On Sun, 11 Oct 1998, Doug Yowza wrote:
> I have many problems, but that's not one of them. The kind of marketing
> you're talking about matters a whole lot in certain markets, such as
> commodities. Marketing is what makes you buy one brand of fruit rather
> than another (the whole idea of branding a fruit is pure marketing).
Please explain to me how IBM could have become such a power as they were
if they hadn't marketed their products in the sense that I've described?
They would have been just another also ran. The reason people waited for
the IBM PC to buy their first computer was because they knew IBM would
throw their support operation behind the product. IBM had achieved this
level of credibility through their marketing from the 50s, 60s and 70s.
In fact, the kind of marketing I'm talking about matters MOST in the
computer industry. Because if you can't or won't put an infrastructure of
sales support behind your products, and nobody else does either, then
you're doomed to fail. To survive, you have to promote your products to
other companies by pressing your standards; to users by holding seminars;
to the public by getting your name in circulation. You have to create
campaigns to get people to buy your product by offering discounts, or
evangelizing the benefits of using your products over competitors. Good
products rarely just sell themselves. I can build the greatest widget in
the world but if I don't start telling people about it then it'll sit in
my warehouse collecting dust while I go bankrupt. Obviously you have to
go out and market it for anyone to buy it.
> Microsoft spends a lot of money on marketing, but that's not why you buy
> their products. You buy their OS because all of the applications you want
> run on their OS. They did very little in terms of marketing to make that
> happen (they have co-op marketing plans for ISV's, but they're mostly
> symbolic).
>
> In fact, I'd bet that you actually find the idea of buying Microsoft
> produts rather distasteful, but that you do it anyways. The fact that you
> have a bad impression of them shows just how bad their marketing is. As
No, I have a bad impression of Microsoft because invariably their products
cause me an immense amount of hassle rather than allowing me to be
productive.
> far as minor things like product placement, etc., Microsoft goes through
> the same dull distribution channels as everybody else and does the same
> inane promotions as everbody else, but they still have a huge advantage.
Hardly. In the magazines I read (including Inc., Success, Newsweek,
Computer Telephony) Microsoft has all sorts of ads, in numerous places,
promoting their products in the spirit of the content of the magazine (ie.
home office productivity in Success, TAPI in Computer Telephony). I don't
see ANY ads from any of MS' competitors! Microsoft continually gets their
name out their and in your face. They continually remind you that they
are the dominant force and that you should buy their products.
Its quite simple. Name recognition counts for a lot. If you, the
uninformed consumer (which accounts for most of the population) walk into
a store and see on the rack Microsoft Word and Fooblitzky WordPro+, which
one are you going to choose? Naturally the one you've heard of before.
Even if you don't know much about either, you'll choose the one that
you've at least heard mention of before. If you read the print on the
package, you might be convinced to by Fooblitzky's software, but marketing
also extends to what's printed on the box, and you're damn straight MS
continues their marketing campaign onto the print on the box and will have
on the box what it takes to make you buy Word. Its the same tactic
politicians running for office use. Who takes the time to research the
candidates? Not many people. Yet they are hoping that if they get their
named played enough times, they are the one you will choose when you go to
the ballot box to fill in whatever circles are presented to you.
Here's a good example of marketing. BASF has a commercial running that
says "You don't buy any products that BASF makes, but you do buy products
from companies that use BASF products". What the hell good is running a
commercial like that? Its to promote their name.
Search engines...which one is the best? Who cares. Everyone uses Yahoo!
because they advertise on every medium in existence: TV, radio and print
(for the record, I prefer AltaVista).
> Marketing is not a science, and it helps when all else is equal, but it
> certainly isn't the magic medicine you seem to think it is that can erase
> the effects of second-rate technology, absurd pricing, or illconceived
> products!
If you exaggerate it to the extremes as you have done, no, of course not!
But I think you're still underestimating the value of marketing.
I'll leave it at that.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See
http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 09/21/98]
Received on Sun Oct 11 1998 - 22:12:05 BST