In Marketing: Show, Don’t Tell

If you remember show and tell in elementary school, then you can attest to the power of showing. Sure, you could talk about your pet rabbit Thumper all day, but the moment you bring him to show and tell…that’s when you get popular.

This same principle of showing applies to business; showing your product in action will do wonders to persuade your potential customers.

Google provides a great example of showing the capabilities of their browser, Chrome.

With Internet Explorer and Firefox well-established in the browser game, Google positioned Chrome on the attribute of speed. According to Google, “Chrome is designed to be fast in every possible way: It’s quick to start up from your desktop, loads web pages in a snap, and runs complex web applications fast.”

Instead of telling us how fast Chrome was, Google decided to show us. To do this, they made this awesome video racing the Chrome browser against explosives, sound, and electricity. Watch below.

Google could have easily tapped into their inner geek, spewing stats and benchmark tests that stated the case for Chrome’s speed. As much as geeks would have loved this, these figures mean little to everyday users. The golden rule of successful storytelling is “show, don’t tell”. I believe this concept also holds true in marketing, especially with a complicated or technological product. Don’t tell users about your product, show them.

Google did well to show the speed of Chrome.