All Marketers Are Liars

The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World

By: Seth Godin

Narrated by: Seth Godin

Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

Every marketer tells a story. 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 Cayenne is vastly superior to a $36,000 VW Touareg, which is virtually the same car. We believe that $225 Pumas will make our feet feel better, and look cooler, than $20 no-names... and believing it makes it true.

Successful marketers don't talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story we want to believe.

This is a book about doing what consumers demand; painting vivid pictures that they choose to believe. Every organization, from nonprofits to car companies, from political campaigns to wineglass blowers, must understand that the rules have changed (again). In an economy where the richest 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 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 and Marlboro.

This is a powerful book for anyone who wants to create things people truly want as opposed to commodities that people merely need.

©2005 Seth Godin (P)2005 Audible, Inc.

The essense of marketing has been defined.

This is a must be read before writing your next marketing plan or investing in any marketing activities. With this simple, practical wisdom you will gain greater results.

Seth has presented a clear, coherent definition of the core of what marketing is all about. All great marketing is based on the principle Seth explains with such clarity and simplicity: telling stories.

There is no preaching in this book. It is a story about marketing. All good stories comes from the heart. As Seth explains your story in all your marketing must be authentic. Hearing Seth tell his story about marketing you realise just how much he understands the importance of the subject to all marketers. When people express things with such authenticity it can easily be misread as preaching.

A good companion to fully understanding this very important basis of marketing in greater detail I would suggest you also listen to, "The 4 Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz also available here at Audible.

Another Audible book that touches on this subject, and is fiction, is "Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit" by Daniel Quinn

dont be offended

It seems some people were offended by the message of this program. Probably because the book exposes how a good story can make you really believe and commit to something whether the story is true or not. The book says that once we decide to believe a story that our brains will do anything to continue to believe it. The book goes on with examples of how and why stories have worked and spread. I have a feeling that the low scoring people were somehow offended due to their own personal beliefs that Seth must have commented on. I only give it a four because its not a complete marketing program. The message is excellent and very revealing.

Must Read

We own the oldest advertising firm in our market. This book is so good that we are thinking about giving it as a gift to our clients at the end of the year.

Just OK for me.

Interesting book. For me, it basically just emphasized the importance of story telling and how the story needs to be consistent to the company's product/service, vision, mission and core values.

A must read

I'm on the third listen of this, and I'd imagine I'll listen to it a few more times to internalize the depth of what he is saying. As a dyed in the wool conservative, Seth really does show his colors, but also gives credit where credit is due, for both parties. In fact, I found them very relevant and helpful in a modern context of how to "tell a story".

he goes through the early days, to the "golden age" of marketing, and the modern changes and power of marketing and "telling a story".

I'm ordering the rest of his books. It's changed my mindset about marketing. This audiobook spawned what I think are going to be very profitable ideas and approaches to marketing. Time will tell, but overall a great insight.

Great Tips on Marketing Communications

Seth offers some very useful insight into what works in marketing communications today and offers some good advice for getting customers to notice your product. It's all about experience and what they believe, not truth or facts or features and benefits. I've used his ideas successfully to structure some recent marketing campaigns.

Learned quite a bit and enjoyed the audiobook

Seth Godin was very good in this audiobook. He presented numerous thought and action provoking ideas and concepts in a very engaging manner. One concept I am learning a lot from is that people have a world view that is very difficult (if not impossible) to change and it is to this world view that the successful marketer must aim a very good story. I recommend readily this audiobook.

Tells a great, thought provoking story

It gave me a LOT of great ideas on how to create a story and deliver it to my audience. That really helps when blogging and building a following. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone from any profession, really. It will help you in bringing more people to your way of thinking, whether that's coworkers, students, or your own family. It's not about lying - it's about being passionate about what you believe in and sharing that information unabashedly.

Godin Wisdom Reigns

Where does All Marketers Are Liars rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

All Marketers Are Liars is great book and definitely worth a listen. Seth's reading style is little dry and mundane, so a voice actor/ professional narrator would have been nice. However, if you have listened to his other stuff and that didn't bother you, this is very much the same. Compared to other choices, I might have held off a bit longer on this one, but it is still a very solid choice overall.

What other book might you compare All Marketers Are Liars to and why?

I would definitely say that this book holds true to Seth's series of books, and I would compare it to those first off. It is reminiscent of most business books of the same genre. I would compare it to Good to Great by Jim Collins or maybe The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber.

Did Seth Godin do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

While there are not characters per se, Seth does do a good job in describing people from examples and from real life.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The story that sold a thousands ships.

Any additional comments?

The information is invaluable. The psychology behind storytelling and how it relates to the sale and perception of products/services should not be missed.

Rivetting Listen - highly thought provoking

Only downside was hearing Seth "reading" his book - would have loved to hear him deliver it more impromptu. If you can forgive this - the creator of the "Purple Cow" brings a highly provocative and yet totally logical idea. Swap out "Liars" for "Storytellers", and you've got the story line. Have listened to it twice, will listen another couple of times at least and brainstorm further. Very stimulating.

I don’t get it!

It just seemed like one central point being restated 15,324 times without any obvious reason.
Basically, have a clear message. There we go. Done.

1h content meets 3 h repeat and vaguen examples

Some interesting thoughts, but nothing new. A lot is recounting success stories (a lot of Apple) and somehow trying to link it to his reason "they only managed this because they had a good story".
oh and by the way, for someone saying "it is all about the story" there is remarkably little story in this book itself ;)

great thought provoking book for any marketing pro

A brilliant book that make should think about using more story telling within your campaigns.

Absolute must read for any marketing professional

Good for new ideas in Marketing!

From the title of this book you that Seth Godin is telling you to lie as a marketer but he's not, he's merely telling you to use personal interest stories in your marketing. That testimonials and good stories about the product really do make a difference to your bottom. If you look at story telling throughout time, people always exaggerate and add little bits on but it is these exaggerations and add ons that make a story memorable. Being memorable is what you have to do

The only thing I would take away from this book is that the key ideas are heavily repeated. It is however extremely well written. If you haven't read any new ideas on marketing I would suggest all of Seth Godin's books as a basis and use his recommended reading for further study.

intriguing how storytelling manipulates

a great listen. an intetesting insight into the power to guide and control.
is actually quite a balanced view!

Disappointed

In the earlier days Seth wrote good informative content that was useful, over the last few years it's been same old stuff just re done, there are 2 issues I have with this purchase
1 the content is not fresh, inspiring or dynamic, rather is what he has said many times over and over
2 Seth is now well down and unfortunately become victim to arrogance , presumption and a hubris writing style, which I don't like especially when the content is so poor
I really wish I had not bothered buying this audiobook, this book is an example for writing for the sake of writing for a little financial cause u can with little bearing on delivering quality

Useful listen

As has been mentioned on other reviews, this book does essentially hammer home one point. However, there are lots of good examples and questions to think about. I got a number of ideas and realisations whilst listening. Would recommend to anyone looking to grow their business.

Short and Sweet

Short and sweet. Few examples of how effective marketing works. The power of a story and framing are explained in multiple ways over and over throughout the book. The audiobook is read by the author and he has a pleasant voice.

Inconcise but good

Suffers from the log windedness of its genre, but still interestong and worth the listen.

Decent read

This was worthwhile read, especially if you have a product or service on the market.