The indispensable classic on marketing by the bestselling author of Tribes and Purple Cow.
They just perfected it.".
Marketers didn't invent storytelling.
Stories are the only way we know to spread an idea.
As Godin writes, "
Stories make it easier to understand the world.
But for the rest of us, it's time to embrace the power of the story.
That's a lesson learned the hard way by telemarketers, cigarette companies, and sleazy politicians.
Marketers fail when they are selfish and scurrilous, when they abuse the tools of their trade and make the world worse.
But beware: If your stories are inauthentic, you cross the line from fib to fraud.
Think of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, or Fiji water, or the iPod.
Marketers succeed when they tell us a story that fits our worldview, a story that we intuitively embrace and then share with our friends.
In a world where most people have an infinite number of choices and no time to make them, every organization is a marketer, and all marketing is about telling stories.
Instead, they tell a story--a story we want to believe, whether it's factual or not.
As Seth Godin has taught hundreds of thousands of Marketers and students around the world, great Marketers don't talk about features or even benefits.
And believing it makes it true.
We believe that $225 sneakers make our feet feel better--and look cooler--than a $25 brand.
We believe that an $80,000 Porsche is vastly superior to a $36,000 Volkswagen that's virtually the same car.
We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass.
And if they do it right, we believe them.
Legendary business writer Seth Godin has three essential questions for every marketer: "
What's your story?" "
Will the people who need to hear this story believe it?" "
Is it true?"
All Marketers tell stories.
The indispensable classic on marketing by the bestselling author of Tribes and Purple Cow
