The Big Idea

What sells a product these days? Is it price point? Is it the buyer’s need? Are product features and benefits the deciding factors for customers to buy? Seth Godin says it is none of the above.

Consumers buy products when they fall for a marketer’s story.  A successful marketer has to be able to come up with stories that consumers want to believe.  The stories should fit a consumer’s worldview and encourage people to talk to others about it.  When a marketer’s story is authentic and remarkable, the product will sell..

Highlights

Telling stories is an age-old tradition used by people to make sense of natural phenomena such as seasons and sicknesses. Marketers did not invent it, but they have used it for years to sell products, services, and ideas.

Godin suggests that marketers and consumers are conspirators in this lying, or story-telling business. Marketers tell the stories. The consumers, who lie to themselves, buy the stories.

What makes a great story? Great stories should:

• be true.
• make a promise.
• be trusted.
• be subtle.
• happen fast.
• not appeal to logic, but often appeal to our senses.
• rarely be aimed at everyone.
• never contradict themselves.
• agree with our worldview.

Marketers Also Have Responsibilities.
Since marketing is about spreading ideas, they have the power to affect people and even whole societies in both positive and negative ways. Storytelling, in the hands of the marketer, should always recognize its responsibility to the society.

Marketing, Then and Now

It used to be that marketers sold commodities that people needed by promoting practical and objective matters such as price and product features. These days, marketers answer more to consumers’ wants than needs. Wants are things they covet for emotional reasons such as $125 Pumas or an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne.

In the Golden Age of television, marketing was a matter of buying 60 seconds of airtime, and using that time to tell a simple story to create demand. It is not that simple now. Marketing, albeit still a very powerful tool, has become more complex and challenging.

Step 1: Their Worldview and Frames Got There Before You Did

A person’s worldview is his set of beliefs, values, rules, assumptions, and biases influenced by one’s family, friends, affiliations and experiences. As each combination of influences is unique to each individual, there are many diverse worldviews out there.

Want to read the rest of this summary? click here >>