Review of WINNING THE STORY WARS by Jonah Sachs

Rating: 4 out of 5

In WINNING THE STORY WARS Jonah Sachs explores the role of storytelling as a marketing tool. First, he looks at the dark side of storytelling in what he calls the broadcast era. He shows how marketing trends during this era focused on creating a sense of inadequacy and introducing a miracle cure to that inadequacy. He shows how these types of marketing ploys don't work anymore because they rely on what he calls the five sins of storytelling. A focus on inadequacy was more about selling a product and making money than it was about promoting human flourishing.

Now, in what Sachs calls the digitoral era, modern myth makers are all about human flourishing, creating narratives that give hope and meaning. Sachs outlines how to create these types of narratives in the second part of the book.

WINNING THE STORY WARS is a book about marketing, but it is also a book about living in a way and telling the types of stories that inspire hope and positive change. It's a great elaboration on the idea that those who tell the best stories shape the future.

Review copy provided by Harvard Business Review