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.)
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.
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!
Djrichsjdjdnxkd•9h ago
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.