GUIs 'forced' on people (was Re: Here's something to consider.)

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Thu Sep 17 14:04:05 1998

I wrote:
> However, I think you grossly overestimate the
> degree to which marketing is able to override other considerations that
> consumers may have.

Sam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com> wrote:
> I think you grossly over-estimate the intelligence of the average American
> consumer.

No, I most certainly don't do that.

I think you still miss my point. I am not claiming that consumers pick
the "better" product (for any sensible definition of better). I am claiming
that consumers will seize upon some perceived benefit of a product, and make
that product successful. Sometimes this happens because of marketing,
but other times it happens despite the best efforts of marketing to derail
it.

This appears to be precisely what happened in the Beta vs. VHS format war.
Neither side did all that much marketing, but Sony's marketing tended to
be much better my any sensible metric.* Neither party emphasized the
recording time per tape, or the availability of porn, the two factors
that most people agree led to the success of VHS.

Cheers,
Eric

* Some people use the success of the product as the metric for how good
the marketing was. This is an utterly useless way of looking at it, because
it assumes from the outset that marketing is the only factor affecting
purchases.
Received on Thu Sep 17 1998 - 14:04:05 BST