This Is Marketing by Seth Godin

But the newly empowered consumer has discovered that what looks like clutter to the
marketer feels like choice. They’ve come to realize that there are an infinite number of
choices, an endless parade of alternatives. For the marketer, it’s like trying to sell sand in
a desert.
A million books published every year.
More than five hundred kinds of battery chargers on Amazon.
More coaches, courses, and clubs than they could ever consider, never mind hire or
join.
Surrounded by this tsunami of choice, most of it offered by folks who are simply
selfish, the consumer has made an obvious choice. Walk away.
Positioning as a service
In a world of choice, where we have too little time, too little space, and too many options,
how do we choose?
It’s easier for those we seek to serve simply to shut down and not even try to solve
their problems. If it feels like any choice is going to be wrong, it’s better to do nothing. If
the world is filled with claims and hype, people believe none of it.
Marketers can choose to stand for something. Instead of saying “You can choose
anyone, and we’re anyone,” the marketer can begin with an audience worth serving, begin
with their needs and wants and dreams, and then build something for that audience.
This involves going to extremes.
Finding an edge.
Standing for something, not everything.
The method: draw a simple XY grid.
Every available alternative can be graphed on the grid. (I’m not calling them
competitors yet, and you’ll see why.) All the potato chips in a given supermarket. All the
types of care for a bad back. All the spiritual institutions in a small town.