Imagine for a second that there was a machine your company could buy. Figure it costs anywhere from $1 million to $100 million. You’re promised by the salesman that using this machine can transform your business, dramatically increase sales and profits and turn your business into a success.

Interested?

What if the salesperson also tells you that companies who don’t buy the machine have a hard time growing and often languish… and then she points out that one company, Procter & Gamble, spent more than $2 billion on machines just like this one last year. Interested?

Oh. There’s one caveat. Actually two:

The ongoing output of the machine can’t be measured. You have almost no idea if it’s working or not—and there’s no guarantee. If it doesn’t work, tough.

Still interested? Well, after those caveats, there’s just one more fact to mention: On average, the machine only works for about one out of every ten companies that use it. Ninety percent of the time, the machine fails to work.

By now, you’ve probably figured out that I’m talking about advertising.  Mass market advertising is one of the most puzzling success stories of our economy. Companies spend billions of dollars to interrupt people with ads they don’t want about products they don’t need. The ads rarely work. Ads that are created by less than competent ad agencies and clients almost never work. One day, I’d like to write a book about the worst ads ever run, but my fear is that it would be too long.

The above comments are taken from page 171 of Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin entitled The Great Advertising Paradox.  Before buying the book I encourage everyone to download a copy of the free .pdf version of the book.  A free copy of Unleashing the IdeaVirus can be downloaded @ www.ideavirus.com/downloads/IdeavirusReadandShare.pdf.  After you read the .pdf version of the book I am sure you will want to buy the book.  If you buy the book feel free to click on the Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com links in this file.  

Seth Godin writes about social observations and then applies them to the world of business. For example, this book is about "viral/word of mouth marketing" whereas his prior book was about permission based marketing and its impact on communications with customers. His recently released book, Survival is not Enough, is about "survival of the fittest" via his Darwinian-like take on business.

I read Permission Marketing some years ago and really enjoyed it as it refreshed my thoughts on customer satisfaction and interaction. Then, this book came out and it really changed my paradigm about the growth aspect of businesses and how "viral marketing" could have a profound impact on an upstart Internet companies growth trajectory. I've read Gladwell's The Tipping Point and I must say, this book is better written and has examples more applicable to business.

I hope everyone finds the facts/insights presented in this article valuable.  If you find them interesting please send me a comment @ dan@betterbizbooks.com and forward the article onto as many friends as you want to.  If you want to receive further articles such as this click on the subscribe button on the right to sign up for my Free Monthly Newsletter.

This report is available in .pdf format for those that wish to have a nicely printable version of the report.  Just right click your mouse on this link and it will begin to download.