In my head this marketing argument always boils down to "What, you waste money on overpriced coffee, why not waste your money here too?!" I think telling the consumer "hey, this is an impulse purchase" is going to trigger their "oh shit, I need to stop making stupid impulse buys" response.
Also, I envision the marketer thinking of me as part of a herd of cud-chewing cattle, or worse, like one of the people on the conveyer belt in Relead's god-awful landing page [1]. It's angering in some low-level way. Is this really how marketers think of consumers?
> People seem to sweat investing $2 per download for anything, even if they thoroughly enjoy the product, but they don't even think about spending $10 at the coffee shop.
Maybe you'll see less of this if you drop the "less than your stupid latte, dumbass" sales tactic.
Edit 2:
Sorry, that was a really jerk way to make my point, and I apologize below. Leaving it here however to preserve the thread.
> Maybe you'll see less of this if you drop the "less than your stupid latte, dumbass" sales tactic.
Wow, that was unnecessarily abrasive. It's not unreasonable to expect a product to cost something, even if it's virtual. And nobody is suggesting putting the latte analogy as advertisement on the front page of services.
> "What, you waste money on overpriced coffee, why not waste your money here too?!"
That's entirely beside the point. The assumption is that nobody wastes anything. It's an analogy about paying for electronic goods. And just because something does not cost a lot of money doesn't mean it's an impulse buy either.
You're right. It was totally rude and unnecessarily abrasive, and I do genuinely apologize. But I still feel strongly about the use of this argument.
> And nobody is suggesting putting the latte analogy as advertisement on the front page of services.
But that's exactly what soooo many people do.
It's a well-supported fact that in the absence of other indicators people will use price to estimate the quality or value of a good. That means that if I don't know much about your product offering, your price is one of the biggest things I take into account when deciding how good it is and whether or not to buy.
If you put a cup of coffee in my mind as something with which I should compare your product in such a way as to suggest that my coffee is insignificant, I immediately think of your product as insignificant. If you then go on to tell me that your price is lower than the price of my insignificant coffee, I think of your good/service as lesser.
I disagree with you, I'm with Benjamin on this one. A purchasing decision is weighing pleasure against the pain of parting with funds. These ads generally don't do anything to invoke pleasure. They assume you've already decided how much pleasure you'll get from Netflix, or whatever the product is, and now are grappling to wrap your head around how much it will hurt to part with the funds.
They choose a compulsory, daily purchase that many people make for a reason and I think Benjamin's arguments are totally valid. I think the psychology here is clearly "It's not enough money for you to think hard about dear, don't hurt your head with the math and just go for it".
Absolutely it's telling the target that this is cheap enough to be an impulse buy that they don't need to think hard about.
[Disclosure: Ridiculously happy Netflix customer since '98 or so.]
I am definitely on the side which thinks comparing purchases to a daily cup of coffee is bad. It evokes negative associations in me and I have to assume that it will in others, so it's not good marketing.
I understand what they're trying to say, but it just feels like the wrong way to go about it.
However, I really like the way you phrased it: "It's not enough money for you to think hard about dear, don't hurt your head with the math and just go for it."
Drop the slightly condescending tone and I think that is a winner!
"It's not enough money for you to think hard about it. Don't bother with the Math and just go for it!"
I like this, for whatever reason. It's honest and direct?
I realize that. I just meant that, without the condescension, the way you summed it up actually sounded like a marketing statement I could connect with.
Sure, but dollars to donuts your ad copy won't convert well. It comes too close to explaining the psychological exploit being used, which will unravel it's effectiveness.
It still reads with a very condescending tone to me. You're essentially telling me that you've made the decision for me with the implication that I'm not capable of doing it myself. It's even more condescending when we're quibbling over something so insignificant as to cost less than a cup of coffee.
The honest and direct way to sell something is to sell the thing on its own merits, not to try to get me to short-circuit my own decision-making.
Also, I envision the marketer thinking of me as part of a herd of cud-chewing cattle, or worse, like one of the people on the conveyer belt in Relead's god-awful landing page [1]. It's angering in some low-level way. Is this really how marketers think of consumers?
1: http://www.relead.com
Edit:
> People seem to sweat investing $2 per download for anything, even if they thoroughly enjoy the product, but they don't even think about spending $10 at the coffee shop.
Maybe you'll see less of this if you drop the "less than your stupid latte, dumbass" sales tactic.
Edit 2:
Sorry, that was a really jerk way to make my point, and I apologize below. Leaving it here however to preserve the thread.