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Seth Godin
their friends, and Waters’ reputation was made. Today,
Hairspray, based on his movie of the same name, is the
hottest play on Broadway. Many of those who tread a more
culturally acceptable path to get to the same end have not
succeeded nearly as well.
A restaurant near my house hired a teenager to wear
a clown suit and do magic tricks and create balloon animals
all weekend, every weekend. The result is pretty predictable.
Kids told kids, parents told parents, and the
restaurant was packed with families every weekend. It wasn’t
hard, but it was remarkable.
When Best Buy changed their product (the store!)
and got rid of the commissions, that set the stage for a
growth spurt that took them from $250 million in annual
revenue to more than $23 billion. A retailer does more
than just move boxes. A retailer sells, with the environment
and the people who work there. Best Buy made their sales technique
so different it was noteworthy.
Other than its much fabled open-source origins,
why does Linux have such a following One reason is that
becoming a Linux user requires a real commitment. Linux
is hard to install, hard to use without a lot of practice, and
not easy to integrate into a traditional corporate environment.
All of these hurdles, though, created a devoted and
loyal core. This group realized that as they got more and
more people to invest their time in using and supporting
the product, the operating system would get better, investments
would be made in software and user interfaces, and
internal issues would disappear. The flaws in the product
itself created an asset.
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