Free Prize Inside [Hardcover]

A slapdash mix of insight, jargon, common sense, inspiration and hooey, Godin’s follow up to last year’s Purple Cow argues that the way to make any product a bestseller is to couple it with "a feature that the consumer might be attracted to" whether or not she really needs it or wants it. "If it satisfies consumers and gets them to tell other people what you want them to tell other people, it’s not a gimmick," he argues. "It’s a soft innovation." An entrepreneur, lecturer and monthly columnist for Fast Company, Godin knows his business history, and his book bursts with interesting case studies that define "free prize" thinking: e.g. Apple’s iPod, Chef Boyardee’s prehistoric pasta, AOL’s free installation CDs. One of the problems with the book, however, is that its insistent use of needless jargon ("free prize," "purple cow," "edgecraft") clouds complicated issues and lumps dissimilar processes together. "Fix what’s broken," Godin advocates on one page. "Inflame the passionate," he declares on another. Both of these ideas could certainly lead to business improvements, but they hardly use the same methods. Like Godin’s last book, this volume reads like a sugar rush—fast and sweet—and this may propel the author back onto the bestseller lists. To help jumpstart his sales, Portfolio will be packaging the first few thousand copies of the book inside cereal boxes. Now that’s quite a gimmick—er, soft innovation.
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Godin makes the case for ?soft innovation? as the best way to grow a business, instead of relying on big ads or big innovation. He says that anyone can think up clever, useful, and small ideas to make a product or service remarkable, that is, worth talking about. He calls this kind of innovation a free prize because it generates much more revenue than it costs to implement. ("Management Consulting News") --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Remember when cereal boxes came with a free prize inside? You already liked the cereal, but once you saw that there was a free prize inside - something small yet precious - it became irresistible. In his new book, Seth Godin shows how you can make your customers feel that way again. "Free Prize Inside" is jammed with practical ideas you can use right now to make something happen, no matter what kind of company you work for. Something irresistible. Something that markets itself. Because everything we do is marketing - even if you're not in the marketing department. Here's a step-by-step way to get your organization to do something remarkable: quickly, cheaply and reliably. You don't need an MBA or a huge budget. All you need is a strategy for finding great ideas and convincing others to help you make them happen. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Seth Godin has cult-like status in the marketing world and is the author of the international bestseller Permission Marketing and Purple Cow. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.