3 ms·
It’s part marketing campaign, part pre-sales to prove demand with an easy out if nobody wants to buy it. There’s nothing wrong or unethical about it IMO
by josephpmay 9y ago
It’s part marketing campaign, part pre-sales to prove demand with an easy out if nobody wants to buy it. There’s nothing wrong or unethical about it IMO
- usrusr 9y agoDepends on the amount of deception involved. There is outright lying on kickstarter because truthful claims of "smallest/first/only in the world" of some campaigns has been mindlessly cargoculted by those who are clearly not. Presales by established companies would not do that. Next are expected product features that turn out to be impossible/too difficult to deliver on time or budget. Happens all the time, there are entire software development processes built around this uncertainty. For presales, this is really solved by precise language clearly differentiating between the definite and the possible. With zero effect on customer enthusiasm and disappointment, because we all ignore them every single time. Just be careful to not "not-promise" too much. Then there is the pre-sales rebate. The least suspecting of all pre-sale perks. But many products get cheaper over time. How long does the announced "post-presale price" have to stay valid so that the pre-sale rebate is not deceptive? Clearly it would be ok to slash prices when when the successor model is announced two years later. Clearly, it would be absolutely outrageous of they only sold one unit to a guy hired by marketing at the announced full price on release day, to then immediately go below pre-sales price. At what point between those extremes does a pre-sales rebate become deceptive?