Obviously تسويق topic, but reviewed here from a product design perspective and long-term brand building. We acknowledge that some will be attracted by these short-term technics rather than looking at how to avoid these and create value in their products.
subtitle:
designers: do not always follow product marketers blindly. Marketers: do not always follow your boss’s short-term view. Bosses: convince shareholders
customers: learn to distinguish snake oil quackery, “a fraudulent liniment without snake extract, has come to refer to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit. By extension, a snake oil salesman is someone who knowingly sells fraudulent goods or who is themselves a fraud, quack, or charlatan” (source Wikipedia).
Brickwalling the customer
All practices intended to keep (block!) the Customer:
hard-to-quit subscriptions
.. that took a minute to subscribe (how surprising !).
Example: phone contracts that you can subscribe with almost only a two fields online form
… but where you later need a physical registered letter to quit (not talking about duration & notification additional delays…)
(some) online software
Some were existing as standalone software before … and now so nicely call “in the cloud”
Yes, there are arguments for it for the end-user (no installation, no local maintenance, smaller initial fee), but there are also drawbacks (most of the time it will not work without internet access, and costs raising like hell over the years where you would not necessarily have paid the upgrades or maintenance.
But there are also all the hidden advantages of the editor: no packaging & shipment fees, no intermediates, direct access to the end-users, hidden bug correction … including طوب walling the customer.
It is noticed that some companies do give the benefit to their customers by reducing the price a lot (proving the facts above)… and some don’t
Software with very few export features
… but frequently a lot of import features from competitor’s solutions. Or Export is possible but very little effort to export without losing what was a bit special
To force other sells
Usually branded, rare and costly.
dedicated spare parts or consumables
we have seen some home appliance cases where in fact the design means to be original and patented in order to force the original, which was more costly than the consumable/real function itself.
electronic that forces to maintain the product
it may be done softly (as just a reminder or message) or hard (decreasing of performance or stopping the product completely
consumables only partly filled
… and depending on the version. While the housing or case always has the same size and components (and 99% the same factory price). So the range is here purely artificial and not related to factory price or labor. Typical example: some laser printer cartridges.
.. and in general, all practices where the only option is just to take it like that or not (and usually no competition)
Examples among others: coffee pods, printer cartridges, car or heating maintenance services…
Often this is done under the security cover: “we have to do this for your own security” or “our risk analysis imposed that” or “this is a request from our insurance” … or even more hypocrite “This was requested by our customers” …. while just a warning or constant reminder would be enough for the Customer to use what in fact is HIS own product HE paid for already.
While marketers and designers possibly find it “smart” to have found these, it is true that the Customer is most of the time conscious about that … and just has no choice because of no other option
These behaviors are just waiting for a competitor to show up and gain that market within a snap.
Better spend your efforts on having Customers come back for the quality of your products or your service than because they are obliged (and conscious of being trapped)
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