Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Get started
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Free Prize Inside summary
The Next Big Marketing Idea
29 mins
Brief summary
"Free Prize Inside" by Seth Godin is a guide to creating remarkable products that get noticed and drive business growth. It offers practical tips and strategies for adding value and innovation to your marketing approach.
Table of Contents
Free Prize Inside
Summary of 10 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 10
Expensive advertising campaigns and big innovations are no longer a ticket to success.
Imagine you’re running a company that’s run into trouble. Your profits are stagnant, and your product is yesterday’s news. How do you turn things around?
Traditionally, you’d take one of two approaches. The first is to launch a major advertising campaign. Back in the twentieth century, this was enough to draw attention to your product. If people were ignoring your product on the store shelves, you could force them to pay attention to it through magazine ads or television commercials.
But in the twenty-first century, advertising has lost its power. There are so many ads and other forms of media vying for attention that they end up blending together like white noise. Most people just tune it out.
The key message here is: Expensive advertising campaigns and big innovations are no longer a ticket to success.
So what’s the alternative? That brings us to the second traditional approach, which is to try to come up with a big, game-changing innovation. The economic rationale here is simple. If you create a desirable product or service that no other company is currently capable of making or delivering, you can get away with charging a premium price for it. After all, you won’t have any pesky competition to worry about – at least until your rivals catch up to you. In the meantime, you’ll be raking in the cash all by yourself.
To corner a market and obtain high profit margins, many companies pour money into massive technology projects, product roll-outs, or research and development programs. The bigger the innovation, the bigger the potential pay-off, or so the thinking goes. Just imagine the money you could make if you created the next iPod of your industry! But there’s a flip side to this line of thinking: big innovations require big investments – and big investments lead to big gambles, which often go bust.
Back in the late 1990s, a telecommunications company called Iridium learned this lesson the hard way. They spent $3 billion on launching 66 communication satellites into orbit. It was a risky bet – and it didn’t pay off. The company went bankrupt.
Here’s the problem: if you’re spending $3 billion on getting your product or service off the ground, you need to make $3 billion just to break even. The more you spend on big innovations, the more you raise your threshold for success, and the more you open yourself up to failure.
Okay, so what’s the real alternative? You’ll find out the answer to that question in the next blink.
Want to see all full key ideas from Free Prize Inside?
Key ideas in Free Prize Inside
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is Free Prize Inside about?
Free Prize Inside (2004) provides practical answers to one of the most pressing questions facing marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners today: In a world where people no longer pay attention to traditional advertising, how can you stand out from the crowd and reach your audience? Seth Godin shows that by tapping into the power of small-scale innovations, you can make your product, service, or company so remarkable, it will generate enough buzz to break through the noise of modern life.
Free Prize Inside Review
Free Prize Inside (2004) by Seth Godin is a book that explores the power of creative thinking and innovative ideas in today's competitive world. Here's why this book is worth reading:
- It provides practical strategies to help readers think outside the box and generate unique ideas that can set them apart from the competition.
- The book emphasizes the importance of finding and leveraging untapped resources to create value and leave a lasting impact in both personal and professional environments.
- With its engaging examples and thought-provoking insights, the book ensures that readers won't find it boring at all, making it an enjoyable read from start to finish.
Best quote from Free Prize Inside
Theres no correlation between how good your idea is and how likely the organization is to embrace it.
—Seth Godin
Who should read Free Prize Inside?
- Entrepreneurs seeking their next big idea
- Marketers searching for alternatives to traditional advertising
- Business owners wanting to give their product or service an edge
Categories with Free Prize Inside
Book summaries like Free Prize Inside
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked these summaries
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
37 Million
Downloads on all platforms
10+ years
Experience igniting personal growth
Free Prize Inside FAQs
What is the main message of Free Prize Inside?
The main message of Free Prize Inside is that offering remarkable and innovative products or services can help businesses stand out in a crowded market.
How long does it take to read Free Prize Inside?
The reading time for Free Prize Inside varies depending on the reader, but it typically takes several hours. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is Free Prize Inside a good book? Is it worth reading?
Free Prize Inside is worth reading because it provides valuable insights on how to differentiate your business and create remarkable offerings.
Who is the author of Free Prize Inside?
The author of Free Prize Inside is Seth Godin.
What to read after Free Prize Inside?
If you're wondering what to read next after Free Prize Inside, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
- Purple Cow by Seth Godin
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... and It's All Small Stuff by Richard Carlson
- Start With Why by Simon Sinek
- The Emotional Lives of Teenagers by Lisa Damour
- The Service Organization by Kate Tarling
- AI Made Simple by Rajeev Kapur
- Sexual Intelligence by Marty Klein
- The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett