> > Well, if you don't spend money marketing a product, you will not have
> > anything to pay for developing the product.
>
> I'm not making that argument that people shouldn't market their products.
>
> I'm making the argument that some marketing techniques are unethical;
> in particular, those which have *nothing* to do with the features/merits
> of the product and are instead designed to pander to the prospective
> clientele. I've already cited the example of the showbiz booths at
I will agree that such marketing is not "great", but if you don't
pander to (in the non-prostitution sense,) the prospective dealers... the
old "what's in it for me", never gets satisfied, and the product does not
get sold. This attitude delayed the computer revolution about ten years,
as tech-no-wizes refused to give potential dealers enough incentive to
sell the early stuff. The big gun, IBM, produced a product of less
robustness than other early manufacturers, and shipped it with an
operating system that was substantially less good than Digital Research's
stuff. When placed side by side with the Mac, IBM would have been classed
as a loser made by a small bunch of school kids. (In fact, it was
designed by a number of summer interns.)
BUT! IBM got the end-user's and the end-user's boss' attention.
They showed the world that desktop computing could possibly be USEFUL!
And they lost the market in large part, because like the
tech-no-wizes before them, they did not know how to sell to the end user.
They thought they owned the business user market channel, from the factory
to the desk top, only to find that it was NOT the dominant channel, even
in their market. They were NOT willing to give retailers as much of a
return on investment as others were, and so they lost heavily in the
retail channel to clone makers. It wasn't till they had a substantial
backlash in the market, generating what seemed to be a surplus of
computers they could not sell, that they began wholesale use of personal
computers in their own facilities. And found out how useful it could be!
In contrast, MS did everything to get to buy (and pay off) the gate
keepers of their market channel, the computer manufacturer, and succeeded
all too well. Basically, they gave the manufacturer sweet and easy deals
in the beginning -- you install this, and pay us a lot less than if you
install other systems. Later on, once they owned the channel, they got
Draconian, but the essence is, you install it on all machines, and you
have a sweet deal. You want to install it on only some, and you pay
through the nose, or maybe don't get any.
> Comdex, which I feel are unconscionable; I'd add to that list, oh,
> some of the Michelin commercials ("Buy our tires or your baby will die"),
> all of the Nike commercials ("Buy our shoes and play basketball like Michael
> Jordan"), a great many car commercials ("Buy our car and get laid"), and
> about a bazillion others.
Is the peacock's tail unethical? Is the Crane's mating dance
unethical? Is the ram's head to head contest unethical?
> Yes, I *know* that these tactics work. But whether or not they work
> is a separate issue from whether or not they're ethical.
What is ethics? The purpose of those contests, is to show the
prospective mate has the resources (health and energy) to out-do the other
prospects. The winners are chosen not for ability to perform the function
of mating, but because they are more able to persevere in the market place.
And maybe therefore, the investment of carrying their offspring will be of
greater reward to the community. (Nature has had a few billion years to
prove this strategy.)
Is long term survival of the group ethical? Or is it long term
survival of the individual? I think that neither extreme is ethical. What
is reasonable, is a good balance between the two dynamics.
Besides, the shows are where the market becomes visible as a field.
It is the field the rams compete in as a spectacle for the ewes. Our
problem, yours and mine, is that we are too smart to compete in that
manner. And so, are not much of a spectacle for the clients (or perhaps
gals,) we would seek to attract.
At different times, the often concave playing field becomes convex,
and it is the extremes that survive at the expense of the middle. Soon,
things get worked out again, and field becomes convex again, with the
middle being the safest ground. At those oscillations, are new species,
and new industries, born. And they in turn bend the playing field again.
> > Marketing is often far more expensive, and harder to do, than development.
>
> Only if done badly, which it *very* frequently is. And given that 'net's
Agreed wholeheartedly!
> pervasiveness and size, the few remaining excuses for that are evaporating.
> It's now quite possible to build a business up by using Internet-only
> marketing -- heck, it's not just possible, it's already been done.
Yes! And we are just beginning to see a change comparable in scope to
the change that occurred when the average person could afford to buy a
model T Ford. With that, came the roads, major social changes, major
reshuffling of genes and fortunes, the demise of the family farm as the
center of civilization, etc. etc. etc. Of course, many of those trends
were already in progress... but the automobile wrought MAJOR changes in
American life. It is now the arguable core of who we are.
Here in Califaultia, the front door of the house is almost hidden,
with the garage door being in prominent view. Califaultian home
architecture is worse than it's geological faults, in my opinion. Up
here, many people drive an hour or sometimes even two hours each way to
work. That is three to four hours a day on the road in the car, driving
and yacking on the cell phone.
The oscillation of the playing field is about to change all that
again. Telecommuting will save us more on our imports, oil, than most can
imagine. And once again, we will wonder how we ever lived in those times
of yore.
As someone said, truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has
to make sense.
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