Book review: All Marketers Are Liars

Over this past weekend I went back and re-read portions of Seth Godin’s book, “All Marketers Are Liars”, because its memory started itching some back recess of my brain here a few months after initially reading it and I wasn’t quite sure why. I had to go back and skim it to find the answer.

Let’s start with the title of the book, “All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World”. Hmmm. Something is already wrong here.

When I lookup the word “authentic”, I get the definition, “conforming to fact and therefore worthy of belief”. Doesn’t it follow that if we tell “authentic” stories in our marketing we are by definition telling the truth and not lying? Alas, Godin admits he was lying to us from the start because right on the back dust jacket of the book he states, “I was lying to you when I named this book. Marketers aren’t liars. They are just storytellers. It’s the consumers who are liars.” He then goes on to state that marketers tell stories and because consumers choose to believe those stories that best fit into their own world view that they are, in essence, lying to themselves.

OK, I still have a problem with the whole premise of the book.

Not to be redundant, but if marketers are out there telling authentic stories, why would somebody who believes those stories that “conform to the facts” be lying to themselves? I’ll forgive the inconsistency because Mr. Godin is trying to make a larger point, but I won’t forgive the use of a bold, deceptive title in an attempt to sell books.

I’ll grant that we humans all gravitate to brands that tell stories that are consistent with our own world views, but to take self-selective brand filtering and twist it to give the impression that something is wrong in the marketing profession is just plain usurious.

Godin uses some great supporting case studies in this book about how some very good marketers tell vivid stories about their brands and how those stories self-select their audiences. In my opinion, this is exactly what any good marketer and any powerful brand is supposed to do.

Godin goes one step further, however, and implies that often the story that gets told is the only differentiator between brands and that the story alone can be used to build a great brand.

He misses the point.

If the stories are authentic, then it is the whole brand behind the story that is different. The stories are not lies. The stories are describing why one brand is different and unique from others. The marketing “stories” are indeed brand promises or brand stories and it is our duty to tell our brands' unique stories as compellingly and as convincingly as we can.

Even if we accept for the moment that consumers turn off all logic and purely make emotional decisions based upon which story they choose to believe in the absence of real data (more on this in a few moments), we cannot believe that people will turn off their logic indefinitely so that any significant brand preference built in this way is sustainable over the long-term. Sooner or later the brand is going to have to live up to the story.

While Godin’s theories are well presented with good examples, I couldn’t help but read the book and feel that it was a good short article or opinion piece that got compromised when it was stretched into a book and given a provocative title.

His assertion that marketers should tell vivid stories that consumers want to believe is indeed solid advice. His underlying, unstated implication that marketers should tell the “right lies”, however, does a disservice to the entire marketing profession.

Sure, he purposefully named the book in a misdirecting manner to get a reaction that would spur debate, generate buzz, and sell more books…and here I am responding. OK Seth, one for you.

However, not all buzz is good buzz and not all discussion will help build a strong brand. Not all stories are worth repeating.

In the case of “All Marketers Are Liars”, I’d have to say the book did not live up to my expectations of the Seth Godin brand. I’ve read Godin’s previous works and expected more from this effort. Godin’s previous works were much stronger and did not have to resort to tricks or gimmicks to sell the books. Nor did they contain as much filler material as this one seems to have. The problem is, he does not give a single example in the entire book where a marketer is shown to be genuinely lying and consumers are rewarding that brand. Now I find that I must approach any of his future works with some skepticism and ask myself, “Is he just trying to be provocative to sell books or is there real--and enough--meat here?”

Back to suspended logic.

One passage in the book (pages 93-94) reveals that Mr. Godin shops for certain products, in this case organic foods, not because he believes the marketing claims but because he lies to himself about the brands because he believes they make him feel better. This is a fair enough claim and a valid point for marketers and branders to remember. As I stated in my e-book, “How to Build and Maintain A Powerhouse Brand”, an important part of building a strong brand is tapping emotion and building more than just product features and benefits into the brand’s story. Brands must make logical and emotional appeals.

In this particular passage of the book, Godin explains that he shops for organic foods not because they taste or perform any better (he claims that he believes the data is not clear), not because they are less expensive (he claims that he believes the prices are inflated), not because they are any better for him (he claims that many items found at organic grocery stores are loaded with saturated fats and sugar-loaded juices) and not because they are a good way to support family farmers (he claims that most of the money goes to marketers and processors), but because it is a way for many (we can only assume he includes himself in this category) to assuage guilt about being Americans because Americans are the “world’s least efficient consumers of just about everything”.

That’s why my brain started to itch all these months after initially reading the book.

Mr. Godin puts all logic aside and admits that he makes purchases emotionally and, at least at times, suspends all logic. He is willing to accept the fact that he believes self-lies just to feel less guilty.

Therein is an indication of what the real title of this book should be: “Consumers Are Not Always Rational” or maybe, "I Lie to Myself".

Those would be great potential book titles. The book could be geared toward all the bottom line, ROI, analytical types out there who want all branding decisions to be based on numbers and hard facts. The book could then go on to describe why building emotion into brands is so important and that it cannot be underestimated because humans do not respond to logic alone. Often they make decisions based on emotion and rationalize those decisions later using logic. Sometimes they are just going for a certain feeling—even if their actions are self-proclaimed to be irrational.

You genuinely lying marketers out there, take note. Seth Godin has told us that he believes what he thinks are lies as long as they conform to his world view. Read this book to learn more about his purchasing habits and then set him up in your databases accordingly so you can sell him your wares.

For the rest of you marketers, this book is interesting and useful but not worth the purchase price unless you want more books with titles such as, “All Marketers Are Thieves”, “All Marketers Are Sleazy”, and “All Marketers Are Pond Scum”. If the guy makes a lot of money at it this time I’m sure he’ll keep going back to the same well. (If you recall, I covered his comments at the DMA conference back in October when he declared all marketers are spammers. Perhaps he was giving us a preview of his new writing strategy.)

I’ll tell you what. Save your money and borrow my copy of the book. Just send it back when you’re done reading it.

Fair enough?