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The mortgage crisis is poised to hurt small banks (and maybe some large ones- see Bear Stearns). We’re all sure the FDIC will always step in and pay these debts, right? Again, maybe.

The ideas and beliefs that we commonly held yesterday may be completely obsolete by tomorrow. Change has always been here, but change seems to be happening faster than ever before.

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As we see the healthy eating craze grow we see the pizza by the slice eateries begin to fade away. I guess the flatbread joints are stealing the ‘pizza by the slice crowds’ away. If you’re angry, dont blame me- I personally love pizza by the slice. And besides, you can still have pizza- just without the sauce. And now you have to call it flatbread.

I fully understand that true innovation is developing a new and extraordinary product. But isn’t there a place for the subtle changes that help things continue to work?

The moral of the story is: never be afraid to tweak your product. The consumer is changing- shouldn’t you?

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• Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
• Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
• Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.
• Marketing begins before the product is created.
• Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
• Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
• Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
• Products that are remarkable get talked about.
• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
• You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. • • Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
• People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
• You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
• What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
• Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
• Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
• People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
• Good marketers tell a story.
• People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
• Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
• Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.
• Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
• A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
• Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
• Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.
• Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.
• Good marketers measure.
• Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
• One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.
• In the googleworld, the best in the world wins more often, and wins more.
• Most marketers create good enough and then quit. Greatest beats good enough every time.
• There are more rich people than ever before, and they demand to be treated differently.
• Organizations that manage to deal directly with their end users have an asset for the future.
• You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.
• You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support and you market every time you send a memo.
• Blogging makes you a better marketer because it teaches you humility in your writing.

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We are living in a time when there are lots of readily available messages. When we hear a stranger talk, our first inclination is to be skeptical. We wonder what their slant is, what their motive is, or where they are mistaken or even lying. Until that person proves to be someone we can trust, we are deaf to their message. This relates to Seth Godin’s idea of gaining friends before gaining customers, but I mean more in a granular, conversational context.

When you meet someone new, whether at a business gathering, a new blog, new twitter follower, or new next-door neighbor, understand that they are not listening to what you are saying until they get to know your message and understand its contexts.

Also, even if you’ve known someone a long time, if you have lost their sympathy, you will have to work to regain it before any real communication can be reinstated.

Let me be clear: Everything said before sympathy is only useful in gaining sympathy. Until you get your listener’s sympathy, there is no reason to try and convince them of anything. All you can do is build reasons for them to hear your message, then give them your message.

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1. Don’t over-think it. You don’t need a written business plan, or every detail of how you’ll do it worked out. You’ll figure it out as you go, and that’s OK these days.

2. Don’t spend any money to start it. It’s actually very easy to start a business with less than $1,000. So many services are free or almost free. Before you pay for something, ask yourself how you could do it without money.

3. Get some partners. Figure out what you aren’t good at and partner up with some people who are. It doesn’t matter if you only end up with 20% of the company. It’s your first go. It more about learning and getting the ball rolling than making money on this one. You’ll also learn from your partners, which has immense value in itself.

4. Start now. Not next month.

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The internet as it is today is losing its value. For several years, bloggers, social sites, and innovative new web services have propelled massive growth in the value of the internet. You have probably spent a lot of time online in recent years, learning new things, making your life more streamlined and convenient, and gaining new insight in your particular field. Chances are, you have recently noticed a plateau.

Seth Godin, one of the most insightful voices in business, and internet business in particular, writes:

For a decade, the web kept delivering an ever better signal to noise ratio to me. I was able to hear more things, more clearly, in less time. Websites and email and my RSS reader were bringing me signals from everywhere, and processing them (and creating, I hope, new signal) was a joy.

Lately, I’m feeling noise creep.

Lately, the noise seems to be increasing and the signal is fading in comparison. Too much spam, too many posts, too little insight leaking through.

This is bad news if you are in the business of “me too.” If you notice successful trends and then hop on the wave with a similar product or service, this means the wave has reached shore. You won’t make any more money until a new wave picks up.

However, this is great news if you are a wave maker. There is a huge opportunity to rethink, reinvent, and recreate the online experience for a massive audience. Here’s just a few areas that are dying and in need of a change:

Blogging: Too many blogs shouting too many mediocre messages means you turn them off altogether. Blogging has had a great run, but now it’s run out. If you come up with a new way for regular people to teach, preach, and publish effectively, you will profit tremendously from it. PS- Twitter is not it. It is the opposite of “it.”

Communication: People like communicating with each other, but the current ways of doing so are losing their effectiveness. You have phone, email, voicemail, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, blog comments, and yes, some people even use regular mail and faxes. The types of communication coming in range from outright spam, to almost spam, to “I want to know about these offers,” to acquaintances, to friends, and finally, older family members still sending you email forwards. It is an absolute mess. When people are talking about taking a vacation from their phones and email, there’s something seriously wrong. That’s a huge opportunity.

Information: News, educational material, and entertainment. We have reached an “embarrassment of riches” here. Lots of great stuff. So much so, you don’t know where to start. You don’t know what you’re missing. There’s a great chance for someone to channel the waters of this flood.

These are just a few places where we need a change. Not just a change, but another revolution. That means it’s your chance to become king.

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Some of the most successful people are the ones who listen to advice from others, then ignore it and go forward with their plan.

All consistently successful people are the ones who aren’t stuck with one or the other. They are flexible. They know when to listen, and when to ignore.

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If people were able to pay for the original mortgage, then they weren’t able to pay when the rate went up, then it seems plausible that they only have to find the difference. I know this is oversimplifying the problem, but it’s true for many people.

My idea is this. Ask yourself: “What else can my house be used for besides living?”

The question may seem absurd at first, but give it a chance. Think about it. It won’t be easy to come up with a solution, but it may just be possible.

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