All Marketers are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works--and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All

There are a million markets, each filled with people who share a worldview.

This group was treated as a homogeneous group, sharing just one worldview: we like sushi.

You succeed by being an extremist in your storytelling, then gracefully moving your product or service to the middle so it becomes more palatable to audiences that are persuaded by their friends, not by you.

Marketing is about spreading ideas, and spreading ideas is the single most important output of our civilization.

A vote is a statement about the voter, not the candidate.

• a shortcut • a miracle • money • social success • safety • ego • fun • pleasure • belonging

And in order to do that, you must aggressively go to the edges and tell a story that no one else could tell.

New products grow when they can peel off a few early adopters and persuade them that they have found the answer to their prayers. This only works when they tell their friends, though.

Talented marketers understand that the prospect is ultimately telling himself the lie, so allowing him (and the rest of the target audience) to draw his own conclusions is far more effective than just announcing the punch line.

Don’t try to change someone’s worldview is the strategy smart marketers follow. Don’t try to use facts to prove your case and to insist that people change their biases. You don’t have enough time and you don’t have enough money. Instead, identify a population with a certain worldview, frame your story in terms of that worldview and you win.