# Quote — Max Barry, Syrup

> The first principle of marketing (okay, it’s not the first, but it doesn’t sound nearly as cool to say it’s the third) is this: Perception is reality. You see, a long time ago, some academic came up with the idea that reality doesn’t actually exist. Or at least, if it does, no one can agree what it is. Because of perception.
>
> Perception is the filter through which we view the world, and most of the time it’s a handy thing to have: it generalizes the world so we can deduce that a man who wears an Armani suit is rich, or that a man who wears an Armani suit and keeps saying “Isn’t this some Armani suit” is a rich asshole. But perception is a faulty mechanism. Perception is unreliable and easily distracted, subject to a thousand miscues and misinformation…like marketing. If anyone found a way to actually distinguish perception from reality, the entire marketing industry would crumble into the sea overnight.

- Author: [Max Barry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry.md)
- Book: [Syrup](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry/syrup.md)
- Page: 6
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Barry#Syrup_(1999)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry/syrup/the-first-principle

## More from this book

> “You.” He stares at me for a second, then shakes his head. “You told me the truth.”
>
> I don’t know what to say. “Yeah.”
>
> “Scat,” he says, a pained expression on his face, “haven’t you learned anything?”

p. 292 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry/syrup/you-he-stares.md)

> mktg case study #13: mktg magazines
>
> GIVE AWAY FREE CRAP (PREFERABLY ADVERTISER-SUPPLIED FREE CRAP). DOESN’T MATTER HOW WORTHLESS OR USELESS IT IS: SALES WILL RISE. STRANGE BUT TRUE.

p. 191 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry/syrup/mktg-case-study-13.md)

> “It’s all responsibility and no control,” 6 says. “The classic path to failure.”

p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry/syrup/its-all-responsibility.md)