Recently I completed reading Seth Godin’s book, ‘This is Marketing’, and I thought I would share a few gems from the book, with you, in the hope that it can help you improve your Real Estate Marketing.

His thesis is that Marketing has changed but practitioners haven’t adapted their marketing efforts, with the result that they hardly hit the target consistently and spend a lot of wasted funds in the process. He contends that marketing has moved from ‘mass broadcast to communication to the specific’, and effective marketing now relies on empathy and service.

Mr. Godin states, in today’s world, the purpose of marketing is to change the culture for the better. He believes the world has the capacity to solve all problems and that business is a powerful vehicle, to be a force for good. Marketing’s role is therefore to change the world for the better by spreading your ideas and making a powerful impact in the world.

He states that marketing is no longer to make money but to create good in the world. He goes on to say there isn’t an obvious road map at present, just a reliable compass. ‘Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem’. It’s a chance to change the culture for the better. It’s a chance to serve the society. Its understanding our customers’ worldview and partnering with them, to make this world view a reality, through your products and services.

He boldly states that its easier to make products and services for the customers you seek to serve than it is to find customers for your products and services. He concedes that this approach is simple, but its not easy to embrace, because it involves patience, empathy and respect.

He sets out a 5 Step process for Marketing:

1. Market a thing or service worth making, (beneficial to persons and the culture)
2. Design it in a way that a specific few people will particularly benefit from it and care about it.
3. Tell a story that matches the built-in narrative and dreams of that tiny group of people, the smallest viable market.
4. Spread the word
5. Show up – regularly, consistently and generously for years and years – to organize and lead and build confidence in the change you seek to make. To earn permission to follow up and to earn enrolment to teach.

Ideas that spread win, Marketers make change happen for the smallest viable market. They use marketing to solve other people’s problems. They have empathy to know what those they seek to serve desire. Then, persistent, consistent and frequent stories delivered to an aligned audience will earn attention trust and action. If you want to make change, begin by making culture. Begin by organizing a tightly knit group. There are many more revolutionary ideas in the book, but I will stop there to relate what I have shared so far to Marketing your Real Estate Practice.

Using his big idea to market your Real Estate Practice, would mean aligning your practice with a ‘big idea’ that can make a positive change to a few (viable market) persons in the Caribbean. An obvious few can be:

• Affordable Housing
• Environmentally conscious
• Embracing Diversity
• Technology friendly

Ideas that can change the Caribbean for the better. Then aligning your service to serving the needs of this viable few by ‘designing’ specific properties and telling stories that they are interested in hearing.

I find the views presented in the book quite a refreshing take on the purpose of business and marketing. I believe, however, it is based on the assumption, that the market is filled with persons seeking meaning in life, as opposed to just getting ahead.  It would be interesting to see if this ‘enlightened’ view of marketing and business will catch on in the Caribbean.