Stone Soup for the Sale

Originally published in The Red River Buzz, February 2006

Turns out advertisers and marketers can learn a lot from Chinese folklore.

“Stone Soup,” one of my 4-year-old daughter’s favorite books, is a wonderful tale about three Chinese monks who encounter a village where the people have lost trust in strangers and each other. The villagers work hard, but only for themselves, and they have little to do with one another. To rekindle their happiness and sense of community, the monks teach them how to make stone soup.

On a fire in the village square, the monks place a pot filled with water and three round, smooth stones. The curious villagers gaze out at the scene from their locked windows (Attention).

As word of the soup being made from stones spreads, the villagers venture out to see just what this stone soup is all about (Interest).

“Old-style stone soup requires salt and pepper,” says one monk. “Alas, we have none.” A villager runs to his home and returns with salt, pepper and even a few other spices. “The last time we had stones of this size and color,” another monk says, “carrots make the broth delightfully sweet.” A woman fetches all the carrots she can carry and dumps them into the pot.

Something magical begins to happen. Each villager wants to make the soup better (Desire) and gives what he or she has: bean curd, noodles, pea pods, cabbages, onions, ginger root, lily buds… (Action). The soup bubbles and simmers, and the smell is most agreeable.

At last the soup is ready. The villagers gather together for a rich feast for the first time in anyone’s memory. After a night of shared celebration, they welcome the monks into their homes and give them comfortable places to sleep.

To make the sale, we must do as the monks: Grab attention, then create interest and desire to produce action. Do that, and rewards (Sales) will follow.

Alas, if only marketing were as simple as making stone soup.