4 ms·

> The people trying to sell products have every incentive to lie and mislead potential consumers. Absolutely not, unless your business model relies on single s

> The people trying to sell products have every incentive to lie and mislead potential consumers. Absolutely not, unless your business model relies on single sales. In functioning organizations with actual products, marketing and sales are advocacy functions for the customer as much as they are revenue functions for the business. They're how you know what to make and who to target.

antris 5y ago
The point was that relying on marketing messages causes the user having to research themselves what the product is actually good at and what it isn't good at and wasting time because the company isn't upfront the products strengths and weaknesses. The product might be sufficient in the end, but marketing will very rarely tell you what the product is actually sufficient at and what it is not. The statement wasn't about whether the product is actually good or not, though in extreme cases, yes, the product is worthless while the marketing is all rainbows and sunshine. But relying on marketing is bad for the user in nearly every case, even if the product is good. And even if you are "one of the good guys", your users won't know that. That's why you should verify from independent sources, or do your own research. If marketing was really a reliable source of information, reviews, samples, product trials etc. wouldn't be a thing.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
You say this but ISPs deliver only a fraction of the bandwidth they advertise, SSD marketing doesn't mention the fact you're not supposed write to it too much... Drug marketing never mentions any side effects, food marketing blatantly takes advantage of the public's ignorance... People should assume all marketing is incomplete or untrustworthy information at best.
- Talanes 5y ago
  Every piece of drug marketing I've ever seen has been accompanied by a comically long list of side-effects. What market are you seeing unregulated drug marketing in?
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    Even TV ads? In my country they're forced to say "consult a doctor if symptoms persist" and they already compress that as much as humanly possible. No mention of side effects at all.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    > Every piece of drug marketing I've ever seen has been accompanied by a comically long list of side-effects. In as big a font / for as long and loudly as the supposed benefits? As prominently towards the top of the page / the beginning of the clip? Let me guess: Hardly, right? > What market are you seeing unregulated drug marketing in? It's not a matter of regulated vs unregulated, it's a matter of how close to ignoring the regulations one can skate. And of lobbying the regulators enough to get very-skatable regulations... In what market are you seeing marketing regulations (for drugs or any other product / service) that cover length and prominence as per my first paragraph above?
lobocinza 5y ago
That is an ideal. Reality is a mixed bag.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
I literally just saw this on the HN front page: > Ads Are Impersonating Government Websites in Google Results, Despite Ban https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27150407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27150407 https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2021/05/13/ads-are-impersonating-government-websites-in-google-results-despite-ban https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2021/05/13/ads-are-im... Yet another example.

antris 5y ago

The point was that relying on marketing messages causes the user having to research themselves what the product is actually good at and what it isn't good at and wasting time because the company isn't upfront the products strengths and weaknesses. The product might be sufficient in the end, but marketing will very rarely tell you what the product is actually sufficient at and what it is not. The statement wasn't about whether the product is actually good or not, though in extreme cases, yes, the product is worthless while the marketing is all rainbows and sunshine. But relying on marketing is bad for the user in nearly every case, even if the product is good. And even if you are "one of the good guys", your users won't know that. That's why you should verify from independent sources, or do your own research. If marketing was really a reliable source of information, reviews, samples, product trials etc. wouldn't be a thing.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

You say this but ISPs deliver only a fraction of the bandwidth they advertise, SSD marketing doesn't mention the fact you're not supposed write to it too much... Drug marketing never mentions any side effects, food marketing blatantly takes advantage of the public's ignorance... People should assume all marketing is incomplete or untrustworthy information at best.

Talanes 5y ago
Every piece of drug marketing I've ever seen has been accompanied by a comically long list of side-effects. What market are you seeing unregulated drug marketing in?
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  Even TV ads? In my country they're forced to say "consult a doctor if symptoms persist" and they already compress that as much as humanly possible. No mention of side effects at all.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  > Every piece of drug marketing I've ever seen has been accompanied by a comically long list of side-effects. In as big a font / for as long and loudly as the supposed benefits? As prominently towards the top of the page / the beginning of the clip? Let me guess: Hardly, right? > What market are you seeing unregulated drug marketing in? It's not a matter of regulated vs unregulated, it's a matter of how close to ignoring the regulations one can skate. And of lobbying the regulators enough to get very-skatable regulations... In what market are you seeing marketing regulations (for drugs or any other product / service) that cover length and prominence as per my first paragraph above?

lobocinza 5y ago

That is an ideal. Reality is a mixed bag.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

I literally just saw this on the HN front page: > Ads Are Impersonating Government Websites in Google Results, Despite Ban https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27150407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27150407 https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2021/05/13/ads-are-impersonating-government-websites-in-google-results-despite-ban https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2021/05/13/ads-are-im... Yet another example.