Neeum Zawan wrote:
>     I know, but I suspect people bought it because Ford marketed better. 
> That they emphasized benefits over features may have played a role, but 
> I'm willing to bet any company that markets the features well will outdo 
> mediocre marketing of benefits.

The problem is, people don't *care* about features (outside of a core 
group that likes bragging rights, of course).  Features don't sell, and 
they don't convince.  *Benefits* do.  Nodoby really cares what clock 
rate a CPU runs at, they care how fast the processor is (the clock rate 
is an indicator, of course, so they still pay attention to it, but a 
fast chip with a slow clock still sells better than a slow chip with a 
fast clock).

That Ford marketed better than his competition is undisputed.  But a 
large part of what he did wasn't just selling Ford cars, but selling 
cars in general.

>     Good marketing works. Content of said marketing is not really that 
> important.

Ahem... good marketing works *because* of its content, doesn't it? ;)

>     Look at ViaTalk. With their offer (which they almost always have had 
> for the last few years), you'll effectively be paying less than $8/month 
> for the first two years. Vonage has little that Viatalk doesn't (last 
> time I checked).
> 
>     After the first two years, you pay double, which is still only 63% 
> of what you have to pay for Vonage.
> 
>> Maybe the other companies need to work on their advertising.
> 
>     Precisely. It's not because of promoting either features or 
> benefits. It's simply due to forming brand recognition. Good marketing.

Not just brand name recognition; I was literally unable to find a 
competitor that could match Vonage's prices when I shopped around.

-- 
Chambers

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