Nobody likes to be sold…anything. When was the last time you said to yourself,  “Thank goodness that salesperson kept hammering me to buy that 'widget', I almost walked away”?  You didn’t. Also, no one likes to be lied to. Seems like an easy enough statement to get behind, but marketers just don’t get it. Do businesses really think that consumers still fall for “gimmicks”?  Do they think we believe them when they yell across the television set and tell us their deals are "once in a lifetime" or will "save us money". 

Authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make, but knowing to whom to sell those products by identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers. When you do that, profits to the business will come naturally and so will the good Karma.

Seth Godin, in his book, All Marketers Are Liars, says it best…and I quote,

"A Good story...is where genuine customer satisfaction comes from. It's the source of growth and profit and it's the future of your organization."

But Godin goes on to say this....

"The only way your story will be believed...the only way your idea will spread is if you tell the truth. And you are telling the truth when you live the story you are telling - when it's authentic."

Some other quotes to think of when it comes to Authentic Marketing:

"Customers buy for their reasons, not yours."
- Orvel Ray Wilson

"Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care" - Theodore Roosevelt

“People don't want to be marketed 'TO'; they want to be communicated 'WITH.'"- Flint McGlaughlin

"You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You've got to say it in a way that people will feel in their gut. Because if they don't feel it, nothing will happen.
" - William Bernbach


"What helps people, helps business." - Leo Burnett