Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future

by Jonah Sachs

Trying to get your message heard? Build an iconic brand?
Welcome to the battlefield.

The story wars are all around us. They are the struggle to be heard in a world of media noise and clamor. Today, most brand messages and mass appeals for causes are drowned out before they even reach us. But a few consistently break through the din, using the only tool that has ever moved minds and changed behavior—great stories.

With insights from mythology, advertising history, evolutionary biology, and psychology, viral storyteller and advertising expert Jonah Sachs takes readers into a fascinating world of seemingly insurmountable challenges and enormous opportunity. You’ll discover how:

• Social media tools are driving a return to the oral tradition, in which stories that matter rise above the fray
• Marketers have become today’s mythmakers, providing society with explanation, meaning, and ritual
• Memorable stories based on timeless themes build legions of eager evangelists
• Marketers and audiences can work together to create deeper meaning and stronger partnerships in building a better world
• Brands like Old Spice, The Story of Stuff, Nike, the Tea Party, and Occupy Wall Street created and sustained massive viral buzz

Winning the Story Wars is a call to arms for business communicators to cast aside broken traditions and join a revolution to build the iconic brands of the future. It puts marketers in the role of heroes with a chance to transform not just their craft but the enterprises they represent. After all, success in the story wars doesn’t come just from telling great stories, but from learning to live them.

Genres: Business, Writing, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Communication, Audiobook

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 19, 2012

About the author

Jonah Sachs is an author, speaker and viral marketing trailblazer whose work helped spur the 21st century values revolution. Sachs’ pioneering new approaches to digital media were critical in bringing the ideals of social change—such as equity, empowerment, responsibility, transparency, and advocacy—to the forefront of business and popular culture.

Reviews

[Mal Warwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Brilliant New Book on Marketing Destined to be a Classic

If you’ve never seen the wildly popular online videos The Story of Stuff and The Meatrix, do yourself a favor and check them out. These two outstanding examples of the marketer’s craft embody the insights revealed in Jonah Sachs’ outstanding new book, Winning the Story Wars.

For years now, everyone involved in marketing, fundraising, communications, social media, or any related field has been intensely aware that the key to successful messaging is a story. In this beautifully written book, Jonah Sachs explains why that is so, what’s needed for a successful story, and how to construct one, step by step.

As Sachs writes, “the oral tradition that dominated human experience for all but the last few hundred years is returning with a vengeance. It’s a monumental, epoch-making, totally unforeseen turn of events.” If these statements strike you as hyperbolic, consider this: the nearly universal distrust of institutional authority (whether governmental, corporate, or religious) that has become a distinguishing feature of our society over the past five decades, combined with the atomization of our information sources (500 TV channels, one billion Facebook users, 500 million Tweeters), makes it absolutely essential that anyone who needs to deliver a message to a very large number of people must couch it in the form of a story with broad appeal across all the lines that divide us (and define us). As Sachs explains, “Great brands and campaigns are sensitive to the preferences of different types of audiences, but the core stories and the values they represent can be appreciated by anyone. Universality is the opposite of insincerity.”

Winning the Story Wars is, simultaneously, an honest and occasionally embarrassing tale of Sachs’ own halting progress toward understanding the craft of story-making, an exploration of the cultural and anthropological roots of the archetypal stories that live on in our consciousness, and, ultimately, a lucid, practical guidebook to building your own stories.

Sachs has done his homework. He has read Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung as well as the Bible, delved deeply into the history of marketing and advertising, and explored contemporary advertising, as exemplified by the Marlboro Man, the rule-breaking 1960s campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle (“Think Small.”), and Apple’s more recent “1984″ and “Think Different” campaigns. He manages to tie together all these disparate sources and examples within the framework of an entirelly original analysis. Along the way, Sachs reveals how three men — Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, and “the father of public relations,” Joseph Bernays — transformed the American economy by shifting public consciousness from the values of our Puritan heritage to the dictates of the marketplace, enshrining consumerism as the dominant feature in our ethos. It’s truly brilliant.

Sachs bases his analysis on ‘the ‘three commandments’ laid out in 1895 by marketing’s first great storyteller, John Powers: Tell the Truth, Be Interesting, and Live the Truth.” Sachs emphasizes the importance of avoiding “Marketing’s five deadly sins: vanity, authority, insincerity, puffery, and gimmickry.”

If you’re engaged in marketing, advertising, fundraising, or anything even reasonably related to them, you must read this book.

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)

[Jewel Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Author's description of how humans relate to stories felt so true it was as if he was reminding me of information that I had forgotten rather than trying to teach new material. Extrapolating that into the world of marketing was very eye opening.

[Rob Fulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great. The first half of this book is about the concept of storytelling using his unique formula, building a memorable brand and how you can avoid sabotaging your story with learning what "The Five Deadly Sins" of story telling are.

The next half of the book is so meaningful in the approach to jumping from what Jonah calls "inadequacy marketing," to "Empowerment Marketing."

This one BIG idea, is worth the price of this book alone. When I read that I changed our video sales letter script to take out the inadequacy copy and tone, to empowerment and after 2 weeks testing the new video it raised our conversions 23%. I also had a chance to see the Recency analysis and notices that we had a nice bump in engagement which lead our team to believe that they were a much better client of ours.

After reading this book, I am now hooked on reading it again and applying more changes to our copy and look forward to the results to our brand.

Great read!

[Andreea Chiuaru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aș introduce-o clar în programa de la facultățile de comunicare. E o perspectivă diferită și interesantă din care putem privi marile campanii de succes. Nu m-a convins însă partea de „how to”. Cumva, nu mi se pare genul de carte care să te învețe concret ceva, dar are puncte bonus la capitolul „inspirație”.

[Grace Rose]

I think this book is going to really rock my world. I just listened in to a webinar yesterday given by the author, and based on that, I'm pretty sure the book (which I'm only about 20 pages into) is going to be incredibly informative, useful, and uplifting. Will report back!

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong start to this book. Great concepts. Liked the principles as well as the chapter on sins marketers are committing. Thought the tie in for business could have been a little stronger.

[M. Kaboomis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for all Marketers. Filled with advertising campaigns from history that illustrate the author’s points, this book takes you on a journey—a battle between “dark marketing” vs. the new enlightened marketing that is more effective in today’s digital world—you start out soaking in the stories, and then in the last third of the book the author teaches you the steps to applying this new marketing strategy to your brand (or a client’s brand).

If this book is not already considered a classic, it will be.

[Kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Good marketing techniques book with nice examples and great takeaways. I’ll definitely be referencing it in the future. Good for grad school!

[Ties · Rating 3 out of 5]

A marketing book for idealists. The author shares compelling stories and significant failures that convey his convictions quite well. His approach to building a brand based on a significant and real story is also quite interesting.

But I don't think it's very practical for many marketers. Very few companies choose to fundamentally align themselves with doing good, being significant and are willing to make the effort to really connect with their audience. Of course, quite a few extremely succesful brands have it at their core, but for the majority of marketers at mid-sized to large companies this will simply not happen. Financials and short term decision making are at the heart of most companies and will block marketers efforts to achieve these ends.

I loved the BP story at the end of the book. A how-not-to story if there ever was one. But most companies will ignore its lessons for short term gain, like BP did, reaping the rewards of years of greenwashing and plain lying.

The author is walking the talk and I can't say he doesn't write in a compelling way. So if you think you can and want to really make a difference through your brand/marketing, this book is for you. He offers some great insights and a solid process for making the first few steps there. To me, a large part of the book seemed obvious, setting out to prove something that is already beyond discussion. So, I stuck at 3 stars, won't really recommend it.

[Elena Dobre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Razboiul Povestilor este o carte despre marketingul modern. Autorul ne trece prin tehnicile marketingului "intunecat", asa cum il numeste el, si ne arata de ce nu mai poate aduce rezultate. Consumatorul de astazi este satul de mesaje in care organizatia vorbeste numai despre ea, exact ca un om nesuferit care nu ii da microfonul si lui intr-o conversatie.

Din punctul meu de vedere, principiile marketingului modern enumerate in aceasta carte se suprapun peste imaginea unui tip marketing in care eu cred. Se numeste inbound marketing si este o metodologie prin care un strain fata de brandul pe care il avem in portofoliu ajunge sa devina client fidel. Mai exact, omul de marketing il trece prin niste etape prin intermediul diverselor mesaje distribuite in online pentru a-l aduce aproape de brand, fara a fi intruziv. In acelasi fel, a-ti face consumatorul eroul propriului tau brand inseamna a-l lasa pe el sa vina catre tine. Inbound Marketing.

Autorul ofera exemple multiple ale aplicarii principiilor enumerate de el in carte, ceea ce face intelegerea conceptelor mult mai usoara decat daca exemplele ar fi lipsit. De asemenea, el pune in context marketingul modern, aratandu-ti contrastul intre reclamele din vremurile in care Edward Bernays introducea obiceiul fumatului la femei si campaniile bazate pe spunerea unor povesti reusite din ziua de azi.

Cartea se termina cu exercitii care te pot ajuta sa creezi o poveste pentru brandul tau. Eu doar am rasfoit paginile de final, dar pot spune ca nu e chiar asa de usor precum pare sa scrii o poveste. Chiar daca esti un om de marketing tanar, ai fost expus mesajelor unor oameni de marketing de gandire veche si asta ti-a format felul in care exprimi si tu, la randul tau, mesajele de marketing. In orice caz, cartea pare un inceput bun pentru orice povestitor de succes.

[Solomon Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winning the Story Wars is an Impressive book. Its a book about branding and marketing. Arthur Jonah Sachs explains about how a Story plays important role in marketing. In old day humans are always obsessed with stories. We share our thoughts or information using storytelling. In those days leaders or mentors used to share ideas and in Digitorial world we call them as Marketers. In this Digitorial era marketers uses social media, Television and internet for branding and marketing their products. Now days audiences have more exposure to all products and ideas and this makes marketer jobs very tough. Marketers has to express their product as story. In this story audience are hero and they will be having nemesis and marketers are mentors. In story we should tell the truth about product and it should be short and crisp. Exaggerating about the products and deceiving customer to sell our products is not good. Jonah explains five sins to be avoided in marketing and they are vanity,authority, insincerity,puffery and gimmickry. We have stop talking about our product and we have to start talking about how our audience can be when they use our product. I like some of the quotes mentioned in this book, among them my best is ’Tell the truth,be interesting and live the truth’. Marketers have to tell the truth about their products. And by giving gifts to audience and telling the truth about our products will lead our products to successful products. I recommend this book to everyone. Its worth reading.

[Geoffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sachs wrote a marketing book with a twist. He offers a compelling story for marketers to change their marketing tactics from treating them as passive consumers, to empowered doers who act as brand heroes for your company.

Sachs argues that by combining story and myth we can create truly revolutionary ad campaigns that move people towards action. In order to this the company should follow John Powers three rules to marketing: tell the truth, be interesting, and live the truth—in other words, practice authenticity.

Sachs provides tools and exercises for building your own story for your brand, drawing from archetypes, mentors, myths, morality and Joseph Campbell’s hero journey. He employs these to tell your brand story and create a cultural myth that goes beyond consumerism. With the state of the planet in decline from over consumption, nothing is more imperative but to create new shared myths and values that emphasize ecological rejuvenation and minimal environmental impact.

The stakes are high, and the stories we tell may just be the ticket we need to escape a future dystopian.

[Rajiv Chopra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had much promise, and did partially deliver on the promise. There were some very good points about the art of story telling, and myth, and I think that Jonah started well.

I like the concept of the book and, in many ways, he was very smart to focus on the art of story telling through marketing messages. These now dominate our world. Shorter messages have dominated our world, and we have forgotten the art of writing, reading, the telling of, and the listening of a finely crafted story. This applies not only to the marketing messages we receive, but also to the books that are written.

A deeper book would have looked beyond marketing messages, and would have looked beyond American shores for inspiration. It would have also looked into the art of story telling in other countries.

Still, the book serves a great purpose, and this is something, for which we that thank Jonah.

[Christopher Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

The irony of this book (or I suppose hypocrisy might work too) is he preaches his 'myth' or 'stories' that he believes, and uses that as examples. His stories are of course the typical left wing chicken little stuff. Of course, Glenn Beck is mocked, not that I am a fan of his, but it's a leftist book. Too bad, because I like the book's premise. It would be nice to see an objective account of this premise.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reviews I read prior to reading this book, made me expect a very different kind of work. Maybe the story wars were being waged in the reviews. I ended up skimming this title. I think I was not the target audience for this title.

[Aradhee · Rating 2 out of 5]

too boring for a book on storytelling

[Hannah Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although a few years old, this is the best text on marketing that I’ve read.

It does the usual things: summarizes the history of marketing, gives examples of the best and worst marketing campaigns up to the book’s publication date, and provides a guide for how to make your own marketing better.

But this is a different sort of marketing book, too. It doesn’t just tell you how to use marketing to persuade people to buy stuff. It is, really, a book about empowerment marketing.

It comes from a perspective of looking at marketing as something more than just persuasion, instead as a force that shapes our cultural mythology. “Storytelling” has come to be something of a buzzword in marketing, but this is the best description of what that actually means that I’ve come across. This book made me think about how the narratives, characters, and messages that marketers put out into the world really have a profound impact on the cultural mythology of the western world. Branding has shifted us into a society of consumerism, it’s propelled movements toward things like feminism and environmental activism, and it’s provided our imaginations with characters as culturally ingrained in us as the Jolly Green Giant and Ronald McDonald. It’s both terrifying and enlightening to see how far-reaching marketing is in our society.

But this isn’t just a book about the history of marketing. At its core, it’s a book about empowerment marketing, and that’s why I loved it. It’s a challenge to companies to “win the story wars” that are competing with modern consumers by telling stories and creating brands which don’t just persuade people to buy things but to become better citizens. A little idealistic, sure, but I think corporate America could use some of that.

A great perspective on marketing with solid suggestions for how to use marketing to empower instead of just persuade

[Elena Dobre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Razboiul Povestilor este o carte despre marketingul modern. Autorul ne trece prin tehnicile marketingului "intunecat", asa cum il numeste el, si ne arata de ce nu mai poate aduce rezultate. Consumatorul de astazi este satul de mesaje in care organizatia vorbeste numai despre ea, exact ca un om nesuferit care nu ii da microfonul si lui intr-o conversatie.

Din punctul meu de vedere, principiile marketingului modern enumerate in aceasta carte se suprapun peste imaginea unui tip marketing in care eu cred. Se numeste inbound marketing si este o metodologie prin care un strain fata de brandul pe care il avem in portofoliu ajunge sa devina client fidel. Mai exact, omul de marketing il trece prin niste etape prin intermediul diverselor mesaje distribuite in online pentru a-l aduce aproape de brand, fara a fi intruziv. In acelasi fel, a-ti face consumatorul eroul propriului tau brand inseamna a-l lasa pe el sa vina catre tine. Inbound Marketing.

Autorul ofera exemple multiple ale aplicarii principiilor enumerate de el in carte, ceea ce face intelegerea conceptelor mult mai usoara decat daca exemplele ar fi lipsit. De asemenea, el pune in context marketingul modern, aratandu-ti contrastul intre reclamele din vremurile in care Edward Bernays introducea obiceiul fumatului la femei si campaniile bazate pe spunerea unor povesti reusite din ziua de azi.

Cartea se termina cu exercitii care te pot ajuta sa creezi o poveste pentru brandul tau. Eu doar am rasfoit paginile de final, dar pot spune ca nu e chiar asa de usor precum pare sa scrii o poveste. Chiar daca esti un om de marketing tanar, ai fost expus mesajelor unor oameni de marketing de gandire veche si asta ti-a format felul in care exprimi si tu, la randul tau, mesajele de marketing. In orice caz, cartea pare un inceput bun pentru orice povestitor de succes.

[Patrick McGlone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bridging the gap from old-think broadcast messaging, advertising, & marketing to the new world of social media is daunting, but necessary. Consumers are more savvy than ever, and the hard sell of old will not work on a broad audience anymore. People can find and share information much more easily than ever before. Jonah takes an old technique (word of mouth marketing) and provides tips and techniques to explain how to use it in this new digital world to not just improve your bottom line, but also to make your business more thoughtful of why & how the messaging selected should or shouldn't be created, edited, and utilized.

This book is well written in a conversational tone and with examples and thought-exercises throughout. While this book is nearly a decade old at this point, it's guideposts are set in well-considered psychological theory and should stand the test of time.

"The first thing one must do to succeed in advertising is to have the attention of the reader. That means to be interesting. The next thing is to stick to the truth, and that means rectifying whatever is wrong in the merchant's business. If the truth isn't tellable, fix it so it is. That's about all there is to it."

[Brad Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read!

The premise of this book is a war between what Jonah calls Inadequacy Marketing vs Empowerment Marketing.

He denounces all of the gimmickry of modern day marketing that uses sex, fear, manipulation and everything else a business possibly can to get you to buy their product. This he calls inadequacy marketing.

In contrast, the idea of empowerment marketing consists of inspiring your customers to reach beyond themselves and to fulfill their potential and create a better world. Your product does not do this for them, they merely use your product as a tool for self actualization. Eg. A Macbook inspires you to identify as a creator, but you still have to do the work.

I've always tried to build my business this way, but this book is the best how to guide for doing that that I've read.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book talks about the ways that marketers are myth makers, telling the stories that give people a sense of identity and explain how the world works. He spends the first section talking about the bad versions of this, stories that do get a response, but inspire people to show up in a bad way in the world. For example, he is harsh on stories that say that the only thing that matters is commercialism and happiness comes from buying more things. Then he shares themes that he believes get sales and make the world a better place. The best part of the book I think is when he unpacks the classic archetypes for how we show up as brands in the world. I’ve known these archetypes for a while and have applied them for client companies, but I thought he did a good job splitting them. If you’re into marketing, this is a good read.

[Ingrid C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Positive things about this book:
I work as a Content Specialist and sometimes in my role I struggle with the "content creation process", because I'm not sure if what I'm going to produce is going to be valid for the audience, this book comes with a specific process that seems to make sense. The concepts and ideas were clear and I'm definitely more excited and encouraged to put in practice the guideline/training that comes in the book.

Not so positive
Very few times I felt like skipping through the pages, mostly because the explanation of certain topics seemed too long. This did not bother me, especially knowing that I tend to get distracted easily but maybe for readers that prefer books that go straight to the point, be aware that this book is not one of those.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've read Donald Miller's popular Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen or spent any time with Dan Harmon's "Story Circle," most of what you'll read in this book will be familiar to you.

If you haven't, "Winning the Story Wars" is a fantastic introduction to the archetypes and classic narrative arcs that have defined effective storytelling for millennia.

Either way, this book is a well-organized and engaging look at improving your copywriting. If you work in communications, it's worthy of your time.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, Sachs creates a compelling argument for moving beyond the broadcast era of fear-and-inadequacy marketing to empowerment marketing through well-crafted corporate stories that frame the audience - NOT the corporation - as the heroes...the organization is there to help the audience succeed. The five deadly sins of marketing (vanity, authority, insincerity, puffery, and gimmickry) are excellent assessment tools for all marketing narratives, and the archetypes suggested for corporations (pioneer, rebel, magician, jester, captain, defender, and muse) are invaluable as guideposts for exploring corporate identity and values and creative (symbolic) thinking.

[Misha Gericke · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I'm taking more of a responsibility for communications as opposed to only creating content, I've started doing some research on what a good communications strategy actually looks like.

I really liked this books approach to it because I come from a storytelling background and can feel the impact that communications as story can actually have. I really appreciated how the book gave me a framework for thinking about things like branding, taglines, etc. in an accessible way.

Previously this level of marketing speak felt out of my comfort zone, but no more.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Page 47: "Humor is a universal human emotion and one that brings people instantly together. Of all the ways that people can communicate, it may be the most instantly bonding. We laugh together at the same joke, and suddenly we are friends. So it turns out to be a great tool for forming what we know we're after is communicators: the creation of shared identity. But it only sticks if you do it right."

[Seth Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on marketing and building a brand. It's hard for me to rate the book without putting the suggestions within the book to practice but it seems like a good method. It had a lot of political undertones in my opinion that were somewhat distracting from the book's main purpose. All and all a decent read.

[Christine Whitmarsh · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story lessons at the beginning were great, but then he lapsed into politics (yes, I know ostensibly it was "storytelling examples" but really now...) and lost my attention. I love story to the core of my being but in books like this, where there is a clear reader promise of learning, I need it to be clearly coupled with content/knowledge.

[Federico_schaffler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging perspective on how stories are now an integral part of marketing. I liked the way the narrative flowed with stories, very appropriately, intermingling with the research part, which made the book so much better. I listened to the audiobook and I have the printed edition, which I will use as documentation for future storytelling research.

[NS · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book on the power of stories in marketing. From the book of Genesis to the Old Spice guy to Kenneth Cole’s tweets to Obama’s ‘Yes We Can!’ Campaign, Sachs takes us through both good and bad marketing, why they work (or don’t) and what we should do to market our brands and products effectively. Awesome read/listen👌🏼