X-Message-Number: 30122
From: "Robert Moore" <>
References: <>
Subject: RE: #30120 Marketing
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:02:06 -0800

If Seth Godin's analysis of modern marketing is correct, it seems to follow
that we should market cryonics as a possible ticket to a glorious future:

"You too may be able live in a shining city on the hill, drinking wine from
golden cups, laughing and playing with the eternally youthful and beautiful
people.  Give yourself a chance to experience adventure climbing on Mars,
luxury space-cruising the rings of Saturn, flying in crystal domes on the
hills of the moon." Etc.

Robert Moore

Message #30120
From: 
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:37:13 EST
Subject: marketing

Below are two reviews of a book called All Marketers Are LIars  (plus a 
subtitle).by Seth Godin.
 
While there are doubtless many exceptions to the cynical exploiters he  
targets, there remains a good deal of truth in his view, I believe. In  any
case, 
all this doesn't tell us anything new or useful about marketing  cryonics,
but 
it does underscore the point that those who keep advocating  spending money
on 
professional marketers are recommending that we throw money  away. 
 
Robert Ettinger
 
  
____________________________________
  
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Advertising's fundamental  theorem-that perception trumps reality-informs 
this dubious marketing primer.  Journalist and marketing guru Godin, author
of 
Purple Cow: Transform Your  Business by Being Remarkable, contends that, in
an 
age when consumers are  motivated by irrational wants instead of objective 
needs and "there is almost no  connection between what is actually there and
what 
we believe," presenting  stolid factual information about a product is a 
losing strategy. Instead,  marketers should tell "great stories" about their

products that pander to  consumers' self-regard and worldview. Examples
include 
expensive wine glasses  that purport to improve the taste of wine, despite 
scientific proof to the  contrary; Baby Einstein videotapes that are
"useless for 
babies but...satisfy a  real desire for their parents"; and organic
marketing 
schemes, which amount to  "telling ourselves a complex lie about food, the 
environment and the safety of  our families." Because consumers prefer
fantasy to 
the truth, the marketer's  duty is to be "authentic" rather than honest, to 
"live the lie, fully and  completely" so that "all the details line up"-that
is, 
to make their falsehoods  convincing rather than transparent. Troubled by
the 
cynicism of his own  argument, Godin draws a line at deceptions that
actually 
kill people, like  marketing infant formula in the Third World, and
elaborates 
a murky distinction  between "fibs" that "make the thing itself more
effective 
or enjoyable" and  "frauds" that are "solely for the selfish benefit of the 
marketer." To  illustrate his preferred approach to marketing, the author 
relates a grab bag of  case studies, heavy on emotionally compelling pitches
and 
seamless subliminal  impressions. Readers will likely find the book's
practical 
advice as rudderless  as its ethical principles. 
Copyright   Reed Business Information, a division  of Reed Elsevier Inc. All

rights reserved. 

Book  Description
Every marketer tells a story. And if they do it right, we  believe them. We 
believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass.  We believe 
that an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne is vastly superior to a $36,000 VW  Touareg,

which is virtually the same car. We believe that $225 Pumas will make  our
feet 
feel better-and look cooler-than $20 no-names . . . and believing it  makes
it 
true.  
Successful marketers don't talk about features or even benefits. Instead,  
they tell a story. A story we want to believe.  
This is a book about doing what consumers demand-painting vivid pictures
that 
 they choose to believe. Every organization-from nonprofits to car
companies, 
 from political campaigns to wineglass blowers-must understand that the
rules 
 have changed (again). In an economy where the richest have an infinite 
number of  choices (and no time to make them), every organization is a
marketer and 
all  marketing is about telling stories.  
Marketers succeed when they tell us a story that fits our worldview, a story

that we intuitively embrace and then share with our friends. Think of the 
Dyson  vacuum cleaner or the iPod.  
But beware: If your stories are inauthentic, you cross the line from fib to

fraud. Marketers fail when they are selfish and scurrilous, when they abuse 
the  tools of their trade and make the world worse. That's a lesson learned
the 
hard  way by telemarketers and Marlboro.  
This is a powerful book for anyone who wants to create things people truly  
want as opposed to commodities that people merely need. 





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