Okay, so it’s a neologism; that won’t keep me from liking the word beausage a whole helluva lot.
Here are some more examples of beausage (the beauty that comes with usage):
Would love to hear about more beausage — leave a comment below with your own example.
When I awoke this morning, I sensed a step function increase in the power of The Force.
This could only mean one thing: Jim Matheson is blogging.
My good friend, professional peer, and all-around partner in crime, Jim is one of those rare individuals who does just about everything to the hilt, boosts the energy of any room he enters, and is just plain fun and good to hang out with. He cares intensely about innovating with a heart, and is a wise man (and sometimes a wise guy).
It’s still very much a startup, but I have no doubt that Jim’s blog Contrails will provide stimulating reading over the weeks and months to come.
The Lancia Flavia Sport
Jolie-laide: why worry about being beautiful when you could be interesting?
metacool:
What should we (your readers) say to all those marketing people
who are going to glance at the title of All Marketers are Liars in an airport
bookstore and get offended? What’s the elevator pitch for this book
that gets people over the "liars" hump?
Seth Godin:
This is a terrific question. If I had taken my own advice and written a
book that matched the worldview of the largest possible portion of the
business-book-buying public, I would have called it THE GREEN
KANGAROO–HOW TELLING STORIES HELPS TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS. But I
didn’t, largely out of creative desire and arrogance. That said, I
think the "lying" story is very spreadable, because it starts loud
(you’re a liar) and then gives the teller enough space to actually tell
the story.
My hope is that in meetings, people will ask the questions I outline at
the end of the book. Stuff like, "what’s our story?"
metacool:
Seth, thanks for taking the time to talk about your new book. Thanks also to my friends Anthony & Tom for help with the brainstorming. And thanks to YOU for hanging out at metacool.
Seth’s Business Blog Tour party for All Marketers are Liars continues tomorrow at Brand Mantra.
metacool:
Good organizational design often begets good design thinking.
What are some ways to organize the "product generation" part
of a company so that it can design experiences and the business
communication and branding strategies (AKA "lies") required to bring
them to market, all in an authentic way?
Seth Godin:
The best stories come from organizations that tell the story FIRST. The
founder or manager or whomever really and truly believes it. Really
wants to make it happen. Then the product matches the story. What if
Altoids weren’t strong? What if JetBlue was just cheap, not better?
You can’t slap a story on later. Doesn’t work.
metacool:
In All Marketers are Liars you provide lots of examples of offerings with great stories. If we were to spend a day in your shoes, what are the great products with great stories that make up the life of Seth Godin? What do you dig?
Seth Godin:
Even though I’m a little more attuned to marketing bullshit because
that’s what I write about, I still like to believe it. I like to
believe that food from the Union Square Market tastes better. I like to
believe that the small advantage in UI that the Mac delivers is cause
for joy. I like to believe that driving a Prius instead of a Lotus
Convertible is an important contribution to our planet’s longevity.
Psychology is filled with cleverly constructed tests that demonstrate
that even when people "know" the truth, they choose to believe a story
instead.
metacool:
I’m a big fan of Donald Norman’s book Emotional Design, and was
happy to see it on your recommended reading list in All Marketers are Liars. What’s the connection between Don’s thinking and your own?
Seth Godin:
I met Don at TED and was blown away at how deeply he understood the
‘why’ behind design. Not to make things pretty, but to build an
emotional story into what we do and how we feel about it.
metacool:
What happens once everybody can create goods stories for their
brand? Will consumers become desensitized to ‘story’ and crave
‘story-free’?
Seth Godin:
Story-free is still a story, in a twisted sort of way. The way that
black and white generic canned peaches (which appeared to be without
marketing) were actually filled with a story.
The story doesn’t happen without the consumer. People feel compelled to
tell themselves stories about everything. That’s why they are
superstitious, believe in religion and cry at the movies. So, while
certain stories go out of vogue, it’s inconceivable to me that human
beings will suddenly become hyper-rational.
Seth Godin is gracing the pixels of metacool today from The Business Blog Book Tour to talk about creating cool stuff, remarkable stuff, and his new book All Marketers are Liars.
I’ll be posting Seth’s answers to my questions over the next few hours, so let’s get started, and be sure to check back later for more of his thinking.
metacool:
Can a good story be used as a substitute for bad design? Many of
the examples in All Marketers are Liars communicate their story through good design, from message to product to package. Does a good story make up for lousy aesthetics and/or functionality?
Seth Godin:
A story is worthless without authenticity. You can’t say, "Well, this
was designed by Phillipe Starck, therefore it’s easy to use," and
expect that to work if, in the long run, people hate using it. Sure,
some people will fall for it, but what really delivers is something
like OXO. The OXO design is totally overdone, emphasizing at every turn
just how USEFUL this must be. But it IS useful! So the story works.
There are plenty of products where bad design is part of the story. The
Drudge Report, say, or the Hummer.
"It’s much harder to make stuff versus just talking about it like you know what you’re doing."
— John Maeda