters because they are the ones who care.

“It's really simple: you sell to the people who are listening, and just maybe, those people tell their friends,” Godin said. “So when Steve Jobs talks to 50,000 people at his keynote, who are all tuned in from 130 countries watching his two-hour commercial—that’s the only thing keeping his company in business—it’s that those 50,000 people care desperately enough to watch a two-hour commercial, and then tell their friends.”

In the pursuit of attracting consumers, Godin suggests there are three simple rules to follow.

First, understand that design is free when you get to scale. Those who come up with remarkable concepts typically figure out how to get the design to work in their favor.

Second, the riskiest thing you can do is be safe.

Third, avoid being very good because very good is average and nobody notices average.

To watch the full video, visit TED.com.