Everything is changing, I got that, now help me determine what to do about it?
I was sitting at a conference listening to facts and figures being read – facts and figures I’d heard way too many times before. When I’m in the audience and I hear facts, figures, and statistics – how does that help me? The world is changing and the presenter just told me all the facts and figures to support that hypothesis – the world is changing.
But more importantly what should I do?
While I was listening to the conference speakers I e-mailed Seth Godin the following question.
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Seth,
Form and Function:
The print industry is squarely in the middle of a humongous form and function transition as the entire world of communication is moving from the atoms economy to the bits economy.
What would you say to printers who need to reinvent themselves in order to survive?
They are manufacturers and as you said in “All Marketers Are Liars” value has migrated away from a manufacturing focus.
Thanks,
Jennifer
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Surprise #1:
Seth Godin e-mailed me back exactly 3 minutes later (unbelievable)
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Not such a Surprise:
Seth told us what to do in a simply brilliant fashion (no facts or figures necessary).
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Jennifer,
As for printers, the secret is to stop thinking about paper as the product. It’s not.
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Simple and Brilliant
Hi Jennifer
Simple and Brilliant advice defines The Web and Print every time. Thank you.
I thought it interesting that on 1 November both you and Cary Sherburne referenced Seth Godin’s wisdom in the virtual pages of WTT — from Cary’s premium piece Is There an iPad App in Your Future:
“In a recent blog post, Seth Godin had this sage advice: ‘When a change in form comes to your industry, the first thing to discover is how it will change the function.’ Leveraging tablet computing to share information previously only available in print is one of those changes in form.”
Great minds as the old maxim goes. And WTT is fortunate to have many great minds.
Cheers,
Yes it is brilliant, but i’m not positive in thinking our industry will read and understand Seths message, thank you for the also brilliant question Jennifer.
I was at that conference. You didn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before. It was a lot of rambling.
So much respect for Seth Godin – this makes me like him even more!
Thanks for sharing!
WELL SAID!!! What we do everyday is a means to an end – it just happens to look like ink on paper. What we are really doing is helping customers accomplish some objective. Drive traffic to a website, get phones to ring with new leads, send time sensitive important information, or simply remind the world that they exist. Today, I’m helping Financial Advisors spend less time making appointments with prospects and more time with their families – all for the bargain basement price of Standard Postage! :-)