Aristotle understood marketing…

My Italian great grandfather told me one day, "Sometimes I think stupid old people understood the world better than smart young people today." I thought he was just a kooky old man.

Then I grew up. Now, I must be a kooky old man, too, because I agree.

Aristotle once said: "Character is the most effective means of persuasion."

That was thousands of years ago. And after nearly 20 years in advertising, I can’t think of a more succinct truism.

Aristotle taught that there were three elements of persuasion: logos, pathos and ethos. In essence, logos is an appeal to logic, pathos is an appeal to emotion and ethos is overall credibility.

At Sasso Marketing, we work with various graphic and website design programs. Many people think those are the tools of my trade. They’re not. My tools are logos, pathos and ethos. I can use copywriting and design to create the first two, but only a strong client can provide me with the last one.

As Aristotle would ask: Do you agree? How can you build character for your brand? How can you apply this concept, today? (Wait a minute. Sorry, I think that’s the Socratic teaching method.)


- Phil Sasso