My favorite thing I did in college was watch perfume ads…

Yes, Perfume ads. I remember watching Valentino’s “Donna”, and then Calvin Klein’s “Eternity”, when my professor asks us a question;

“How do you sell a product you cannot perceive? How could I ever convince you to purchase a smell, when you have no idea what it smells like?”

The answer is: Through a story.

I learned that sometimes what we as marketers sell, and what our consumer purchases isn’t the product at all, but our story.

Buying “Donna” is not buying the smell of vanilla.

I become her. I purchase and embody the essence of what it means to be an Italian femme fatale. I purchase her mystique and elegance. I purchase her story.

I was enthralled. I would later go home to force my friends through ad-watching sessions and be delighted to see their shared intrigue at the same concept. To sell a story.

This is what drives my passion for marketing. Understanding people’s aspirations, their base desires, and offering those desires to them. Being a marketer, to me, means being a professional story-teller.

Let’s tell your story together.