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In both cases, I think there's also an aspirational element. The perfect product is one with the perfect solution, but it just needs you, your skills, your powe

In both cases, I think there's also an aspirational element. The perfect product is one with the perfect solution, but it just needs you, your skills, your powers. "Out of the box" just needs an astute cheque signer to make the right decisions. The skills to operate it are commodities, acquirable. Perfect... for an astute cheque signer like the one being marketed to. Perfect to a nerd is different. It needs to require them somehow. "Anyone can do it" is not going to win over a nerd. "You can do" it might. If you're selling AI cancer detection to a hospital, "out of the box" is great. If you're selling to radiologists, they'll probably be more skeptical of solutions that don't involve them. Products (or even just stories) that empower & require them might. I agree with the blog, but it's a little naive. It euphemizes, or dances around the relationship between "marketing" and razzle dazzle. If someone is hours deep into your documentation, that's not really advertising. That's a real service they're consuming, and forming opinions based on how it tastes. Marketing is more about the impression they get in minutes, not hours. Ideally, there's a healthy interplay between marketing, the impression that you're intentionally projecting, and doing. But, they're still kind of independant. Anyway, nerds aren't that hard to market to. They're just like anyone else. Flatter them. Make them feel important, listened to, consequential. Appeal to their ego, their better nature, their fears, etc. Also deliver. Good documentation, as judged by those using it, is delivering. Making it seem like it it will be pleasant to use, is marketing. Making it look a certain way, but not delivering, is bullshitting.

bluGill 5y ago
> If someone is hours deep into your documentation, that's not really advertising. That's a real service they're consuming, and forming opinions based on how it tastes. Marketing is more about the impression they get in minutes, not hours. No, marketing is about getting someone to contact sales to buy your product. (There is a fuzzy line between sales and marketing) I have personally spent days in the past evaluating two different products, which did put me hours into reading documentation trying to figure out how to make them work.
- dalbasal 5y ago
  Not exclusively. When Toyota sponsors a motorsport team, that's not about getting someone to buy tomorrow. Neither are most TV commercials, brochures, etc. Neither is rebranding, etc.
  - bluGill 5y ago
    Note that I didn't put a time frame between when marketing starts and when the sale happens. You are very correct, marketing can often start years before a sale (and sometimes people never buy at all)
    - dalbasal 5y ago
      Sure... in the sense that everyone's job at a company is to make profit. By the same argument you could say that everything is marketing, including designing and making the product. This is true, I guess. You might borrow a mac for a week from a buddy before buying it. Still, making a laptop is generally not described as marketing.

bluGill 5y ago

> If someone is hours deep into your documentation, that's not really advertising. That's a real service they're consuming, and forming opinions based on how it tastes. Marketing is more about the impression they get in minutes, not hours. No, marketing is about getting someone to contact sales to buy your product. (There is a fuzzy line between sales and marketing) I have personally spent days in the past evaluating two different products, which did put me hours into reading documentation trying to figure out how to make them work.

dalbasal 5y ago
Not exclusively. When Toyota sponsors a motorsport team, that's not about getting someone to buy tomorrow. Neither are most TV commercials, brochures, etc. Neither is rebranding, etc.
- bluGill 5y ago
  Note that I didn't put a time frame between when marketing starts and when the sale happens. You are very correct, marketing can often start years before a sale (and sometimes people never buy at all)
  - dalbasal 5y ago
    Sure... in the sense that everyone's job at a company is to make profit. By the same argument you could say that everything is marketing, including designing and making the product. This is true, I guess. You might borrow a mac for a week from a buddy before buying it. Still, making a laptop is generally not described as marketing.