All Marketers are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works--and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All

As a Seth Godin fan, I decided to pick up “All Marketers are Liars.” I think the book is best for people who are already in the Godin universe because rather than being a “how to,” the book is more like listening to Seth share some of his worldview. Of course, his worldview is worth listening to, so no matter who you are, you’ll benefit from the time you spend. The main idea the book points out is that as a marketer, you’re unlikely to change someone’s point of view. Rather, you’ll succeed if you can find the people who already agree with you and then just invite them to join your client base. Godin shares a story which illustrates this well: “My friend Lisa wrote a best seller a few years ago, and reading the reviews on Amazon is an astonishing experience. About half of the readers gave the book five stars. They talked about how poignant and well-written the book was. They mentioned that they had bought four or five copies for their friends. The other half? They gave it one star. They vilified Lisa, her writing, her lifestyle and even the people who liked the book. What’s going on here? How can one book generate such diametrically opposite points of view? Simple. The book didn’t generate anything. All it did was give people a chance to express the biases they had before they even opened the book.” Another important point that Godin teaches which is often lost in the internet marketing world is that personal interactions really matter. In fact, they’re the #1 reason people will succeed in business. Of course, the original master of personal interaction was Dale Carnegie, and everyone on the planet should read, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” However, to get a more modern explanation, read what Seth Godin writes, “If a consumer has a lousy telephone experience with a hotel reservations agent, his impulse will be to hate the service from every person he interacts with when he finally arrives at the hotel. The only solution? It’s not expensive carpeting, lower rates or a better mattress. The only solution is a warm, personal interaction between an authentic and caring individual and your disgruntled customer. Facts are not the most powerful antidote to superstition. Powerful, authentic personal interaction is. That’s why candidates still need to shake hands and why retail outlets didn’t disappear after the success of Amazon.” The whole really isn’t about lying. In fact, I don’t think I would have titled the book, “All Marketers are Liars.” But it’s catchy, and the author certainly makes a strong case in the book for why he chose that name. I’m giving the book five stars because I enjoyed reading it, but I’d choose a different one of his books if you’re looking to really advance your marketing efforts.

The title of Seth Godin’s book All Marketers Are Liars is misleading; in fact, it’s a lie. This is because in his book Godin explains that all marketers merely tell stories (as indicated on the redesigned cover). Although geared toward a marketing minded audience, as we read we find out that we are all marketers. This insight is gained in Godin’s explanation of how the storytelling technique is an everyday paradigm; people tell themselves stories and believe them. Thus, good marketers tell us authentic stories that we believe and then spread. He notes that as the technology is becoming more efficient, the emphasis is on the spreading of ideas by marketing, therefore on storytelling. Some of Godin’s notable points that explain this phenomenon are: consumers’ worldviews were there before you, people notice new and then guess, first impressions start the story, great marketers tell stories we believe and marketers with authenticity thrive. Godin’s first point that a consumer’s worldview was there before you proves to be very important in proving his argument. He describes a worldview as “the rules, values, beliefs and biases that an individual consumer brings to a situation.”(p.39) Worldviews, along with frames (“elements of a story painted to leverage the worldview a consumer already has”) govern what stories consumers will believe. To support this, Godin uses the example of the General Mills team adapting to changes in a worldview when Atkins was implemented. General Mills quickly changed their popular Lucky Charms cereal recipe to a whole grain based product and leveraged this with the same old slogan “magically delicious!” Godin exemplifies that a company, to be successful, must tell an authentic story that adheres to the worldview of an audience and if that worldview changes adaptations must be made. This, along with multiple others of Godin’s examples, successfully explains that worldviews are there before you and a story must be framed in terms of this worldview to be successful. Godin sets up the rest of his book with this idea. Next, Godin explains that people on notice what is new, and then they’ll guess about what to expect next. His most important example in explaining this is at the very end of this chapter. He talks about how diners at the Union Square Café rave about the service. However, these customers only do this because that is what they have persuaded themselves is true. Therefore the customers get the good service they expect because that’s the story that plays in their head and their brain makes their expectations come true. (p. 84) This human tendency, as Godin successfully describes, makes it easier to trick people into believing something is new and different. Godin’s clever use of describing how the brain works makes it clear that marketers can easily tell a story that isn’t all accurate and succeed in doing so. It’s interesting to see that this behavior is so common yet overlooked in being such a huge part of what succeeds and what doesn’t. Godin goes on to explain another human behavior, snap judgments, which affect what a consumer thinks. He realizes that people will make snap judgments when buying something and will refuse to change his mind after that initial decision. This makes first impressions, not overly important, but pretty crucial in that it is the beginning of the story, even though the time of this first impression is ambiguous. Therefore, authenticity matters in generating a story that is going to be heard and repeated. He speaks about how people get upset when they find out recycling isn’t as effective as they thought and how New Yorkers were outraged when recycling was cancelled. Godin says, “The recycling lie was subtle, multifaceted and deeply seated.” (p. 94) Which he affirms is exactly the story you want to create for a brand to last. His explanation of this further proves that people will make loaded judgments in a fraction of a second, and refuse to change it once the decision has been made and marketers must realize this to be successful. Again, it is very interesting that such a behavior of stubbornness can have such a great affect on what stories will be believed. If someone makes this judgment and believes the story they will spread it, which rises the realization that marketing is almost entirely reliant on behaviors on the consumer. Great marketers tell stories we believe. Godin starts this chapter by engaging the audience by making us the marketer. He then offers the idea of how to get elected as president. John Kerry failed at doing this because he didn’t tell a coherent story or a lie we wanted to believe because he didn’t live his story in everything he did. This non- cohesive story was unattractive and not believable so he wasn’t elected. This example shows that telling a story that consumers will believe is very important and if you don’t do this, as Godin explains, you’ll fail. Stories allow us to lie to ourselves and satisfy our desires. Therefore, it’s the story that please us, not the actually good or service. Basically, we want a good story, and then we’ll trust the product. If marketers can’t do that, they’ll lose. In his final chapters, Godin offers some pretty great advice to becoming a successful brand: being authentic will allow you to thrive. Authentic marketing, from one human to another, is extremely powerful. Telling a story authentically, creating a product or service that actually does what you say it will leads to a different sort of endgame. The marketer wins and so does her customers. A story that works combined with authenticity and minimized side effects builds a brand (and a business) for the ages. (p. 129) This passage from his book affirms everything Godin has connected to the authenticity of a story. This advice achieves tying all of his main points together and applying them to a company, brand or oneself and how any off the facets of business can be successful in adhering to authenticity. This insightful and intriguing part of his book really brings everything together. Amongst many other things, Godin’s simple syntax and lack of hard to understand jargon, I believe, attributed to his intriguing story about story telling in the marketing world. It interesting to see that human behavior is such a huge factor in the success of storytelling and that it actually drives this phenomenon. All facets of his book combine to create an idea about authenticity and its importance to successful storytelling, concluding that the real liars are the ones who can’t achieve this authenticity. This book is interesting, exciting and, most importantly, relevant. Not to mention incredibly enjoyable!

It's a must read book for every marketer and every consumer. Marketers might be able to improve their performance, and consumer will understand why they do (and buy) what they do (and buy). Extremely significant is Godin's definition of the "great story." "... A Great story is true." "Great Stories make a promise." Great stories are trusted." and "Great stories are subtle..." These four sentences define the scope. It' s not easy to reach by any marketer. And, consumers need to understand their own behavior better to "... Know Your (their) power." If consumers "demand" that marketers align their products with worthy goals, the world can move toward a better direction very quickly. I wished more marketers would read Godin's warning "It seems like an easy out. Figure out some internally approved story that you can trot out to the sales force and use in a magazine ad, and you're set. Actually, if you do that, you're dead..." I am always baffled how many stories which are trying to sell an expensive program begin with the story of some character, who is completely broke and has also maxed out his credit cards, but THEN borrows money to buy this program and ends up being a millionaire twelve months later. Ha! Godin offers hundreds of interesting example, each one with valuable information whether you work in the particular industry or buy these products, or not. Marketing today is an ever more rapidly evolving process, and good marketing people learn cross industries. Even Steve Jobs learned from Nike. Finally, Godin hones down on what every consumer should think about before swiping the card: "The lie a consumer tells himself is the nucleus in the center of any successful marketing effort." This book is highly recommended. In fact, it should be a must-read book for any HS-senior, to be read again five years later. Gisela Hausmann, author of the "naked (meaning no-fluff) books

I've always enjoyed Seth Godin's books and have read each of them starting with Permission Marketing (1999) as they've come out. I particularly liked his e-book Really Bad Powerpoint (and how to avoid it) (2001) although I haven't been able to find the (free) download lately. It was indeed a pleasure to get my Amazon delivery of his latest - "All Marketers Are Liars: The power of telling authentic stories in a low-trust world" - the day before a Boston to LA flight. Perfect. Seth has a terrific way of telling his stories in book form as a quick and fun read. I started the book at Logan Airport and finished somewhere over Kansas. This book is a must read for any marketer who wants to break through the noise of one-way, TV-influenced interruption marketing. Stories are authentic. Interruption is not. I particularly liked the section "Telling Stories in an Internet World." Seth explains why good Web marketing through storytelling beats advertising every time. The examples are fun, breezy and easy to grasp in several hours of airplane time. And hey, Seth says the stories can even fib a bit as long as they are authentic, reach the intended audience and not a fraud. Because marketers aren't liars, they are just storytellers. We tell stories that consumers want to hear. Want an example? It sounded great for me to say I read All Marketers Are Liars starting at Logan and finishing over Kansas didn't it? Because Kansas in the middle of the US and anyone can gague the speed at which you can finish the book. Guess what? I lied. I actually read the Boston Globe in Logan then took a nap at the beginning of the flight. The plane didn't even fly over Kansas (I asked the pilot). But I did finish "All Marketers Are Liars" on the plane and it is a great book. Read it and learn how to be a better marketer.

The ideas in this book are not new - they revolve around the core of successful marketing, around positioning and creating a story about your business that revolves what is at other times called a unique selling proposition, how is what you are selling different than the similar products by other sellers. The book is ultimately about creating your story, not just verbally but through the whole experience a potential buyer has with you, your company and your products. In other for the story to work it has to be authentic. We create stories all the time, both as buyers and as sellers and in every area of our lives - they are part of selling, advertising, seduction, court-room, healing, and any form of inter-personal relationships. In the TV series "Shark", the lawyers begins instruction of his assistants with the words "Truth is relative. Choose one that works." This is true in any area of our lives, including in marketing. We meet someone and we begin to weave stories in our minds out of the information we have and the information we don't have we fill in with whatever seems appropriate to us. When we buy products we may buy stories offered by the company manufacturing the product or we may create our own, according to our own beliefs and experiences (or lack of experience with anything similar). The seller may weave the story around selling a kefir that says Hunza people live healthy and long lives - over 100 years old - from eating kefir and the buyer may translate the story that if he were to eat kefit, he will also have a long life - never mind all the other differences in lifestyle of people who have long and healthy lives. Kefir may be part of the truth, part of the elements that contribute to healthier lifestyle, but not the whole story - still it is the truth that would work for the company selling kefir. In this book there are examples of companies that have created stories around products that have injured people - like advising young mothers in poor countries to use powdered milk instead of to breast-feed their babies, which ultimately resulted in premature death of countless babies, partly due to the fact that the water which the mothers used to mix powdered milk was impure, partly because the babies were denied nutrients that support immune system and which are available only through the mothers' milk. While this book and any other book related to marketing and selling would suggest that the seller focuses on the benefits and weaves the story around how his product can fulfill the needs and wants people have; the book also clearly points out to focus on genuine value for the customer and not to invent things that have nothing to do with the product or worse that can injure people because such stories can and will backfire. On the other side of the coin are buyers, who should do their own research. Just as an example, there are all sorts of nutritional supplements many of which contribute to better health, none of which are likely 'cure-all" supplements even though they may contribute to general health and some of which may have serious side-effects. People in general seem to act as if they were hypnotized and they tend to go along with what someone says without finding out for themselves and whether it is a marketer or a seller or a friend who shares a story and the story may be valid from one point of view, it may still not be the whole truth and the more we know about things we are consuming, the more we may put those things in proper perspective, without expecting overnight miracles, and the more we may benefit from the products. We live in a world where the word "instant" this or that is very popular element of many marketing stories, and people tend to get disappointed when they don't get instant results. On the other hand, people get so much bombarded with the promise of "instant" results that many actually seem to believe such stories before they buy the product - buyers will create their own stories based on what they want to believe, not necessarily upon what may be realistic to expect - and then they will get disappointed. So, when weaving authentic stories about your product or service, it will help if you weave them in way that distinguishes your product or service, that is able to fulfill the needs and desires of customers and that will make your customers feel good for a long time to come. If you are passionate about your work and your work revolves around genuinely helping other people in some way, then the story you create would naturally be authentic and beneficial for your business and for your customers.

I'm almost halfway through the book but I can't read it anymore b/c his writing style makes it hard to comprehend the ideas as you're reading. The books starts out with a few main points: different people share a "worldview"- find a common worldview and figure out how to reach that group (and sell to them) by telling them a "story". The "story" consists of lies that people who share that worldview tell themselves to feel comfortable in the world. For instance - "food products labeled as organic help me live longer"... Its not necessarily a lie but its a view shared by many people who value their longevity (a shared worldview)... And that group of people will believe it whether or not organic-labelled food will actually help them live longer. I've simplified his main idea, I think, and I didn't do it very well... that IS his main idea though. Its simple... pretty brilliant. However, the first 30 pages in the book tells it all, I believe. I don't think its necessary to read the rest... about halfway through the book, I'm finding some repetition of the main ideas... Additionally, I'm having trouble getting through the rest of his book b/c of his writing style... its somewhat "conversational". He writes as if he is talking to a live audience. Which is fine... if you hear a speech, it is easy to follow the speakers line of though because lack of phrases and complete sentences are compensated by tone of voice and voice pitch. Its okay to be grammatically informal if you're talking aloud to someone else - rises and falls in the voice, emotion, even facial expression, help you follow the ideas. But on paper, I'm finding this way of writing hard to follow. His ideas are already somewhat complex and need a lot of explanation... so the writing style makes it harder to understand... Reading this book is exhausting. I don't look forward to reading the rest.

'All Marketers are Liars' is a provocatively entertaining book about marketing and human nature. Seth Godin has once again applied his reliable formula for publishing success: 1. Pick a traditional and well accepted marketing concept 2. Write about it from a totally new perspective 3. Make the book easy to read and include a lot of examples 4. Give the book an intriguing title 5. Sell a lot of books In 'Purple Cow' the basic concept was differentiation (nothing new in itself, after all, people had been talking about positioning and unique selling propositions for decades). In 'All Marketers are Liars' Seth's premise is based on these two well established marketing concepts: a) It is harder to make something and then try to sell it, than it is to first find out what people want and then give it to them. b) It is very difficult (and expensive) to try to change people's perception once it is already formed. The new 'angle' being explored, though, is that most of the time those perceptions are based on emotions that go against objective facts. The recipe for successful marketing, says Godin, is to find a large enough group of people with a particular world view, and offer them a product that caters and reinforces that world view. Judging by some reader reviews, some people seem to have taken offense to Seth's thesis, implying that it encourages dishonesty in marketing. I don't subscribe to that point of view. Giving people exactly what they want, even though objective facts suggest that they should want something else is not being dishonest. To illustrate Seth's thesis I'll give you an example: suppose that you have two identical watches, one of them is made in Switzerland and the other one is made in China. If you ask people which one is better, I bet that nine out of ten will answer `the Swiss watch'. The objective of the Swiss watch maker is to sell watches. Are they supposed to go around telling everybody that the Chinese watch is as good as theirs? Of course not. The Swiss watch maker's advertising will most likely make extensive use of marketing signals that reinforce the world view of the nine people who picked the Swiss watch: their magazine ads will probably display pictures of their watch with a backdrop of a quaint Swiss village surrounded by the Alps and the Swiss cross prominently displayed somewhere on the page. Now, if the Swiss watch maker decided to relocate their manufacturing plant to China and continued to use the same marketing signals in their advertising their customers would cry foul. If they also intentionally and openly lied about the country of origin of the watch they would be committing fraud. Seth Godin voices a strong opinion against these two scenarios, the first one because it would be "unauthentic" and the second one because it would be outright illegal and unethical. 'All Marketers are Liars' is a quick and entertaining read (you can probably breeze through it from cover to cover on your average plane ride) and it will leave you with a valuable takeaway on which to base your marketing strategy.

I have absolutely no background in Marketing, I never took a course or a class for that matter. However, I did read the TEN DAY MBA by Steven A. Silbiger which went into a lot of the theory and the practical practices of Marketing taught at MBA schools. The chapter in that book is what ignited my interest in the subject and after searching through the internet this book was highly recommended, which is the reason why I purchased it. What I love about this book is that it describes how Markets (based on peoples) "world views" create variety based on there biases (We are the environment we interpret) that act as the foundation for Markets. It talks about how Marketers strive by embracing a markets "world view", "taste" and how to focus on creating authentic "frames" that reflect these lies a Market tell's itself. This book made me reflect a lot because not only does it teach you how to develop a brand for a particular Market, but it also teaches you a lot about life. How we market ourselves and how we "frame" our story to others ultimately defines how other's view us. It talks about how authenticity matters and how unauthentic marketers (a salesperson) just can't stand tall. You can be the best marketer (a salesperson) in the world but if you don't have the substance to sustain your story you fail. If your story is coherent with how markets (people) view you and your product you thrive. Everything matters in Marketing, the look, the feel, the slogan, the location of your brand but what ultimately matters is the story and if your market senses an unauthentic story, game over. Same goes at a personal level, with people that enter and exit your life.

Lo compré sin saber nada de marketing, simplemente tengo un pequeño negocio y me gustaría entender mejor cómo promocionarlo. El libro me ha parecido interesantísimo. No se enfoca en detalles técnicos de cómo publicitar (como qué colores son mejores en tu web, etc.), simplemente en la idea general de qué hace que alguien se "enamore" de un producto. Me ha parecido fascinante y una información muy útil para tener presente. Además, me gusta mucho la filosofía de Seth Godin de no intentar "dar pelotazos", ni mentir, etc. simplemente ilusionar a la gente con un producto que ya es bueno, de forma honesta. Además explica multitud de ejemplos muy interesantes. La única pega que veo es que algunos de los ejemplos son difíciles de identificar porque son marcar americanas o británicas que no conozco, pero hay suficientes conocidos o explicados, como para entender lo que explica. Además, el libro es muy entretenido y está muy bien escrito.

My husband ordered this one and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Would recommend

Good book, small and easy to read. Good color​.

Muy fácil de leer, buenos ejemplos. Es un libro corto y pequeño pero hace un punto en relación a cómo contar historias poderosas.

Its a pretty good book, short and simple.