All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin
Book Summary Review
"All Marketings Are Liars" is a controversial title from best selling author and marketer, Seth Godin is subtitled "The Power Of Telling Stories In A Low Trust World."
Perhaps you already believe it.
You see an advert that claims to be "the best ever", "25% better than the existing products" and you think "Yeah, yeah...heard it all before. More hype from a company trying to con us into believing that their "all, new improved recipe" isn't the old recipe in a new package."
But I like adverts. I like the hope they give. I empathise with the problems they show in the "before".
It seems that I am perfect advertising fodder.
My comments on "All Marketers Are Liars" by Seth Godin, are based on a 9 page summary from Book Summaries, one of the companies that do what they say they do. They summarise business books and bring you the best ideas without the hours of effort to extract the main ideas yourself.
"All Marketers Are Liars" seems to be targeted at intellectuals rather than practising marketers. It talks about frames for stories that match people's world views.
This gets deep.
There is no reality.
Your reality is what you perceive it to be and someone else may perceive exactly the same conditions in a totally different way.
It's the sort of thing that the more I think about, the more it makes my head hurt.
A bit like time travellers going back and changing the past, but because they've changed the past and because, according to chaos theory the beating of a butterfly's wings could cause a hurricane, do they still exist to be able to go back and change the past. And if they don't exist, will the past be the same as it was...
Sorry I guess I watch too many bad films so back to the "All Marketers Are Liars" book.
How do marketers succeed?
They sell a story that other people buy.
My big takeaway and something that I'm going to have to think hard about with clients is that this isn't a one way street.
This isn't the clever but manipulative marketer conning the poor, innocent consumer out of their money.
Everybody is cynical towards marketing when they want to be and can see straight past the hype if they choose.
But the most successful marketing is when the marketer and customer conspire.
When the marketer convincingly tells a story that the customer wants to buy in to. Even better when the product meets or exceeds its marketing promises and the customer can spread the story to everyone else they know.
Those £200 trainers really do make the fashion conscious consumer feel better about their appearance. The £50 bottle of wine really does taste better to the wine afficionado than the £5 bottle I might buy and happily drink.
Interesting.
I hadn't thought of marketing in this way but more along conventional lines.
But it places marketers under a responsibility.
If consumers want to be led astray, if customers want to be encouraged to satisfy their search for hedonistic gratification, should a responsible marketer be encouraging them?
When does fun turn into harm?
On the Ecademy website today, I blogged that retailers were being blamed for all kinds of things including selling alcohol too cheap so that many people bought it, drank it and died prematurely.
Where does corporate responsibility end and individual responsibility begin?
Are McDonald's to blame for selling fat laden food that is an occasional fun treat but extensive eating over a prolonged period causes serious health problems?
Are cigarette manufacturers to blame for people smoking and killing themselves from lung cancer?
There are some big questions buried in this "All Marketers Are Liars" book but I suspect that we each need to find our own answers.
But thinking this hard still hurts my head.
Perhaps you are ready for a philosophical book on the role of marketing and you can buy "All Marketers Are Liars" by Seth Godin from Amazon UK and USA.
87 reviews on Amazon.com with 55 giving it 5 stars and 5 with 1 star show that this book is thought-provoking and entertaining.
I can't disagree with the power of marketing through stories. It's the way that we have been educated for thousands of years and when those stories connect, the impact is powerful.
Business Summaries have written a very interesting 9 page summary of Seth Godin's book. I can't vouch that it accurately summarises the main thrust of the book but it has made me think and that's always good.
This idea that customers want to conspire to be encouraged to buy things that they know they shouldn't really buy is very interesting but it does have to be balanced by a social conscience.
I recommend that you take a look at Business Summaries as "All Marketers Are Liars" demonstrates the power of having easy access to ideas.
I rate this a 3 Star Business Brief. I am very glad to have read the summary but I don't intend to buy the book.
I have also found this video of Seth Godin explaining why all marketers are liars.
If you like the idea of increasing your business skills and knowledge quickly and easily by reading summaries of the best business books, BusinessSummaries are offering a FREE trial.
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