What's a meatball sundae you ask? Well, besides being the brand-spanking new book offering from bestselling marketing author Seth Godin, it's also an analogy in which Seth uses to describe instances of when "boring" companies and brands use newly available and popular marketing strategies and tools to push their products and services.

For a better explanation... here's an excerpt from the new book:

'Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords... I don't care, as long as it's shiny and new.'

Wait. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great. But if you start with a bowl of meatballs... yuck!

As traditional marketing fades away, the new tools seem irresistible. But they don't work as well for boring brands ("meatballs") that might still be profitable but don't attract word of mouth, such as Cheerios, Ford trucks, Barbie dolls, or Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch spends $40 million on an online network called BudTV, that's a meatball sundae. It leads to no new Bud drinkers, just a bad case of indigestion.

Meatball Sundae, for anyone who's interested, will be released a little later this month... I believe December 27th to be exact. However, as an attendee of last week's Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago, I was lucky enough to have received an advanced copy of the book... in addition to sitting front row during Seth's Keynote presentation Tuesday morning.

Anyone who's read this blog for awhile now can tell you that I'm a huge Seth Godin fan. Thus far, I've read 7 of his books / ebooks, and have even reviewed 5 of them right here on the Klog. One of the biggest reasons why I find his writing so enjoyable is that he uses the absolute strangest analogies to convey his point or message. Take for instance "The Red Fez", "Purple Cow", "The Big Moo", and now "Meatball Sundae". While each of these is the title to one of his books, they are also analogies to describe specific issues with businesses and their marketing strategies.

I want to send a "thanks" out to both Seth and SES for the complimentary copy of "Meatball Sundae". I'll add it to my already overwhelming list of books to read and review.