One more marketing manifesto…

One of the cooler memes running right now is the concept of a manifesto (see here and here). Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, I wanted to take a crack at it, too. Here’s what I got:

1. When you stop listening, you stop learning
2. When you stop learning, you die
3. Nothing is less interesting to other people than what’s important to you
4. …Unless it’s also important to them
5. Creativity is overrated
6. Execution is underrated
7. Creativity is nothing more than outstanding execution against what people actually want

In other words, if you want others to care about what’s important to you (your business, your cause, your life, whatever), you sure as hell better understand what’s important to them, then work like mad to deliver on it unfailingly.

Here are a handful of examples. The iPod works because it takes what’s important to its primary consumer (lots of music for a relatively low price, simple interface, “cool” factor) and delivers on it. Same with Starbuck’s (and Dunkin’ Donuts, for that matter), Google, and Warren Buffet.