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It’s important to distinguish what most people reading this are likely to consider ‘marketing’ with what actually made these businesses successful. All of the
by kristianc 7y ago
It’s important to distinguish what most people reading this are likely to consider ‘marketing’ with what actually made these businesses successful.
All of the businesses cited succeeded because they established a differentiated position in the market - GMail because it gave you 10x more storage than was available at the time, and a conversational interface; WhatsApp because it meant that international SMS was now free; Tesla because it sit at the intersection of eco-friendliness and premium design.
Saying that GMail is just about messages, Tesla just about electric cars does a disservice to what actually makes these businesses exceptional. And you do genuinely need that differentiation, otherwise all you have to compete on is price.
I’d be worried that someone reading this would take the idea that all you need is an average business idea and some growth-hackery business tactics like a landing page and Facebook ads, and presto you have a business.
Most businesses do fail because of poor marketing, but not marketing as the HN crowd generally sees it.
- soneca 7y agoCompletely agree. > WhatsApp because it meant that international SMS was now free Not sure the exact meaning of "international" here. In Brazil SMS was not free at all, so Whatsapp became a free SMS for all, with bonus of a nice chat UI that made easy to be in conversations (contrary to any phone's SMS UI at the time), groups, images (becoming a MMS for free too). So, a 100x better SMS for free. No wonder it exploded. But the use case was mostly for local messages, not international messages.
- kristianc 7y agoAgree - I put international SMS as in some countries (such as the UK) providers were beginning to bundle ‘free’ SMS before WhatsApp came along - in these markets international SMS / Voice / MMS for expats, students etc was a big deal. You’re right to point out though that in many countries, WhatsApp was the first cross platform free SMS of any kind.
- melling 7y agoThis conversation has not been very productive. Basically it’s a pedantic discussion about the meaning of marketing. I recommend this [updated] 10-year-old article about finding your first 1000 customers: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ Much has been written about the idea: https://seths.blog/2009/12/first-organize-1000/ https://seths.blog/2009/12/first-organize-1000/ https://nowspeed.com/seth-godins-latest-book-tribes/ https://nowspeed.com/seth-godins-latest-book-tribes/ http://jumpcut.com/blog/kevin-kelly-1000-true-fans/ http://jumpcut.com/blog/kevin-kelly-1000-true-fans/