

Ask HN:  Does patronizing marketing material work? - amichail

I don't want to name names, but a very successful iPhone app has marketing material like that.<p>Any insight on this?
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docmach
Without naming names it's hard to know what you're talking about. If it's
public marketing material why not provide a link?

~~~
frossie
(Agree - no reason not to name names at this point).

Question is - work with whom? While I personally find patronising material
off-putting, I suspect that may be my inner geekness showing, and "normal"
people don't mind as much.

One example is the "XXX for dummies" book series. No matter how interesting
the XXX was (Quantum Physics! Neurosurgery), I could never bring myself to buy
those books - I was mentally bristling "Oy, who are you calling a dummy?".
Millions do, though.

Another example - I roll my eyes quite a lot at some of Evernote's material
("Oh I can use a note and clipping service to collect cooking recipes from the
Internet? You don't say! Good thing you told me of else it would have never
crossed my mind! Tag S for Sarcasm!") - but I suspect they are very successful
for doing that.

My gut reaction is that you put off fewer people than you attract - but I
can't prove it.

~~~
ggchappell
> One example is the "XXX for dummies" book series. No matter how interesting
> the XXX was (Quantum Physics! Neurosurgery), I could never bring myself to
> buy those books - I was mentally bristling "Oy, who are you calling a
> dummy?".

Reactions to those titles are interesting.

I certainly have some of that "inner geekness" you mention, but I don't have
any problem with the "dummies" series. My thinking is that, before such books
were produced, if you wanted to learn, say, plumbing or fishing or football or
beer making, then you learned from your parents while growing up, or you
learned by working with an experienced practitioner, or else you _never_
learned them. But now we have introductory material for adults, aimed at
bringing them to the point where they can enjoy or be productive at some
activity. I think it's great.

On the other hand, someone I know, whom I would consider rather less geeky
than myself, feels very insulted by those titles.

