Yes, people are emotional entities and good marketing should work with that, but it needs to be done carefully. I'll give you three examples:
1) Imagine you are an Apple user who bought a very expensive iPhone X one week ago, you spent next hundreds of dollars on applications you bought over last decade and someone will want to try to tell you that you should switch to a new different super-cool mobile platform. He will start with assertions that Apple users are sheeps that use overpriced crap, then he will argue that his mobile platform is great because it is actually very old (maybe older than you), it was used a lot in times when this industry was in nappies and big companies of that time that you always considered to be dinosaurs used them. Then he will provide some vague numbers that should prove that users of his platform are more productive (without any real example of why it is like that), that the users of this platform like it and in the end he will tell you that someone used that phones to call ambulance and saved some lives. People are emotional and they like to feel smart. Would you have positive feeling about this new platform? Ask yourself what would convince you in shoes of such Apple user. Probably the first think you want to hear is that your current applications will work on the new platform. That you will not need to learn much, that it has all the features of the Apple software and that it solves this and this particular issue you have. And that you will save money. If you are the person who wants to sell the new phone and you know that you cannot tell that because it is not truth, than you need to be really nice and positive to make the people at least consider trying your phone when they will change it. 2) Imagine that you are a car driver that uses it for daily commuting and some will come and tell you that you should use a bicycle instead of it. That bicycles that people stopped to use in half of the last century and switched to cars. You think about them that they are obsolete, something that only children and poor or strange people use, it is dangerous to drive them in the traffic, you need to breath the polluted air, hear all the traffic noise, you are sweating and you are not covered from the rain, cold or hot sun. Then you probably do now want to hear that all the dangers, polluted air, noise and so on are not in fact disadvantages of bicycles but disadvantages of cars. You need to listen possitive arguments . 3) Imagine you are a Pharo user and some wants you to switch to Self that is superior to Smalltalk in many areas you mention in your articles. What he would need to do to convince you? People in IT have in general very negativistic approach. When they see a new technology they are trying to find reasons why to do not invest into learning of it. So rather than looking at advantages they will check all disadvantages twice. Some of them feel good and smart if they find some mistake in the articles so totry to lie to them can be very counterproductive. The interview with Stef was a great way how to promote Pharo. Look at the rating and comments to your last article: https://www.reddit .com/r/programming/comments/7d9uz2/why_pharo _might_be_the_future_of_software/ If it is not the prove for you that you are doing something wrong then continue. But then be not surprised that even the Smalltalkers will downvolt your writings. Cheers, -- Pavel 2017-11-18 4:55 GMT+01:00 horrido <horrido.hobb...@gmail.com>: > I appreciate all the feedback, even the negative comments. Let me address > some of them... > > First of all, you need to understand that this article, like nearly all of > my other articles, is about /marketing/. I've never made any bones about > this. > > If you know anything about marketing, you know that it involves > exaggeration > and hyperbole. It sometimes involves bending the truth. The point of > marketing is to persuade on an emotional level, not a logical one. > > This is exactly what companies like Apple and Microsoft do. If you think > Apple ads tell the absolute truth, then you are terribly naive. > > So, is Pharo being used to fight Ebola? Not exactly, but who cares? I'm > trying to change people's perception. I'm trying to *move* them. If I have > to exaggerate, I will do so. > > Has everybody heard of Smalltalk? Of course not. And it doesn't matter. I'm > taking /literary licence/. As a writer and a marketer, I am allowed to do > this. > > Second, the article hasn't been published yet that pleases everybody. I > accept that some people may not like what I've written, and that's > perfectly > fine. > > What's not perfectly fine is if the majority of readers are turned off by > my > article. I do not believe this is the case. I have published literally > hundreds of Smalltalk articles over the past three years, most of them on > Medium, and I've tracked responses and viewership. As far as I can tell, > these articles have been generally well-received. I have something of a fan > base! > > Something else that I've been told: marketing to programmers will not work > because they are too smart for that. What a load of bullcrap! Programmers > are human beings, and all human beings are susceptible to marketing. My > Smalltalk campaign over the past three years have proven that it works. > > So why should I stop? > > Third,... > > > You will not convince people to use Pharo by spitting on everything else. > > What am I spitting on? I claim that the way everybody has been doing > programming, ie, with file-based languages, has not been ideal for > productivity. That's not insulting. That's just the truth. > > Isn't that why we use Pharo (Smalltalk)? For productivity reasons? > > > But even more important is that I don't understand why people always talk > > about the future when the only thing they do is telling the past. > > The future is always based on the past. There is no future if you ignore > the > past (and the present). > > Again, the reason for bringing up BYTE magazine is to move people. And it > seems to work. > > Telling people about how Smalltalk was once a high flyer in the 1990s and > that IBM chose Smalltalk as the centrepiece of their VisualAge enterprise > initiative to replace COBOL also works. > > Giving this information to people will offer some comfort and confidence > that choosing Pharo won't be a mistake. > > If my marketing campaign is hurting Smalltalk and Pharo, you'll have to > show > me the evidence. If you can, then I will stop. I am only here to serve you. > > > > > -- > Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html > >
