
They're Using it at Coffee Shops - dkuebric
http://usingitatcoffeeshops.tumblr.com/
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null_ptr
This is all about selling people on a dream, in my opinion. A lot of tech
people work in drab settings (at least I do), so images of colorful, social
environments awake a yearning for something better, for something more
enjoyable. Isn't it a dream that many of us share, to earn a high income doing
the things we love, all from inside a neighborhood coffee shop surrounded by
smiling faces and cute baristas instead of some sterile office building?

~~~
JonnieCache
_> This is all about selling people on a dream, in my opinion_

You have just described literally all marketing.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Engineering_of_Consent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Engineering_of_Consent)

It is no coincidence that the inventor of public relations was the nephew of
Sigmund Freud. He wanted to call it simply "propaganda" but he decided that
term's nazi connotations rendered it unsuitable.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays)

~~~
1qaz2wsx3edc
All marketing, at it's root, is about satisfying the two human motivators: sex
& death.

~~~
normloman
I'm in marketing. You left a lot of motivators off of the list. Food. Money.
Desire to fit in.

~~~
typicalrunt
_Food. Money. Desire to fit in._

I beg to differ. Those are all part of sex and death.

Without food I will wither away until I die. Without tasty food I will feel
like I'm in a living death.

Money buys power (consumer power, or what have you) and with that grants you
the possibility to expand your genetic profile, just like sex. And the desire
to fit in is in the same realm as sex, because we want people to find us
desirable so that we can potentially become a mate. I'm stretching and only
using male-female desire here, but it's not a great leap to see how male-male
desire (not sexual) is just a form of males wanting to become alpha- rather
than beta-male to increase attractiveness.

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GuiA
Heh. This should really be titled "they're using it while drinking coffee".
Some of these pictures could be offices, coworking environments, desks in home
offices, and so on.

But yes, the "tech products are better used next to a mug of coffee" trope is
amusing :)

~~~
dasil003
Vooza should spoof it and have the dev knock the coffee onto the laptop
destroying their entire prototype.

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dkrich
Good marketing is often context-based. There's a reason all of the shots show
a person's arms, a computer, and a cup of coffee. They want you to imagine
yourself using the product in an ideal setting. Should they demo it on a couch
in a messy apartment, or in a drab office with florescent lighting?

This is why when you see ads for Porsche's and Mercedes, they are parked on a
brick-covered street in Soho or a huge mansion with a circular driveway,
instead of parked at a red light on a dirty street or in gridlock traffic,
which is where they will most likely end up.

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justzisguyuknow
They're using _Macs_ at coffee shops.

~~~
purplelobster
Apple products, actually. I count 8 Macs, 3 iPads and one iPhone. I understand
why though, Apple products look good. I wouldn't want to put a Dell Inspiron
in my ad.

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dictum
It reminds me of the aesthetics of "enterprise" and "big serious business".
You know: generic stock photos of server rooms, smiling businessmen
[https://www.google.com/search?q=smiling+businessman+hand&tbm...](https://www.google.com/search?q=smiling+businessman+hand&tbm=isch),
smiling telemarketers/help desk operators
[https://www.google.com/search?q=smiling+telemarketer&tbm=isc...](https://www.google.com/search?q=smiling+telemarketer&tbm=isch)

Most of these companies are selling stuff to developers/designers/people
running startups or tech businesses. There's a reason for this aesthetic, even
if it's quickly becoming stale.

I don't like it partly because it kind of reinforces a stereotype that
software engineering and design is an easy job and the people doing it are
somewhat shallow. Working from a coffee shop in no way implies that, but when
people dismiss developers/designers as hipsters using their laptops in a
coffee shop, there's a baggage in the discourse.

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imjk
I'm not sure what's going on here.

~~~
mathattack
I think it's highlighting all the marketing pieces that show people using
their products in coffee shops. Like "Coffee shops" are the new trendy
location. "Use our product, and be a cool coffee shop person."

~~~
imjk
Ah, so obvious now. Thanks.

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kaolinite
A lot of these just happen to have a coffee cup in them and aren't necessarily
at a coffee shop.

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taude
Petty funny. and exposing an over-used cliche web landing page that every apps
seems to be following and mimicking these days.

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Implicated
Anyone else do a quick mental check about their own site?

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Axsuul
This hits home for me. Working in the man cave eventually gets drab and
lonely. The coffee shop for me is a great place to keep things new and
exciting. The environment and sense that everyone else is in work mode at the
coffee shop forces me to do the same.

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creatio
Not going to lie. I expected a different kind of coffee shop.

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Dogamondo
Let's face it, its the next best (and more culturally acceptable) pictorial
setting compared to your product appearing in-front of a scantily clad porn
star... bringing you your coffee.

~~~
arizzitano
Right, because porn lends everything an air of legitimacy.

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lunarprose
Working at a coffee shop now--don't see what the problem is. :)

~~~
j2d3
Wait, are you working, or reading and commenting on HN?

~~~
j2d3
I mean - I too call that working, or at least "working" :) I don't mean to
criticize!

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izztmzzt
Could also be renamed "They're doing it on macs"

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hamiltonkibbe
So Meta!

[http://placeit.breezi.com/98265d2](http://placeit.breezi.com/98265d2)

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normloman
What ever happened to plain old screenshots?

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bengrunfeld
Cement colored offices make people sad, but you don't get much done at a
coffee shop.

I think that making your office space awesome (e.g. Google's Tel Aviv office
in particular – [http://bit.ly/1ePziyy](http://bit.ly/1ePziyy)) is the
ultimate solution. You need a place where people can be creative but
productive, and still interact with others around them so that they don't feel
alone and depressed.

If you want the best out of people, you need to give them the best.

~~~
bluedino
We went from working a slightly dingy, tiny office in a converted duplex to a
brand new place with open floor plans and 3 times the space, but the new
office was so dang loud, nobody could get anything done. Concrete floors,
block walls, no ceiling tiles, it looks really nice but you can hear a ping
drop in the front office from the back of the building.

~~~
bengrunfeld
That sucks. Are you guys going to move?

I work in an office in downtown Boulder, CO, and while it looks amazing (heaps
of comfy chairs, bean bags) there is construction being done all the time and
my desk shakes like we're being hit by an earthquake. Down the road from us
are Quickleft's offices, and they have a keg of beer on tap and a Japanese
rock garden. Jealous.

