Marketing isn’t just about reaching the right people—it’s about reaching the right depth. What poets know about human emotion can change the way we tell stories that sell..
What Might Poetry Teach Us About Marketing?
Here’s how William Stafford, winner of the 1963 National Book Award for Poetry, opens You Must Revise Your Life:
My life… comes to me as two parts, like two rivers that blend… One part is easy to tell: the times, the places, events, people. The other part is mysterious… the flow of my inner life… that touches the outward story but is not the same.
We’re all aware of the first river—the visible one: our careers, our relationships, our cities and schedules. This “outward story” is how we introduce ourselves to others. And, understandably, it’s where most marketing tends to live. Campaigns are often designed to align with what’s measurable, timely, and top-of-mind: job titles, demographics, behavior signals, content calendars.
But Stafford reminds us of the second river. The one beneath. The river of longing, confusion, joy, loss, wonder—the inner life that doesn’t fit cleanly into buyer personas or quarterly goals.
Poets dwell in that river. And the best marketers? They learn to wade in too.
Great marketing doesn’t just reflect who we are on the outside; it speaks to the mystery inside. That’s why the most iconic campaigns don’t just sell—they stir. They whisper to something wordless in us.
That’s where poetry comes in.
Poets dwell in the second river. And the best marketers learn to wade in too.
Think about Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl ad. It didn’t explain the Mac’s specs—it told a myth. A liberation story.
Nike’s Just Do It campaign didn’t list product features; it whispered to something quiet and powerful in all of us: the desire to overcome inertia and move forward.
Steve Jobs famously opened the 1984 Apple shareholders meeting by reading a Bob Dylan poem. Because he knew: people don’t just buy products. They buy stories. Symbols. Permission to see themselves differently.
So what might poetry teach us about marketing?
Everything.
It teaches us to listen for what isn’t being said.
To speak in metaphor, not just metrics.
To craft messages that resonate, not just inform.
To trust that beneath every persona is a person.
And beneath every person is a second river.