All Marketers are Liars
Seth Godin
The New Definition of Marketing
• Marketers can no longer use commercials to
tell their stories. Instead, they have to live
them. Marketing has become more powerful
than it has ever been before.
• There is a complete disconnect between
observable reality and the lies we tell
ourselves.
Worldview & Frames
• Worldview - the rules, values, beliefs,
and biases that an individual consumer
brings to a situation
• Frames – the words and images and
interactions that reinforce a bias
someone is already feeling
Worldview Affects Three Things
• Attention – determine whether she ever
bothers to pay attention
• Bias – predisposition that instantly colors all
the information a person sees
• Vernacular – consumers care more about how
something is said as what is said
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The choice of media
The tone of voice
The words that are used
The ways things smell
Georg Riedel
Can a glass make a difference in how a wine tastes?
Georg Riedel Story on Wine Glasses
• Can a glass make a difference in how a wine tastes? We had a chance
to speak with Georg Riedel about his favorite subject - Wine
Glasses.
• "We discovered that we can shape the size and the rim and the
diameter to the character of the individual grape and, therefore,
drinking with an instrument like this enhances the enjoyment of the
wine."
• So the glass doesn't actually alter the wine?
• "It cannot. We're not responsible for miracles!"
• But the right glass can make a simple everyday wine taste better?
• "The glass doesn't alter the wine but the right glass can make an
ordinary wine taste better. If a simple everyday wine is made well,
tastes well, it certainly can be improved and enhanced with the right
shape."
• A glass can make a difference. Try your favorite wines in different
glasses - maybe even buy one special glass for comparison. You may
find a whole new taste in that familiar bottle.
• Pop the cork!
LiveStrong
Wordview of a
tiny audience
Trek
The Purple Cow
• Making something remarkable
• Purple Cows are rare, valuable, hard to
copy, and nonsubstituable
New, Used and Rare Music
Baby Einstein
Videos useless for babies but it satisfies a real
desire for the parents
Best Buy
Angels – believe that shopping for consumer
electronics is fun
Devils – paying the absolutely lowest price in
the entire point
Lucky Charms
100 % Whole Grain
Magically Delicious
Low –carb worldview
First movers advantage
How does the
worldview of these
companies differ?
Production
Invention
V
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Marketing
Old Power Curve
Goal: make good
stuff for cheap
Time
V
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New Power Curve
Invention
Quality of original
idea and the story
told matter a great
deal
Production
Time
Storytelling
BlueNile.com
BlueNile.com
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Tiffany for the next generation
Sells identical diamonds for ½ price
Target Market – guys
Women hate
Nobody NEEDS a diamond
Republic of Tea
- turned a small market
into a cult, into a
movement and then a
trend, and finally into a
mass market.
Free Prize Inside
• Two characteristics of the Purple Cow
– It’s the thing about your service, your
product or your organization that’s worth
remarking on, something worth seeking
out and buying.
– It is not about what a person needs.
Instead it satisfies our wants
– The element that transcends the utility of
the original idea and adds a special,
unique element worth paying extra for,
worth commenting on.
Three
Dog
Bakery
100% natural food
People-grade
ingredients
Worldview: place to drop
packages and mail
Worldview
Off beat
Unique
Original
Story
Kiehl’s
Interesting store décor
Staff well trained
Labels full of information
Each item lovingly displayed
Animal testing
Owned by Estee Lauder
People Notice Only the New
Segway
Porsche $80,000
VW Touareg
$36,000
Why is everyone’s worldview
different?
• We all want the same things in life!!!
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Health
Love
Respect
Happiness
Friends
Why doesn’t everyone drive a Honda?
Why don’t we all practice the same religion?
Why is the average price paid for a wedding dress
$799 – with some paying ten to twenty times that and
others borrowing one for free?
Donuts = sensual = hot = love
Donuts = carbs = get fat
Exercise
Your boss charges you with introducing
a new kind of salty snack food, a chip
of some sort. Develop a marketing
strategy.
Old Model
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Identify a target market
Find media that reached that market
Create some advertising and run it
Pay slotting allowances
Get your bags on ships (in brightly
colored packages) into chip aisle
• Run some coupons
Wordview Model
• Supermarket aisle full – jammed and target customer’s
ability to pay attention jammed
• Identify a segment that might notice a new story, told
in a different way
• Let’s choose moms that believe “Salty snacks aren’t
healthy”
• Design chips made of soy not potatoes
• Non-GMO, organic. Low fat & salted with sea salt for
flavor not sodium
• Chips will come in a box, not a bag
• Slotted in the produce department
First Impressions Start the Story
• Humans make decisions on almost no data
and they then stick with those decisions
regardless of information that might prove
them wrong.
• Examples:
– Surgeons
– Speed dating
Surgeon
The decision to sue a surgeon for malpractice
has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or
not the doctor was negligent or careless and
everything to do with………
Great Marketers Tell Stories
Stories let us lie to ourselves. It’s the
story, not the good or the service you
actually sell.
Ex. Organic food is better
Minivans vs. SUV’s
Minivans verses SUVs
Minivans
Durable
Cost-effective
Fuel efficient
Comfortable
SUVs
Lousy mileage
More dangerous
Creates pollution
Wear & team on roads
Take extra parking
Make people feel good
Cotton
Cotton
High Tech Fabrics
- More toxic pesticides
- More federal subsidies
- Environmental side
effects
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Lighter
Cooler
Easier to care for
Less damaging to
environment
Marketers with Authenticity Thrive
The challenge is in figuring out what’s
remarkable and actually making the
remarkable happen
No marketing succeeds if it can’t find
an audience that already wants to
believe the story being told.
Toyato Prius
- good gas mileage
- smart key (car
knows you have key)
Good Housekeeping: Sells ads for lots of
money because they reach so many moms
Google Blogs: stories aimed precisely
at people who want to hear them
Cold Stone Creamery
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Pay 5 to 10 times price of supermarket
Growth through franchising
Losing passion of founder
Scoopers break into song for tips
Avalon Organic Botanical
Therapeutic Glycerin Soap
Avalon Organic Botanical
Therapeutic Glycerin Soap
• 30 times as much per wash as generic
bar soap
• Hand soap as jewelry
• Souvenir of your trip
Not Story Worthy
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Very good quality
Slightly better price
Decent commodity at a decent price
Convenience
Quality brochure
Few defects
Industry standard warranty
Edgecraft
• A methodical, measurable process that
allows individuals and teams to inexorably
identify the soft innovations that live on the
edges of what already exists.
• Go all the way to that edge – as far from the
center as the consumer you are trying to
reach dare you to go.