All Marketers Are Liars: The Underground Classic that Explains How Marketing Really Works - and Why Authenticity is the Best Marketing of All

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 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 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.