What color is your iPottie?

As Seth points out,

Every person is a marketer, and anyone crazy enough and passionate enough to start something is definitely a marketer. It's not great programming that turns one Net company into a success while another flounders. More often than not, it's about how good a job the amateur running the marketing and design did.

But let me tell you, it's not easy being that amateur who's in charge of the marketing and design for his or her own small biz.

It's a bit nerve racking having that kind of pressure and competing in an area where the learning curve is incredibly steep (and where not performing up to par leaves your business dead in the water).

But desperation leads to a hunger for knowledge, and a hunger for knowledge leads to a quest for what works. I wanted to share with you a couple of things I came across on my daily quest that made me think:

Glen over at Problogger talks about why 37Signals writes an amazing blog:

In this blog the software company’s founders spend most of their time writing about the 37Signals mantra: great web software is simple, fast and elegant. 

But what makes their writing so compelling is that they hardly ever write about software.

Huh?

That’s right - What makes their writing great is that they are able to take pieces of seemingly unrelated topics and link them to their mantra, like how comics relate to web design. Or film concepts and branding.  They know how to breathe life into a concept, to let the viewer see an idea in a different light.

And then over at the 37Signals blog, Matt talks about Worth1000.com's recent contest where they asked participants to parody Apple by creating designs for non-exististent Apple products (hence the iPotti :-)).

Matt asks:

If someone was going to make fun of your company, how would they do it? (And if there’s no answer, is that a sign you’re lacking a defined point of view?)

That's a very insightful question Matt, and I wonder how many of us small biz owners would answer it.

Apple is an extreme example of a company that is so focussed in their mantra (design, design, design!), that it's easy to parody them. They've done with their products what 37Signals has done with the writing on their blog--everything they produce is an expression of their mantra.

Something to think about:

What is your mantra? Have you established one yet?

If someone were going to parody your company, how would they do it?