"Innovation means doing stuff that is impossible, otherwise people would have done it already," said author and marketing expert Seth Godin at the 2010 World Innovation Forum, where ExecuNet exclusively reported for attendees.

Marketing, Godin said, has largely been about advertisers trying to figure out ways to get consumers to buy more, and, while never a great approach, that is even less effective now. "Mass marketing is to bombard people over and over again. That model — 'I'm going to interrupt my way to success' — is flawed and will stress you out."

Godin believes marketers are often bombarding the wrong people with these ineffective campaigns, too. "The supermarket has 30,000 items. Trying to find exactly the right person and send the right product to exactly the right person is busted."

So, if the one-to-millions model is ineffective, what is working? Godin proposed a "simple rule" to find "a tribe" of other people who care. "If your idea means something to people, we talk about it. Tribes are groups of people who are connected by a passion, a language, and who just want to make things happen."

The CMO should be the Chief "Movement" Officer and, as marketers, lead those tribes. "Companies that have an impact are creating movements. No one wants to join a boring movement, and no one wants to connect with something that no one cares about. "The act of standing up and saying, 'Follow me' is alien from someone who is an old-school marketer because they say, 'Buy from me.'"

Before the marketing model can be revolutionized, Godin said, we must first start with something better to sell — "Don't find customers for our products; find products for our customers," which requires bringing a creativity to work that corporations have become structured to discourage.

It's not only the corporate model that will hold us back, Godin warns, but also our amygdala, the part of the brain related to emotional processing. This "lizard brain" acts as the resistance at the back of our heads, rationalizing why we can't do something. "The lizard brain exists to keep you safe, deal with anger and let you reproduce. The lizard can save your life. It might protect you, but the rest of the time it pushes you back like a sheep."

If you don't do something, you can always blame something else, a system that got you stuck; but Godin urged World Innovation Forum attendees to ignore the lizard, fight the resistance, dare to fail and be free to innovate. "All that's left is to reward people who get over the fear, who feel it and do it anyway."

Robyn Greenspan
Robyn Greenspan is the Editor-in-Chief at ExecuNet, where she is responsible for setting and driving the editorial content engagement strategy across the private business network's publications and expert-led programming. She is also a Huffington Post blogger. You can follow her on Twitter @RobynGreenspan

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