CHOOSING COLOR: People desperately want to believe stories. Even if that story is just a few drops of ink on a plastic sheet. (On differently painted skis)
—
BIG STACK: The reason is that the stack is lying to you, telling you a story about volume and value and urgency. This must be a great deal! They bought so many! They’ve got to clear them out! (and then, paradoxically, “They might run out soon!”)
The punchline: this works because people like us like it. It makes us feel good to buy what feels like a bargain, even if it’s not.
—
CHOOSE CAR: What we do know is that politics should have nothing to do with what you drive. But it does. The reason it does is that politics affects your worldview. Your worldview is the set of assumptions and biases and instincts you bring whenever you examine something new. And if your worldview doesn’t match a story that a marketer is telling you, you ignore it.
—
PLACEBO BLOOD PRESSURE: Actually, there’s more to it than that. It works because it helps you focus on your mechanics and takes your mind away from other things that are having the opposite impact on your blood pressure. It works because it allows you tell yourself a story about getting better, about living slower, about breathing.
—
CAR: Unless you define “useful” to mean, “useful at making me feel sexy and young and filled with energy.” Because that’s what they’re selling and that’s what we’re buying. The fact that it can also get us somewhere is slightly irrelevant.
—
“LIFETIME RADIO”: Why on earth would you want to alienate the most loyal, highest spending customers on your list?
—
TRAINS TIMING: So Metro North bragged about their ontime record and it didn’t jibe with user expectations. So consumer happiness was quite low.
—
OLD NOT PREGNANT
The key to the product’s success is that the product refuses to tell you what other people are using it for. The box intentionally mirrors a pharmaceutical product, and you’ll note that all the messaging is about stretch marks. Yet most people who use it use it for wrinkles. Part of the story here is that misusing the product is part of its charm. That buying a super expensive, industrial strength product for one problem is a great way to solve a different problem.
—
It’s hard to remember back when a cup of coffee for a dollar was considered extravagant. No one buys coffee today. We buy an experience.
—
Smart lawyers win cases where the facts don’t back them up. That’s because smart lawyers know how to tell a story that people will want to believe. It’s a story that makes a juror feel competent and ethical and satisfied. It’s a story that has very little to do with the facts and a lot to do with the lies we insist on.
i think most marketers spend way too much time worrying about their version of the truth and not enough time be authentic and telling stories about what they’re up to.
—
FAKE SOY SAUCE: Does the brown color make diners feel like they’re eating something more Chinese than ordinary table salt would? Undoubtedly.
—
SIZE INFLATION: As a result, the shopper can tell herself a lie… a story about both looking good and feeling good. And that’s the whole point of clothes shopping, isn’t it? We don’t need a new outfit, we want one. And shopping for expensive clothes is all about changing the way the shopper feels.
—
Congresspeople from both sides of the aisle are falling over themselves to see who can get the most airtime talking about the case of Terri Schiavo. Not because it’s a legislative priority or because the medical facts support their efforts. They’re doing it because it’s a compelling story, a story with a simple, vivid, powerful argument on one side and a more subtle, fact-based analysis on the other.
—
WHY PPL HATE MINIVANS: Because of the story, of course. Somewhere along the way, we believed a lie about the personality of the person who chooses to drive a minivan. The soccer mom lie. A simple story that cost Detroit billions of dollars–and our economy billions in lost gas mileage.
—
EASTER BUNNIES CHRISTMAS Just like Christmas trees and lights in the window for the winter holidays, the marketers responsible for spreading the word about Christianity appropriated the symbol to help them market the new holiday.
—
JACKSON POLLOCK Obviously, we’re tweaking on the words “real” and “value” here. If all you’re buying is a car, or excitement or the jealousy of your neighbors, the knock off is just fine. But that’s not all that people buy. Mostly, they buy a story.
—
SMOKING Because cigarette marketers were genius storytellers. Of course they lied to us. They told us a story we wanted to believe, a story about the wild west and freedom and sexuality and youth and hipness.This was an astonishingly expensive story to tell, I grant you that. But once told, the meme entered our vocabulary and it’s going to be around for generations.
seth godin
CHOOSING COLOR: People desperately want to believe stories. Even if that story is just a few drops of ink on a plastic sheet. (On differently painted skis)
—
BIG STACK: The reason is that the stack is lying to you, telling you a story about volume and value and urgency. This must be a great deal! They bought so many! They’ve got to clear them out! (and then, paradoxically, “They might run out soon!”)
The punchline: this works because people like us like it. It makes us feel good to buy what feels like a bargain, even if it’s not.
—
CHOOSE CAR: What we do know is that politics should have nothing to do with what you drive. But it does. The reason it does is that politics affects your worldview. Your worldview is the set of assumptions and biases and instincts you bring whenever you examine something new. And if your worldview doesn’t match a story that a marketer is telling you, you ignore it.
—
PLACEBO BLOOD PRESSURE: Actually, there’s more to it than that. It works because it helps you focus on your mechanics and takes your mind away from other things that are having the opposite impact on your blood pressure. It works because it allows you tell yourself a story about getting better, about living slower, about breathing.
—
CAR: Unless you define “useful” to mean, “useful at making me feel sexy and young and filled with energy.” Because that’s what they’re selling and that’s what we’re buying. The fact that it can also get us somewhere is slightly irrelevant.
—
“LIFETIME RADIO”: Why on earth would you want to alienate the most loyal, highest spending customers on your list?
—
TRAINS TIMING: So Metro North bragged about their ontime record and it didn’t jibe with user expectations. So consumer happiness was quite low.
—
OLD NOT PREGNANT
The key to the product’s success is that the product refuses to tell you what other people are using it for. The box intentionally mirrors a pharmaceutical product, and you’ll note that all the messaging is about stretch marks. Yet most people who use it use it for wrinkles. Part of the story here is that misusing the product is part of its charm. That buying a super expensive, industrial strength product for one problem is a great way to solve a different problem.
—
It’s hard to remember back when a cup of coffee for a dollar was considered extravagant. No one buys coffee today. We buy an experience.
—
Smart lawyers win cases where the facts don’t back them up. That’s because smart lawyers know how to tell a story that people will want to believe. It’s a story that makes a juror feel competent and ethical and satisfied. It’s a story that has very little to do with the facts and a lot to do with the lies we insist on.
i think most marketers spend way too much time worrying about their version of the truth and not enough time be authentic and telling stories about what they’re up to.
—
FAKE SOY SAUCE: Does the brown color make diners feel like they’re eating something more Chinese than ordinary table salt would? Undoubtedly.
—
SIZE INFLATION: As a result, the shopper can tell herself a lie… a story about both looking good and feeling good. And that’s the whole point of clothes shopping, isn’t it? We don’t need a new outfit, we want one. And shopping for expensive clothes is all about changing the way the shopper feels.
—
Congresspeople from both sides of the aisle are falling over themselves to see who can get the most airtime talking about the case of Terri Schiavo. Not because it’s a legislative priority or because the medical facts support their efforts. They’re doing it because it’s a compelling story, a story with a simple, vivid, powerful argument on one side and a more subtle, fact-based analysis on the other.
—
WHY PPL HATE MINIVANS: Because of the story, of course. Somewhere along the way, we believed a lie about the personality of the person who chooses to drive a minivan. The soccer mom lie. A simple story that cost Detroit billions of dollars–and our economy billions in lost gas mileage.
—
EASTER BUNNIES CHRISTMAS Just like Christmas trees and lights in the window for the winter holidays, the marketers responsible for spreading the word about Christianity appropriated the symbol to help them market the new holiday.
—
JACKSON POLLOCK Obviously, we’re tweaking on the words “real” and “value” here. If all you’re buying is a car, or excitement or the jealousy of your neighbors, the knock off is just fine. But that’s not all that people buy. Mostly, they buy a story.
—
SMOKING Because cigarette marketers were genius storytellers. Of course they lied to us. They told us a story we wanted to believe, a story about the wild west and freedom and sexuality and youth and hipness.This was an astonishingly expensive story to tell, I grant you that. But once told, the meme entered our vocabulary and it’s going to be around for generations.