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Mythology Again:
A while back, I wrote a bit about mythology and cults in our modern
society. I mentioned, in passing, the myths and cults which built
up around Apple Computer and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).
The one I know most about was the Digital Equipment silliness.
As a computer professional, I had to work with these machines
and the people who created them.
First, a disclaimer of sorts. Understand that all people who used DEC equipment were not members of the cult. There were many situations where DEC equipment was the natural and best choice for a particular application. In those cases, even normal engineers and programmers would choose them. Also understand that I consider engineers and programmers to be generally abnormal when compared to the rest of humanity. Thus, normal is a relative term.
The cult which built up around the Digital Equipment systems had all of the trappings of a religious movement. For example, consider the way the Digital groupies dressed. They always wore jeans and sandals with no sox. Their feet were always dirty. Many of them had scraggly beards. They also tended to bizarre, exhibitionist type behavior. One guy, who attended every conference I attended, wore a belt along with a pair of suspenders. Many others wore no shirts at all.
These groupies could easily have been mistaken for Jesus freaks. Some of them probably were. When you compare them to the band of vagabonds who traveled around with Jesus the similarities are profound and remarkable. They even spoke a strange computer jargon, much like people talking in tongues. They had their own organization called Digital Equipment Corporation Users (DECUS) which held regular revival meetings. These revivals were so called conferences held twice yearly in huge halls and hotel conference centers.
The true believers would show up at these events in droves to get their fix. Most of them never missed a revival meeting. Almost all of the speakers were evangelists of the movement. There were rituals to be performed at these events along with instructional sessions to bring people into the faith. The dogma was rigid, DEC can do no wrong.
When DEC started to fade from its position of dominance, some of these true believers were truly lost. Some were thankfully recovered by conversion to Appleism. If I had been a technician in the publishing industry rather than the research industry, it is very possible that I would have become an Appleite. Other wandering DECUS souls have found refuge and new life in a DECUS COMPAQ users group. This came about after Compaq computer acquired the faltering Digital Equipment Corporation.
One thing to notice in these groupie type of cults is the position of the parent company. Though DEC denied any involvement in or responsibility for DECUS, the direct support in staff and instructors was obvious. In theory, of course, this staff attended the events as independent agents rather than company reps. Sure! The value of this involvement in marketing can be enormous. By supporting the cult, we support the true believers who will promulgate the company line. DEC can do no wrong. DEC is great!
From this we can learn about effective marketing. The best way to market is to create an enormous myth around your product. It should not be directly about your produce, but about some mythical attributes which can be ascribed to your product. This should have as little to do with the reality of the product as possible. To acquire a life of its own, it must be the stuff of fairy tales. It must be capable of being propagated by the gullible who permeate our culture. These true believers will then create the cult.
Remember, the myth is not the product, it is woven around the product. It has nothing to do with real function. It is about mythical attributes. It must be magical; supernatural even. It is the mystique of your product which can be believed and proclaimed by the believers.
Notice that all of these myths are created to be propagated by word of mouth. In many cases, the marketing people create them so that fools can propagate them easily. There will be key catch phases, begging to be repeated. These will be fed to the dupes and true believers.
On direct examination and product comparison, we always find that the myth is false. It seems that a false attribute is more easily propagated that a true attribute. I believe that is because the myth is not based on the products attributes. It is a fabricated mystique.
Companies which have successfully created a myth of this magnitude have done much better than the nature and quality of their products justify. Häagen-dazs is one whose product is not at all superior to the Detroit based Stroh's ice cream. Yet, they justify a price which is considerably out of proportion to the nominal value of the product.
Even to this day, many people assume that a front tine tiller is easier to use than a rear tine tiller. That is a complete fabrication which people think is a natural assumption. It is a marketing strategy which was fed to a gullible public by Troy Built. I have one front and one rear tine tiller. Both are easy to operate if you understand the physics of the situation.
One of the oldest of these myths was the old RCA fabrication concerning sound reproduction quality. It was the dog listening to a phonograph with a caption of, "His Masters Voice." What a beautiful line of bull that was. If you have ever had the fun of hearing one of those old Edison recordings, you would not believe that the campaign was successful, but it was.
When you examine the products with the strongest myths you will find that none of them are particularly outstanding in their field. What stand out is the myth which is built around the product. The reality of all of these myths is that they have absolutely nothing to do with the value, functionality, or capabilities of the product. In all cases, they ascribe powerfully mythical attributes to what is otherwise a rather ordinary product. In at least one case, my evidence indicates that the product may be substandard. Read my previous essay "Mythology and Myths" in my archive.
After paying the service call invoice for that one, Mrs. Gaffer, in a rare mood of humor said that Maytag was just trying to maximize their profits. That is a good point. I wonder, why they don't just made a product which is really superior and more reliable, instead of dibbling away their investment dollars to create a myth of reliability. then they could price it higher and really have honest word of mouth advertising, which would cost them nothing and yield amazing results. Then they would maximize their profits at their competitors expense.
Just make a better product. What a crazy idea!
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