All Marketers are Liars Tell Stories: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works--and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All (Paperback)

ALL MARKETERS TELL STORIES. 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 $125 sneakers make our feet feel better-and look cooler- than a $25 brand. And believing it makes it true.

As Seth Godin explains, great marketers don't talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story-a story we want to believe, whether it's factual or not. In a world where most people have an infi- nite 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 Fiji water, or the iPod.

But beware: If your stories are inauthentic, you cross the line from fib to fraud. That's a lesson learned the hard way by telemarketers, cigarette companies, and sleazy politicians.

All marketers are storytellers. Only the losers are liars.