Product Description

Every marketer tells a story. And if they do it right, we believe them. We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass. We believe that an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne is vastly superior to a $36,000 VW Touareg, which is virtually the same car. We believe that $225 Pumas will make our feet feel better-and look cooler-than $20 no-names . . . and believing it makes it true.

Successful marketers don't talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story we want to believe.

This is a book about doing what consumers demand-painting vivid pictures that they choose to believe. Every organization-from nonprofits to car companies, from political campaigns to wineglass blowers-must understand that the rules have changed (again). In an economy where the richest have an infinite number of choices (and no time to make them), every organization is a marketer and all marketing is about telling stories.

Marketers succeed when they tell us a story that fits our worldview, a story that we intuitively embrace and then share with our friends. Think of the Dyson vacuum cleaner or the iPod.

But beware: If your stories are inauthentic, you cross the line from fib to fraud. Marketers fail when they are selfish and scurrilous, when they abuse the tools of their trade and make the world worse. That's a lesson learned the hard way by telemarketers and Marlboro.

This is a powerful book for anyone who wants to create things people truly want as opposed to commodities that people merely need.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49897 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-19
• Released on: 2005-05-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Advertising's fundamental theorem-that perception trumps reality-informs this dubious marketing primer. Journalist and marketing guru Godin, author of Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, contends that, in an age when consumers are motivated by irrational wants instead of objective needs and "there is almost no connection between what is actually there and what we believe," presenting stolid factual information about a product is a losing strategy. Instead, marketers should tell "great stories" about their products that pander to consumers' self-regard and worldview. Examples include expensive wine glasses that purport to improve the taste of wine, despite scientific proof to the contrary; Baby Einstein videotapes that are "useless for babies but...satisfy a real desire for their parents"; and organic marketing schemes, which amount to "telling ourselves a complex lie about food, the environment and the safety of our families." Because consumers prefer fantasy to the truth, the marketer's duty is to be "authentic" rather than honest, to "live the lie, fully and completely" so that "all the details line up"-that is, to make their falsehoods convincing rather than transparent. Troubled by the cynicism of his own argument, Godin draws a line at deceptions that actually kill people, like marketing infant formula in the Third World, and elaborates a murky distinction between "fibs" that "make the thing itself more effective or enjoyable" and "frauds" that are "solely for the selfish benefit of the marketer." To illustrate his preferred approach to marketing, the author relates a grab bag of case studies, heavy on emotionally compelling pitches and seamless subliminal impressions. Readers will likely find the book's practical advice as rudderless as its ethical principles.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Tell them what they want to hear
This book is about marketing through story telling, rather than boring prospects about product features. This is not really a ground-breaking idea. I recall an advertising professor saying twenty years ago, "You don't sell tires, you sell safety."

Godin says that consumers hold "worldviews" or beliefs. Marketers stand little chance of changing those views. So instead they should tell stories about their product which align with those views. Everyone doesn't share the same views, so stories should be targeted to receptive segments. Ideally, satisfied customers will then tell your story to others.

"I wasn't being completely truthful with you when I named the book," writes Godin. "Marketers aren't liars. They are storytellers. It's the consumers who are liars... Successful marketers are just the providers of the stories that consumers choose to believe."

Examples of lies would be:
Buying Air Jordans will enable me to play like a professional athlete.
I will lose weight if I drink diet soda. (Supersize, please)
Expensive wine glasses make the wine taste better.

The gimmicky title contradicts both the subtitle and the content; the importance of authenticity is emphasized in the book. Authentic lying is a confused message, but apparently as a book selling strategy, that matters less than controversy. The author says, "No one would hate a book called All Marketers Are Storytellers... No one would want to talk about it." Well, if that's his goal, then I suppose it worked -- here I am talking about it.

That silliness aside, the customer's perspective is reality. The marketer's message must align with that perspective if the customer is to be receptive.

So THAT'S Why People Pay So Much For Starbuck's!
...It's the "Starbuck's Experience", not the coffee. Seth's written a very engaging book filled with some insightful observations about human behavior and why we buy the things we do. All in all, I found the book:

*An easy read (I finished it in a few hours, and I'm not a super-fast reader)

*VERY relevant to the "branding" aspects of marketing.

*He points out that "their (your customers) frames and worldviews got there before you did", and so you'll get best results when you frame your marketing story in a way that fits with your customers existing view of the world.

*Contained lots of examples (the book is actually mostly examples, which some people might not prefer, but I think it really illustrates that there are lots of examples of marketing "stories" all around us, and I actually found myself seeing them everywhere after I read the book) of the "lies" that marketers tell their customers.

*I like his emphasis on "living the lie" and having everything about your company be authentic to the story you're telling your customers, as well as how marketing has applications beyond just selling widgets, such as politics and social causes.

All in all, an excellent book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in marketing, sales or just the thought processes that go on inside the heads of us wacky humans.

Today selling needs concepts not products.
Traditional storytelling has a comeback. Today you need more than a product to sell. Customers are more demanding and want to buy concepts. This book will enhance your marketing skills by 100%.