25 Quotes from All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin
Seth Godin's underground classic marketing book everyone should read—regardless of your job.
1.
A great story is true. Not true because it's factual, but true because it's consistent and authentic. Great stories make a promise. They promise fun or money, safety or a shortcut. The promise is bold and audacious and not just very good—it’s exceptional or it’s not worth listening to.
Great stories are trusted. Trust is the scarcest resource we've got left. As a result, no marketer succeeds in telling a story unless he has earned the credibility to tell that story.
Great stories are subtle. Surprisingly, the less a marketer spells out, the more powerful the story becomes.
Great stories happen fast. They engage the consumer the moment the story clicks into place.
Great stories don't appeal to logic, but they often appeal to our senses.
Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone.
Great stories don't contradict themselves.
And most of all, great stories agree with our worldview. The best stories don't teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place.
P. 10-13
2.
Consumers are complicit in marketing. Consumers believe stories. Without this belief, there is no marketing. A marketer can spend plenty on promoting a product, but unless consumers are actively engaged in believing the story, nothing happens. P. 18
3.
I call a story that a consumer believes a lie. I think that once people find a remarkable lie that will benefit them if it spreads, they selfishly tell the lie to others, embellishing it along the way.
A good story (either from the marketer or from the customer herself) is where genuine customer satisfaction comes from. It's the source of growth and profit and it's the future of your organization. P. 19
4.
The only way your story will be believed, the only way people will tell themselves the lie you are depending on and the only way your idea will spread is if you tell the truth. And you are telling the truth when you live the story you are telling—when it's authentic. P. 19-20
5.
This is what makes it all work: a complete dedication to and embrace of your story. P. 20
6.
I believe marketing is the most powerful force available to people who want to make change. P. 20
7.
Marketing is about spreading ideas, and spreading ideas is the single most important output of our civilization. P. 22
8.
If marketers could tell a better story about the really urgent stuff—taking your medicine or sending peacekeepers where they belong we would all benefit.
If you care about the future of your company, your nonprofit, your church or your planet, marketing matters. Marketing matters because whether or not you're in a position to buy a commercial, if you've got an idea to spread, you're now a marketer. P. 23
9.
Yes, marketing matters. It matters so much that we have an obligation to do it right. Marketing has become more powerful than it has ever been before. It's not an overstatement to say that marketing changes the world on a daily basis. I think it's time we figured out how to make it work the way it should. P. 27
10.
There are only two things that separate success from failure in most organizations today:
1. Invent stuff worth talking about.
2. Tell stories about what you've invented.
Make up great stories. That's the new motto. P. 36
11.
Worldview is the term I use to refer to the rules, values, beliefs and biases that an individual consumer brings to a situation. P. 39
12.
Frames are elements of a story painted to leverage the worldview a consumer already has. P. 40
13.
Don't try to change someone's worldview is the strategy smart marketers follow. Don't try to use facts to prove your case and to insist that people change their biases. You don't have enough time and you don't have enough money. Instead, identify a population with a certain worldview, frame your story in terms of that worldview and you win. P. 41
14.
Marketing succeeds when enough people with similar worldviews come together in a way that allows marketers to reach them cost-effectively. P. 43
15.
Your opportunity lies in finding a neglected worldview, framing your story in a way that this audience will focus on and going from there. P. 43
16.
To go to market without understanding your audience's various worldviews is like trying to pick a lock without bothering to notice whether it uses a key or a combination. P. 44
17.
That worldview affects three things:
1. Attention: the consumer's worldview determines whether she even bothers to pay attention. If she doesn't think she needs a new brand of aspirin or a faster computer, she's far less likely to notice a new one when it appears.
2. Bias: everyone carries around a list of grudges and wishes. When a new product or service appears on your horizon, those predispositions instantly color all the information that comes in.
3. Vernacular: consumers care just as much about how something is said as what is said. They care about the choice of media, the tone of voice, the words that are used-even the way things smell. When the story that's told to the consumer doesn't match the vernacular the consumer expects, weird things happen.
P. 45
18.
People clump together into common worldviews, and your job is to find a previously undiscovered clump and frame a story for those people. P. 47
19.
People don't want to change their worldview. They like it, they embrace it and they want it to be reinforced. P. 60
20.
Over and over, marketers focus at the center of every curve they encounter. And every time, they're disappointed. The center is crowded, jammed with noise and devoid of unfilled wants. It's at the edges that you'll find people with an unfulfilled worldview. P. 64
21.
I think the best marketing goes on when you talk to a group that shares a worldview and also talks about it- a community. P. 68
22.
The desire to do what the people we admire are doing is the glue that keeps our society together. It's the secret ingredient in every successful marketing venture as well. P. 69
23.
If your story is easy to spread, and if those you converted believe that it's worth spreading, it will. P. 69
24.
In the face of random behavior, people make up their own lies. P. 82
25.
Facts are not the most powerful antidote to superstition. Powerful, authentic personal interaction is. P. 93
Bonus:
It's the story, not the good or the service you actually sell, that pleases the consumer. P. 103
Bonus #2:
Nuclear weapons have killed a tiny fraction of the number of people that unethical marketing has. It's time we realized that there may be no more powerful weapon on Earth. P. 130