All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World - Hardcover

Godin, Seth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591841003 ISBN 13: 9781591841005

Publisher: Portfolio, 2005

Synopsis

Seth Godin’s 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. 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 is vastly superior to a $36,000 Volkswagen that’s virtually the same car. 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 showed in this controversial book, 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. 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, cigarette companies, and sleazy politicians.

But for the rest of us, it’s time to embrace the power of the story. As Godin writes, ?Stories make it easier to understand the world. Stories are the only way we know to spread an idea. Marketers didn’t invent storytelling. They just perfected it.”

About this title

Review

Praise for Seth Godin:

-Godin...is uniquely respected for his understanding of the Internet, and his essays and opinions are widely read and quoted on and off.-
--Forbes

-It's easy to see why people pay to hear what he has to say.-
--Time

-If Seth Godin didn't exist we'd need to invent him.-
--Alan Webber, founder, Fast Company

-If your idea, or issue, or candidate, or product isn't catching on, you haven't been reading Seth Godin.-
--Micah Sifry, cofounder, Personal Democracy Forum
-Godin is endlessly curious, opinionated, and knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects. He is a relentless marketer...and also a clear-eyed visionary.-
--Miami Herald

From the Hardcover edition.

Praise for Seth Godin:

"Godin...is uniquely respected for his understanding of the Internet, and his essays and opinions are widely read and quoted on and off."
--Forbes

"It's easy to see why people pay to hear what he has to say."
--Time

"If Seth Godin didn't exist we'd need to invent him."
--Alan Webber, founder, Fast Company

"If your idea, or issue, or candidate, or product isn't catching on, you haven't been reading Seth Godin."
--Micah Sifry, cofounder, Personal Democracy Forum

"Godin is endlessly curious, opinionated, and knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects. He is a relentless marketer...and also a clear-eyed visionary."
--Miami Herald

From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Seth Godin is the author of seven books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than fifteen languages. He's been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company and Business Week. Godin was singled out by Successful Meetings Magazine as one of twenty-one top speakers for the twenty-first century. Before All Marketers Are Liars, Godin wrote Free Prize Inside!, which Forbes picked as one of its books of the year (as did Fast Company). He is also the author of Purple Cow, the bestselling marketing book of the decade, and Permission Marketing.

Edition details

• Publisher: Portfolio
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1591841003
• ISBN 13: 9781591841005
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 201