16 Sep
1998
16 Sep
'98
11:19 a.m.
On 16 Sep 1998, Eric Smith wrote:
Beta was technically better than VHS. But VHS won
because the consumers
preferred it. Not the engineers, not the marketers, not the sales people.
The CONSUMERS.
I don't think the consumers cared either way. They chose the technology
that had better marketing. End of story. This plays out time and again
in the computer industry.
And the reason that consumers preferred it was not
that VHS had better
marketing.
Oh, I disagree.
If anything, Sony had better marketing. Many people
continued to refer
to VCRs in general as "Betamax" even into the mid-80s. It is widely
believed (but of course unproven) that VHS was preferred due to the
longer recording time per tape. JVC rarely even mentioned this feature
in advertising.
M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G
Mac vs. Windows - who won? Microsoft. Why? Marketing.
PowerPC vs. Pentium - who won? Intel. Why? Marketing.
Those are simply two of the most obvious examples.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling. But I hope you see my point. The
majority of people buy stuff because a disembodied voice on TV or a
caption in a magazine compels them to. The majority of the people buying
into your propaganda (marketing) is what it takes to make a successful
product. I could sell dogshit if I marketed it right.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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