How to Build a Remarkable Brand in the Age of AI | Seth Godin

Imagine walking down the street and seeing a Nike hotel. You can immediately picture what it looks like, right? Now imagine, instead, that Hyatt launched a shoe line: you wouldn't have the slightest idea what to expect. That's the difference between a true brand and a mere logo. Most people think that building a brand today means spending on advertising, shouting louder than the competition, or chasing social media numbers. But that's no longer how it works. Here’s the real game changer: Memorable brands aren’t built by the company’s voice, but by the stories customers tell when you’re not in the room. If you don't give people something to talk about, they simply won't talk about you. Seth Godin— the marketing pioneer who coined concepts like Permission Marketing and the famous “Purple Cow”—says that a brand's true strength lies in its kept promise, not in the volume of its advertising. And this promise must be so clear that, even if you change industries, people would still know what to expect from you. Take Nike: if it opened a hotel tomorrow, you would already know what kind of atmosphere, energy, and experiences await you. But if a brand that's used to just putting its logo on things suddenly changes course, no one will know what they're getting. Seth recalls a personal experience: He needed new glasses, so he ordered them from an unknown online company. He receives the wrong glasses. He thinks he's wasted his money. Instead, twenty minutes later, he received an email from a real optician who apologized and offered to make things right. At that moment, that small company earned his trust forever. More powerful than any Super Bowl commercial. There are some thought-provoking figures: when Carmines opened in New York, among 50,000 restaurants, it did only three things that were out of the ordinary. Huge portions to share, so no one could go alone; garlic in excessive quantities, so much so that people were still talking about it the next day; and reservation rules that required you to bring at least five friends. The result: customers became ambassadors, sharing their experience everywhere. This is the driving force behind “remarkability”: giving people a story that elevates their status when they tell it. But there is a pitfall: the authenticity trap. Seth says that “authenticity” is overrated. We don't want the surgeon to be authentic when they're having a bad day; we want them to be reliable at all times. What matters is consistency, the ability to keep the same promise every time, even when no one is watching. Another paradigm shift: marketing is not about “pushing” your message, but about creating the conditions for others to want to spread it, as if they couldn't help themselves. And this also applies to the way teams work: if you only measure the easy numbers, such as followers or clicks, you risk losing sight of what really matters, namely trust and reputation. Seth talks about his experience at Yahoo, where everyone was watching the stock price in real time. The result? Short-term decisions that sank the brand. The question is not “how much noise we make,” but “how indispensable we are to those who follow us.” There is a story that makes it all clear: Twenty-five years ago, Seth called four companies to have his heating system repaired. The first technician showed up, put on slippers to avoid dirtying the house, and left him a list of 25 nearby clients who could serve as references. Seth cancels his other appointments: he knows who he can trust. That's what it means to be remarkable: doing small but memorable things that no one else does, so that people can't wait to talk about you. Now, for the little-explored perspective: many people think that the more you grow, the more you have to become impersonal and detached in order to appear professional. Instead, the real secret weapon of brands that endure is precisely their ability to remain human, even when AI can do everything faster and cheaper. The difference is made by those who use AI to be more useful, not to become invisible. The sentence that sums it all up: Unforgettable brands aren't the ones that shout the loudest, but the ones you miss when they disappear. If you recognize yourself in this silent revolution, you can click “I'm In” on Lara Notes: it's not a 'like'; it's your way of saying that this idea is now part of how you want to work or do business. And if you happen to tell someone the story of Carmines or the story of eyewear—perhaps at your next lunch with friends or colleagues—on Lara Notes, you can mark the conversation with Shared Offline, because there are ideas that deserve to be remembered together. This insight comes from the podcast The Entrepreneur’s Studio, and it has just saved you nearly an hour of listening time.