Re: Marketing, I liked what Blake Ross (Firefox) said in ‘Founders at Work’ written by Jessica Livingston.

“It turns out that marketing is just making the product good enough that people spread it on their own, and giving them ways to do that…. Now I can’t stand meeting with professional marketers who try to ‘craft’ the ‘message’ and all that junk.” (Blake Ross)

Still, the basis capitalism necessitates a commodity be of value to it’s customer in the first place.

I haven’t read ‘Purple Cow’, but I do read Seth’s blog religiously, so I’m sure I’ve picked up the gist.

I think you’re right about spending on product vs. spending on traditional marketing.

See: http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/

But, by the way, this is not to say you shouldn’t do *any* marketing, just that you should get your priorities right.

Cheers,
Rowan.

I happen to be reading it (again) right now – great stuff…

What really stands out is that the term ‘viral marketing’ is oft severely mis-used at present… The key really is that the marketing is built right into the product. So, an expensive billboard-and-bus driven friend-get-friend type promotion can tend to miss the point… not to mention over look the fact that the product / service lacks inherent ‘remarkability’
–> spend the time and $ on the product, not the campaign, and it will sell itself…

http://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-Transform-Business-Remarkable/dp/159184021X/ref=cm_taf_title_featured?ie=UTF8&tag=tellafriend-20