Two of my favorite business books of all time are Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Al Ries and Jack Trout’s Positioning. A third may be joining them, which is Jay Baer’s Youtility.
Youtility focuses on the customer, and the need for marketing to help customers. I love this because it begins building value for the customer right out of the gate.
Youtility author Jay Baer: small hat; big idea
In the end, brands promise customers something. The customer has to value that promise and resulting experience enough to buy it. Some call that a value proposition or a positioning statement, but in the end, customers need to receive something.
Dale Carnegie’s book, while somewhat dated after 80 years, was the sales bible for many organizations. It brought a relentless focus on the customer, and serving them. And Positioning was about architecting brands to communicate that service promise in an attractive way.
What Youtility skillfully brings to the table is a modern view of these two core marketing tenets. Baer addresses the modern information and content marketing environments, and provides analysis of the tactics. Combined with his timeless approach of creating value by being helpful, brands can’t go wrong.
Helpfulness is not the only way to build a brand, but is one of the very best methods. Any company that takes this approach will find itself on a path towards long-term relationships. There can never be too much value in a purchase.
Check out Youtility. It’s destined to be a classic book from the marketing blogger corps, the first text of this stature I’ve come across in a couple of years.
Image: Geoff Livingston
