Just say something people want(gkogan.co) |
Just say something people want(gkogan.co) |
What this article is trying to say is selling benefits vs features
Which description below interests you more?
A: "The GeeWhiz personal helicopter: the most efficient, best helicopter ever. Its dual cast aluminum blades spin at an incredible 600 revolutions per minute. It's as silent as a mouse's fart. It weighs only 750 pounds thanks to its innovative carbon alloy frame."
B: "Cut your commute time in half with the GeeWhiz personal helicopter"
B probably got your attention more, unless you have a personal interest in helicopters. Most people don't, they just want to know what it can do for them. Your eyes may have glazed over A because it was a bunch of words you don't care about.
A lot of people lean into feature marketing because either THEY are excited about it or they want to dazzle you - feature bombing is a real thing. For example you are NOT going to go drive up some huge rocks like the trucks in the commercials do - it just gives you a warm fuzzy. But it belongs AFTER you convince the person of the why it matters. In this case, they're reaching people who want a truck, they're deciding which truck.
> Perfect customer experiences made possible with Fin
Seriously? It can be anything: a call center, a CRM system, a self-service portal, an AI chatbot...
B marketing actually annoys the shit out of me if I'm in the market for a product and all of the competitors act like Im not trying to choose between them.
Seriously, who researches buying a dishwasher and wants to hear about all of the time you'd save not washing your plates by hand?
So I have to list out technical features as a way to create trust that there are technically capable people behind the product.
But TBH it probably doesn't really work either. Now it's all about social connections as implied in the article. It was already like that before, now it's a different level. Now the importance of nepotism has reached full-blown communism level.
If it seems new, I suggest hunkering down with a marketing textbook on a weekend.
My analogy for marketing is this:
CS = human needs and wants. They are foundational building blocks of that don't change much.
Programming = marketing tactics. They change depending on ecosystem, talent, timelines, etc.
I don't know any marketer that would pitch "composable OS fabric." Actually, I do...it's when a marketer/agency has failed to convince stakeholders how to talk to their audience.
Sometimes that is because the marketer/agency sucks. Or some combination of the founder/company being somewhere on the spectrum of hating marketing and not understanding marketing.
With that out of the way, I hate this kind of vague messaging. Yeah, the product will... somehow enable me to achieve some vague goal. Okay. Why don't you slap some screen-filling pictures of happy people in an office on there while you're at it, Mr. Marketing. I'll probably just close the tab and move on. I need substance and details, and I don't have the patience to go digging in your stupid feel-good marketing material for 20 minutes!
This is the iterative process of saying what people want. Live. With stress tested feedback. The ultimate taskbot (you) and your harness (human body).
Customer? Discovery.
Public? Reputation & stability.
(Most people, most of the time? Nothing.)
It's basically just greed unleashed.
You're pushing this product for your own sake, not the user's.
Maybe consider getting a job at a deli, and learning how to make a good ham sandwich. At least then you're making something for the person who buys it.
Of course this won't get you on the invite list to elon's opening golf tournament on Mars 8-/
Maybe... Martian Golf Clubs!!! That's it! Martian Golf Clubs!
Sorry, I'm off to gen my pitch deck and call Paul...
My platform is targeted at non-technical builders.
For years, I'd been trying to market to developers and I was repeatedly told that developers are different. But now, I'm targeting regular people but it's the same thing.
So it seems maybe the marketing difference is not about developers after all.
This is like saying that employees don't care about salaries because job listings rarely include them, yet they still get applicants. Employers are advertising the subset of the information they know which is beneficial to their interest, not the subset that is objectively most relevant. The article is just an elaborate post-hoc justification.
Meanwhile in reality, Wiz succeed by (allegedly) bribing CTOs to install their software, and (allegedly) bribing competitor's engineers to divulge their IP. Much more effective than marketing.
time and time again I search for products on Amazon that do X and they all argue that X is great for all sorts of reasons and "here's stock photo imagery of a pretty woman using X" and then they miss out critical details like the range of X or how long X will last which allows me to compare it to Y.
Nobody looks for product websites which tell them how much time theyre wasting washing up dishes. If there is one standout thing they want to see on your website it is a no bullshit guarantee to prove that you have faith in the quality of your product.
10 year guarantee on a personal helicopter > no guarantee. That's marketing that works.