An anonymous commenter left me something I want to respond to. I can’t seem to find which post was commented upon (as blogger.com isn’t that clever). So, I’ll repost the comment, and add my thoughts:
Commenter said:
You had a marketing post from Marco called “Lead with benefits. Follow with Features.” (I didn’t ask about it at the time because I got distracted snickering about your worker bees post.) Seth Godin has a book out called “All Marketers Are Liars” and the blurb reads: Successful marketers don’t talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story we want to believe.
What’s your take on that? I would assume from the emphasis you’ve been giving to storytelling and creativity that you think Seth’s philosophy is more current. But then why would you publish Marco’s article on your blog?
I’m considering purchasing Seth’s book so, if you’ve ever read it, any feedback would be appreciated. The Amazon editorial review questioned Seth’s ethics. I guess that’s one of the pitfalls a story teller needs to watch out for.
I think Marco’s point (especially as it pertains to software) is that marketers tend to start front-load their stories with, “Look what we spent our time doing!” instead of “You have a problem we can solve!” Features are useful, but we tend to want to see the way the product will help us.
I think this is EXACTLY why storytelling is more important, so long as the story is helpful and as close to “reality” as possible. And I don’t necessarily require that stories come in the form of customer testimonials, either. Some of the best stories I hear about products come from passionate people within organizations. I’ve purchased things I didn’t even NEED because someone was so jazzed about their product that they dragged me along for the ride.
Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars is a kick-ass book. I like everything Seth does. The reasons I like the book is that it really is a years-ahead-of-the-curve view on what Scoble covers in Naked Conversations.
It seems like such a simple idea: talk about your product like you’d talk to your friends about your product. Tell them how one can use it to solve their woes. And keep the conversation lines open.
Storytelling as a marketing tool exists and has existed for a while. However, the story was often far-flung and weird. Besides, I want the story to go many layers deeper. I want stories to be in the DNA of a product. I want stories to define how the company brings things out. XPLANE has made a business out of helping people understand stories visually within organizations and for mass consumption as well.
So, I say Marco’s got a great point of view in his piece. I say that stories should go even deeper. I think that marketing is now about consumer advocacy and a personal voice. More and more, I’m getting contacted by people out of the blue to review their products or services, so that I can help generate some word-of-mouth buzz. I’m all for it, provided I would likely use the product or service.
I wish the web did even more to help me understand and decide about products and services. I wish the stories were easier to uncover.
Does that answer your questions, my anonymous friend?
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tags: marketing, buzz, storytelling, sethgodin, scoble