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Seth Godin talks about marketing he asks us 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. It it fails to do this, it still might sell well but because of things which are not in the marketers control.

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. Telling stories is way to connect with people, a really effective and viral way of communicating with people.

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.

Cat food is not for cats, it's for people. The point of cat food is to sell cat food to cat owners. What the marketers at Fancy Feast do is tell a story that appeals to consumers. Cats don't buy cat food, you do.

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.