Book Review

MSTM 508: Advanced Tourism Marketing and Product Development

Vee Jay C. Dalisay

2-21-2017
INTRODUCTION

“In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not

standing out is the same as being invisible.”
~ Seth Godin~

To achieve success, a business can’t be invisible, but rather, remarkable. That

means your products and your company must have attributes that cause people
to remark about them. The free prize is that remarkable feature possessed by
a product that a consumer might be attracted to, whether or not he or she really
needs it or wants it. The idea being derived from the concept of having a free
toy inside a cereal box, this free prize is oftentimes enough to make a customer
pick one brand over his competitors.

Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea is a marketing and business
book written by Seth Godin and published in 2004 by Penguin Books that talks
about soft innovation, in contrast to big revolutionary changes, as a way to
make a product remarkable – that is, to possess attributes that make people
talk about it. While this is not an entirely new idea, per se, Godin provides fresh
approaches into dealing with the challenge of change in the context of
marketing and product development.

The book is written in a very informative yet conversational tone that inspires
its readers from all levels of the organization of their own personal potentials to
come up with remarkable ideas that could take any venture to success.

SUMMARY

As remarked by Seth Godin, the organization that wins is the one that realizes
that all it must do is create things worth talking about – highlighting the
importance of marketing. This is what the free prize is all about. A masterpiece
of 240 or so pages, Godin’s book may be widely divided into three parts:
1. Why you need the free prize

The first part of the book introduces the reader to the problems underlying two
of the so-called ‘most reliable ways’ to achieve growth in marketing a product
or service: big advertisement and big innovation. In the book, it was rationalized
that both methods entail large costs and bigger risks in achieving commercial
success. With the changing media, traditional promotion through
advertisements is not anymore as effective as it was before. Likewise, big
innovation using expensive research and development technology does not
guarantee commercial success of a certain product or service.

On this note, Godin introduces the concept of having a free prize or the use of
soft innovation as the next big marketing solution. According to him, these refer
to clever, insightful and useful ideas that practically anyone in the organization
can think up. It seeks to make a product remarkable by solving problems
surrounding it, and giving it an essential element that people will talk about.

Free prize is thus termed for this sort of innovation because the revenue
associated with it can be far greater than the cost of implementing it.

2. Selling the idea

In this part, Godin recognizes that the difficult part isn’t finding the free prize,
but getting the rest of the organization to embrace it. It doesn’t matter whether
the idea is good, in Godin’s words, there is no correlation between how good
one’s idea is and how likely the organization is willing to embrace it.

As such, someone must champion the idea for it to be executed in the

organization. Since championing the idea is a process, one must approach the
three points of what is called as the Fulcrum of Innovation, a concept the results
from answering the three simple questions people may have as they consider
your idea, in a step by step manner:
 • Is it going to be successful?
• Is it worth doing?
• Is this person able to champion the project?

A step by step process is described in this chapter with several examples

detailing the process.

3. Creating the free prize

According to Godin, great ideas, not necessarily perfect ones, exist every day
if one only knows where to look. Furthermore, these ideas should not be kept
secret. In Godin’s own words,

“Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death. The more
you share your ideas with, the more likely it is to become real.”

These ideas can then be transformed into the free prize, which is defined as
the element that transcends the utility of the original idea and adds a special,
unique element worth paying extra for, worth commenting on.

An effective way to finding the free prize is through edgecraft – an iterative

process that allows individuals and teams to inexorably identify the soft
innovations that live on the edges of what already exists. Edges fall into
numerous categories: ones that confound expectation, ones that satisfy real
needs and desires, ones that address overlooked senses, etc. As there are
hundreds of available edges that exist in a product, going all the way to the
edge is the only way to jolt the user into noticing the innovation done.

A lot of examples on edgecraft are provided in this chapter apart from several
ways how one can discover his free prize. If the people get to notice the free
prize in the product or service, then the product itself becomes the marketing.
ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION

With the ever-changing market trends and developments, marketing is no

longer considered as a function of one division alone, but of the company as a
whole. Thus, everyone in the organization, no matter what his job title is, now
has a role in marketing. Having this in mind, Godin wrote the book Free Prize
Inside to target employees at all levels of a corporation, up and down the line.
He emphasizes that anyone can be remarkable and come up with remarkable
ideas – the free prize – if he sets his mind and energy to it.

People can find the free prize that will transform their companies. The book
talks about many concepts including soft innovations – cheap, clever and small
changes which take a business to the next level instead of High Tech patents
and R&D in organizations.

While the message of the book is not entirely new, Godin presents the idea in
an attention-grabbing and inspiring manner. His playfulness and common
sense make the book fun and easy to read; in contrast with other heavily written
books in business and marketing. The book also comes with interesting case
studies the define "free prize" thinking – e.g. Apple's iPod, Chef Boyardee's
prehistoric pasta, AOL's free installation CDs, among many others – to make
sure he gets his message across in the discussion of his points.

However, one comment that I would like to note is Godin’s persistent usage of
his self-created jargon, e.g. free prize, purple cow, edgecraft, etc. sometimes,
this new vocabulary complicates the discussion of several issues making some
parts of the book hard to understand. Also, since the book had been published
in 2004, many of the technological innovations cited are already old and out-of-
date. I would like to suggest an update as far as the examples are concerned.

In terms of tourism marketing, the same principles discussed by Godin may

also be applied. While most destinations and tourism enterprises still capitalize
on advertising and hard technological innovations, there is also a great potential
for success in the industry by offering free prizes. Especially in this trade, the
hospitality or general feeling of welcome experienced by the tourists can spell
the difference between a good and bad tourism image, as both are certified to
create buzz among the travelers. The free prize now lies in the customer
responsiveness of the destination being visited.

Furthermore, in contrast to generic, mass-tourism packaged holidays, a free

prize may come from the authenticity of the tourist product that a visitor may
encounter at the destination. Not only will the experience leave him more
satisfied, it will also leave an indelible mark in his heart that will make the
destination more remarkable than others.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

All in all, Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea is a very fun and
inspiring guide that opens a lot of possibilities for innovative marketing that
really works. Since today’s consumers are more calculating and cynical, the
products and services that businesses offer them must be more than just hype
and clever advertising.

Finally, I recommend this book to just about anyone engaged in a business

which involves marketing. This book can be an excellent resource for those who
would like to figure out how to make their product or service – whether already
existing or still to be proposed – stand out from the rest and make it truly
remarkable. Reading this book will help them by leaps and bounds, as if they
have already won that free prize.