Meatball Sundae Seth Godin Review

Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin

Book Review - 2 Stars

I was very disappointed by "Meatball Sundae: How New Marketing Is Transforming the Business World (And How To Thrive In It) by Seth Godin.

Perhaps it was a book of the moment as what is new when written can seem mundane in just a few years or perhaps the target audience is for corporate America entrenched in the old economy.

Seth Godin Is a Leading Marketing thinker

There's no doubt about it, Seth Godin is a leading thinker on marketing and there are videos of him speaking live on my Business Coaching blog which are excellent. (see Seth Godin)

I found the Meatball Sundae book long-winded and with little substance and irritatingly this is a book I'd flicked through in a book store. I think I must have read the few good bits then because I wasn't impressed when I started reading at home.

It rarely kept my attention and I think it's made up of blog posts which while connected don't seem to run into each other very well.

The Meatball Sundae Metaphor

I love the metaphor of the Meatball Sundae - it's the result of combining two good things together and creating something messy and disgusting because the flavours clash.

The Trends That Cause The Meatball Sundae

Meatball Sundae is based around a series of trends:

1. Direct communication and commerce between producers and consumers
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2. Amplification of the voice of the consumer and independent authorities
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3. Need for an authentic story as the number of sources increase
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4. Extremely short attention plans due to clutter
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5. The long tail
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6. Outsourcing
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7. Google and the dicing of everything
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8. Infinite channels of communication|
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9. Direct communication and commerce between consumers and consumers
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10. The shifts in scarcity and abundance
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11. The triumph of big ideas
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12. The shift from how many to who
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13. The wealthy are like us
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14. New gatekeepers, no gatekeepers

Reading this Meatball Sundae book, I felt it was a marketing pitch to corporate America rather than a useful guide to small businesses worldwide. Many of the examples used weren't familiar to me and that inevitably reduced their communication power.  

Review Rating For Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin

Only two stars for Meatball Sundae.

I thought it was a waste of my time reading it but I kept hoping for something better to come through because I had faith in Seth Godin.

I was wrong in the case of Meatball Sundae although the reviewers at Amazon.com by enlarge love the book.

My copy is going to the charity shop tomorrow.

Am I Wrong About The Meatball Sundae?

If you loved the Meatball Sundae, then I'd like to know why so please leave me a comment below. 

Marketing Book Reviews & Summaries