According to marketing maven and Purple Cow author Seth Godin, the "Television Industrial Complex"--and its nasty habit of interrupting people with advertisements for things they don't want--is dead. Innovation is cheaper than advertising, advises Godin who defines the "free prize" with diverse examples including swatch watches, frequent flyer miles, dog bakeries, Tupperware parties and portable shredding trucks. He explains "Design matters, style matters, extras matter."

The largest portion of the book is devoted to how to sell an idea to your organization. His specific tactics range from irreverent, (let them pee on your ideas) to practical (how to build a prototype). One standout chapter explains how brainstorming can become boring. His alternative, "edgecraft," involves divergent thinking to add something remarkable to your product. His long grocery list of edges (safety, equality, invisibility, and hours of operation) suggest a genuine marketing manifesto. The ideas are bold and insightful, but can suffer from being presented in less than logical order. The book is also diminished by Godin's self-marketing, from using terminology in his previous books to naming key ideas after himself. These advertisements are unnecessary. This nervy little volume is bound to mother many inventions. --Barbara Mackoff

Purple Cow was the #1 bestselling marketing book on Amazon in 2003. Now in Free Prize Inside, Seth Godin is back with practical advice on how to put Purple Cow thinking to work inside your organization (big or small, profit or non) to MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN. The next big marketing idea is a proven strategy for making your products or services so remarkable that they practically sell themselves.

Purple Cow taught marketers the value of standing out from the herd, which is how companies like Krispy Kreme and JetBlue made it big. But it left readers hungry for more: How do you actually think up new Purple Cows? And how do you get them adopted by risk-averse Brown Cow companies?

Free Prize Inside delivers those answers and much more. It’s a fun guide to doing innovative marketing that really works when the traditional approaches have all stopped working. Thirty years ago, the best way to sell something was to advertise it on television. But today’s consumers are cynical, and your product or service had better be more than just hype and clever advertising. Even better, it ought to come with a market-changing innovation—a free prize inside.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to create something cool that virtually sells itself. Think of simple but powerful innovations like the Tupperware party, Flintstones vitamins, G.I. Joe (a doll just for boys), Lucille Roberts (a gym just for women), and frequent flier miles. Free Prize Inside will teach you how to create those kinds of blockbusters at your own company without a bunch of MBA-brainwashed marketers. You don’t have to be a genius—you just need curiosity, initiative, and a strategy for overcoming resistance when you champion your idea.

We’re all marketers now, no matter what our job titles. With Godin’s help, we can find the free prize that will transform our companies.

I just finished reading two books by the prolific marketeer Seth Godin: Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside. I had heard a number of people discussing Godin's latest book and thought I would see what I was missing.

Purple Cow is a battle cry to make remarkable products. It is a passionate plea that a product that tries to be all things to all people will be nothing to everyone. Godin makes a case that a product should leave the happy middle ground. Make the cheapest product, or the most expensive, the most elegant or the simplest. The early adopters are the people that you need to win first and they are not drawn to the average product. A remarkable product, literally one that would make someone remark and take notice, will produce "sneezers" who will distribute your "idea virus".

Free Prize Inside! argues that a series of small incremental changes to your product to add value is better than either a huge marketing or a huge research budget. When Amazon took their large marketing budget and instead spent it on free shipping they created value, a "free prize", for their customers. Give your customers a free prize, give them value, and they will talk about it.

I enjoyed both books even if I did not always relate to the world he was writing about. Having worked in Silicon Valley startup companies for so long I did not relate to some of the information in Free Prize Inside! about how to sell your ideas to a management chain that would clearly be resistant. I did not disagree that this happens, I just did not relate on a personal level. Also I find Godin's terminology like "sneezers" to be something that I am likely to remember but embarrassed to repeat.

My favorite part of both books are the concrete examples that I look for in a book in this genre. I am left with questions like "how would I do something similar for my company, my blog or my podcast?" "What free prize could I provide my customers, my readers or my listeners?" So I am left with questions, but those are exactly the kind of questions I am looking for.

Wow, what a surprising book! I love the physicality of it, but the content is really what one buys books for and this one won't let you down. The author makes it easy to skim-find what content you're looking for through the presentation of print. He also lets you know that you can skip to the back to cheat to the meat of the matter. I like the style of this author's facilitation of material. It instills a feeling of a friend whose advice you actually use and it is a very employable book for those who either do or need to think for themselves to be inspired. I am a new fan of Seth Godin. I bought The Big Moo at the same time & I can't wait to dig into that!

Entertaining book but it is clearly light reading. It is one thing to throw a toy in a box of Corn Flakes but unless you are on Wight Watchers, you'll be looking for the cereals at one point. That's what I felt after the first half. Lots of random thoughts. Those who gave him five stars might have received a triple portion of coleslaw at Seth's free BBQ. It is like saying Keith Richards is the greatest guitar player who ever lived... I like the guy and we need more writers like him out there but in order to serve the "out of the box" cause better, guys like Seth needs to give their maximum every time.

This is a brilliant book for those who wish to be change agents and creative marketers. The concepts in this book are simply amazing and helped me thrive my business, so it went from regional to international (although the other writings from Seth Godin should be credited for this too).

The downside is that I feel this book (the title and cover) has the feeling it's a joke. Too big of a promise, too vague of a title. It's not a joke.

If you have that idea too, I'd hereby want to convince you to ignore the cover and the (sub)title and just buy the book. (Well, that is if you want to apply change in (your) company and want to have your marketingskills grow exponentially...)

Entertaining as always with Seth Godin, just not sure how "new" anything is in here.