All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
by Seth Godin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Seth GodinEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2005-05-19
ISBN: 1591841003
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Book Reviews of All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
Book Review: Tell them what they want to hear
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Summary of All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
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.
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