Marketing Direction - Why not How or What...

[luckybit]

So lets not sell a product with features... lets let people know what we believe and stand for.   Lets let the world know that owning BitShares or buying BitUSD is about making a statement not making an investment.

Hummm.... an ideological approach to marketing is problematical because it invites regulatory opposition and controversy -- a terrible PR faux pas if your intention is to invite wide adoption. Ideological controversy will taint your wonderful software invention and make it a bogie man for people who hold ideological views that conflict with yours.

Bitshares should never be tainted by ideological color. Its utility should be DISCOVERED without bias. An ideological approach will shoot the "network effect" in the foot. It would be a self-inflicted wound.

Don't do it.

The ideological approach to marketing has failed Bitcoin and it will fail Bitshares if Bitshares copies.

Napster, Bittorrent, Limewire, they all managed to become more successful than Bitcoin. Far more users, why?

None of them pushed an ideology. Imagine if Napster pushed communist ideology complete with a manifesto at launch? How far would it have gone? It went so far because it didn't push any ideology, it just did what everyone wanted it to do. It allowed people to do something they couldn't previously do, and for free. We need to stop comparing Bitshares to Apple and compare it to Napster. Apple got where it was because it was able to make partnerships with large institutions like academia, and because they had the best technology, while Napster got where it was because it was the first of it's kind.

Napster disrupted a certain industry. Bitshares could disrupt many different industries.

Bitshares if it has enough utility will get users. It might take a while to attract the initial users who aren't computer nerds or who don't know about it but you can get these people if you've got a better lifestyle.

How much marketing does it take for people to want to become a delegate? Not very much if delegates have one of the coolest jobs on the planet and live quite comfortable. How much marketing would it take to get people to want to be part of the Bitshares community? Not much if being a part of the community offers all kinds of tangible and intangible benefits.

So why not focus on incentives, on the coolness factor, etc? People stay away from Bitcoin because Bitcoin is associated with politics. People don't leave a political currency to go into an even more political currency with a lot more volatility and risk. Bitshares is an entire ecosystem and potential industry so we should present it as apolitical yet also show what it can do that the mainstream economy cannot do.

[luckybit]

I am not really certain what are you trying to say. Let's hope it is my English.

Perhaps I need to go to bed...  I am only trying to say that we need to advertise what we believe and why we do what we do.... then we can sell how... and lastly we can say what... BTS.

We believe that the free market can secure our life, liberty and property and that through transparent consensus algorithms and solid economics we can provide people the tools to control their investment choices.... these tools are embodied in BitShares.     When you Buy BitShares you are supporting the creation of a more free society.  You are supporting your children and giving them a hope.    When you save in BitGLD or BitUSD you are making a statement... you literally change the world by adopting BitUSD and convincing others to do the same.

I disagree with that strategy. I do think we should all keep a blog, a twitter, or something similar so our intentions and motivations are known in case something happens.

I don't think we should advertise it to the general public and I don't think everyone has the exact same beliefs. I think in general we are all looking for an alternative to the current system but we don't all look for that alternative for the same reasons. Each of us has a unique story, a unique set of reasons, a unique set of beliefs, motivations, and all of them in my opinion can be told separately over time.

I think Bitcoin marketing is a terrible model to follow. Their marketing is terrible. I also think Bitshares is more than a product but before you can market it as more than a product you need more than a product. Right now we have the technology but we lack the way of life.

Soon when people can make a living working for DACs we will have the way of life. Once we have the way of life then we can sell the lifestyle and that is easy. It's easy to sell a lifestyle where your average employee is either miserable working a 9-5 or they perhaps don't have a job at all.

What could be cooler than to get paid as a delegate? What more could any millennial computer geek want?

When people see the benefits of our lifestyle then it will grow on its own. People have to see that they can live in a better way and we should not push any political values beyond that which is necessary to keep the ecosystem running. I think if you just tell your life story to people in a year or two people will be very inspired.

Awesome post! We just need to work on conveying that message in a compelling way that gets publicity. Bitcoin spread because it let people stand FOR something. For the first time, we were able to opt-out of a system we no longer believed in. It was about opting out of an old, unfair system and joining a new, fair one. Selling the world on BitUSD is about a vision, a dream, a philosophy.

It's not so much that we don't believe in it but does the current system even work for most millenials in particular?

I will say that if you look at how file sharing caught on it did not seem to require any overt belief system. People got involved because they wanted to download music.

Remember why people downloaded Napster at first. They didn't download Napster because they understood the philosophy of Napster. Most people using Bittorrent aren't crypto-anarchists even if the developer might have been. What people care about is what the technology enables them to do and how the technology can better their lives.

If we want to show what Bitshares can do and how it can better people's lives then lead by example.

It's not about making a political statement. That will come after you've reached critical mass. Napster led to the Pirate Party led to the Internet Party. It didn't go from Internet Party to Pirate Party to Napster.

Kim Dot Com made MegaUpload. It wasn't until he got harassed by the authorities that it became a political statement to use Mega. I believe we should make the technology first and focus on utility because without that then there is no way to sell the effectiveness of your alternative or make a political statement.

Bitcoin in my opinion failed to reach Napster levels precisely because politics surrounded it from it's birth.

[blahblah7up]

Thanks for the wonderful post BM.

I agree with you and I haven't heard that type ideology from you since probably December of 2013 when I was still only lurking here.  It is nice to see that it is still alive.

The reasons you present are precisely the reasons I am here, and I think many here also came for the very same reasons.

But I also agree with everything everyone else here has posted to the contrary.  Ideologies vary widely across the spectrum.  And it is always surprising to me how little most people even recognize their own degree of personal freedom, let alone would be moved to take personal action to secure it.

To make Bitshares a central pillar for an ideology of freedom would require a marketing force equivalent to the type of propaganda machine which goes into effect when governments want to win consensus to go to war for example (basically all syndicated media channels participating).

Simple utility will probably be wildly more effective and realistic.  The yield for example.  And this can be the first stepping stone to realize your greater ideology.

I also agree strongly with liondani.  In the end, bitUSD is the dollar.  That is not freedom.  It is probably a necessary segue though.

[cube]

Thanks for sharing your vision for bitshares.  I am seeing 'life' in bitshares. 

[joele]

I share and am excited by BMs freedom vision. And I think its a grand vision for people working in the ecosystem to make it happen. But the wider market of users of the tools and products I don't think care so much about a vision, so not a good marketing strategy. They need great utility from the tools and products, just like they get from Google tools, without ever knowing Google's grand vision. So to successfully meet the vision, and free as many people on this planet as possible, product utility is the foundation to build on.

[liondani]

bitshares is something bigger than bitUSD...
don't take me wrong but the term bitUSD sounds too cheap to me.
It's like promoting in some degree the... past...
bitUSD is the digital mirror of USD and USD is 100% controlled from people that want our slavery(same with euro etc.)...
What if USD loose much of it's present "real" value in the near future because they want it to happen ?
That would mean that bitUSD will follow the decline, so our supporters with bitUSDs on their accounts would be  be "trapped" too.... Why should we follow the old system? Are we really thinking out of the box?
I think we must promote bitAssets in general and we should not promote to much on one of them, like we do right now...
We should promote the ability/option they have on our system/platform to own a basket of different global bitASSETS in a very easy way, knowing that:

1. They are 100% safe.
2. They are taking benefits/rewards for keeping them (Yield etc.)
3. They are liquid (max. 1 month delay)
4. Their privacy is 100% respected (TITAN, crypto etc...)
5. They can easy/fast/cheaply exchange from one bitASSET to another (?)
6. They can transfer/pay easy/fast/secure with minimal fees (goodbye paypal,bitcoin)
7. They can have a mixed bitASSET  portofolio without limits in quantity and value!
8. TAX FREE (what means IRS ?)
9.  ....name it...

...sorry if what I am saying doesn't make sense, maybe it is better I am going to sleep too 

[jae208]

So lets not sell a product with features... lets let people know what we believe and stand for.   Lets let the world know that owning BitShares or buying BitUSD is about making a statement not making an investment.

Hummm.... an ideological approach to marketing is problematical because it invites regulatory opposition and controversy -- a terrible PR faux pas if your intention is to invite wide adoption. Ideological controversy will taint your wonderful software invention and make it a bogie man for people who hold ideological views that conflict with yours.

Bitshares should never be tainted by ideological color. Its utility should be DISCOVERED without bias. An ideological approach will shoot the "network effect" in the foot. It would be a self-inflicted wound.

Don't do it.

I agree with your comment and I guess in my previous post I was trying to say that, I am here not because of the ideology but rather because I see this as the next logical step to organize our financial life and trade among each other.

Marc Andreesen says, that early on it is the freedom seekers that help a new technology like the world wide web or Bitcoin get started. However, after the initial phase of freedom seeker adoption you start to attract mainstream users who would care less if there freedom or privacy is being taken away, they just care that it works and that it is easy to use.


Edit: The other thing I want to mention as well is that economics isn't really a hard science like say physics, biology, or astronomy. Economic theory is based on many assumptions about what it is that motivates humans. I don't really think that people are alive and exist solely to acquire material wealth. Also, current economic theory is based on scarcity but we are rapidly moving towards a world of abundance. Just a few days ago Lockheed Martin announced that they will have a nuclear fusion prototype within 5 years and perhaps a nuclear fusion reactor that is operable within 20 years. This means abundant energy by the creation of a star here on Earth. Abundance.

[Ggozzo]

I am on the side where we should leave beliefs out of it. There is a wide spectrum of users here that have complete different views of the world or different intentions for being here. It would be hard to pigeon hole these ideals.

If you want to sell something, sell them a choice. 

[Method-X]

So lets not sell a product with features... lets let people know what we believe and stand for.   Lets let the world know that owning BitShares or buying BitUSD is about making a statement not making an investment.

Hummm.... an ideological approach to marketing is problematical because it invites regulatory opposition and controversy -- a terrible PR faux pas if your intention is to invite wide adoption. Ideological controversy will taint your wonderful software invention and make it a bogie man for people who hold ideological views that conflict with yours.

Bitshares should never be tainted by ideological color. Its utility should be DISCOVERED without bias. An ideological approach will shoot the "network effect" in the foot. It would be a self-inflicted wound.

Don't do it.

You're assuming controversy is bad. I propose it isn't and we should welcome it. Let's not forget there is a whole world outside American regulation.

[starspirit]

I share and am excited by BMs freedom vision. And I think its a grand vision for people working in the ecosystem to make it happen. But the wider market of users of the tools and products I don't think care so much about a vision, so not a good marketing strategy. They need great utility from the tools and products, just like they get from Google tools, without ever knowing Google's grand vision. So to successfully meet the vision, and free as many people on this planet as possible, product utility is the foundation to build on.

[werneo]

So lets not sell a product with features... lets let people know what we believe and stand for.   Lets let the world know that owning BitShares or buying BitUSD is about making a statement not making an investment.

Hummm.... an ideological approach to marketing is problematical because it invites regulatory opposition and controversy -- a terrible PR faux pas if your intention is to invite wide adoption. Ideological controversy will taint your wonderful software invention and make it a bogie man for people who hold ideological views that conflict with yours.

Bitshares should never be tainted by ideological color. Its utility should be DISCOVERED without bias. An ideological approach will shoot the "network effect" in the foot. It would be a self-inflicted wound.

Don't do it.

[jae208]

Apple is not ambitious enough to really change the world. I think Google is a better candidate for world changing impact and one that is more applicable to us.

Anyways, while I agree with just about everything BM said I am here because I see this as the logical next step for humanity to organize financially. Regardless of if your motive is freedom or wealth, I think that putting more emphasis on the person using BitUSD to purchase pizza rather than the investor will benefit us most in the long run.

I don't recall the title of the Ted talk I watched several months ago, but there was a Ted talk I saw where the speaker was explaining why we have centralization and decentralization. She said that when you have scarcity you have centralization because it is the most efficient way to manage scarce resources. Then she said that when you have abundance you have decentralization. We have greater and greater computational abundance and this is why I say that what is happening here is the logical next step for humanity.

Edit: I think Bitcoin grew more so because of the abundant computational resources we have now versus a few decades ago. Also because of the solution to the Byzantine General's problem which didn't exist prior to Bitcoin. I think that if the Byzantine General's problem was solved in 1991 Tim Berners Lee might have designed the world wide web differently.

[Shentist]

I would like to take a step back and help us all reflect on why we are doing what we are doing and what it is that has created this community in the first place.   

I have set out on a mission in life to find free market solutions to secure life, liberty, and property and BitShares is my evolving approach to this problem.   Many people have joined us because of this vision and have become a fan because of what we believe more so than what we have built.   In the middle of our success it is easy to lose sight of what is bringing us all together and what really matters. 

Does our technology help us achieve our purpose, freedom.   Who should our technology appeal to?   It should appeal to those who want economic freedom in both trade and wealth. 

Selling BitShares as a "company" with X, Y, Z features is approaching the space like Dell and not Apple.   Lets reimagine everything, think out side the box and create a society where we can be secure and where threats of violence by the government are overwhelmed by non-violent cooperation.  We all long for freedom, it is universal.    We all long for security.   No one likes theft and violence.     

The problem we have is that most people won't choose to adopt BitUSD because of its yield or merchant adoption.   They will first choose to adopt it because it resonates with something DEEP within... they do it "just because"... to make a statement to the outside world that there is a different way.   

So lets not sell a product with features... lets let people know what we believe and stand for.   Lets let the world know that owning BitShares or buying BitUSD is about making a statement not making an investment.   Bitcoin grew because it allowed people to make a statement... but it was too volatile for more than the true believers in the vision to hold.    BitUSD gives the true believers a safe place to express themselves backed by extreme believers.    You don't accept BitUSD at your business just because it is better than a credit card, you accept it to make a point and that point is that you believe in freedom, transparency, and individual financial sovernty. 

I don't know about you, but this vision is not based upon a share price and does not depend upon any set of features.   It is something that we can build for ourselves at any scale if we can attract like minded people.   

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

So... lets go change the world!   

Bitcoin didn't grew only because people wanted to make a statement. Bitcoin grew because people are sick of people they have to trust and can betrayed every moment. Just remember the rise of Bitcoin in the Cypres Crisis and many people faces to loose a lot of value in their bank accounts. This crisis will come again and we should be ready to take all the financial refugees in our solution Bitshares. We have to solve a problem to be needed and the problem today is, that goverments etc. think they can do with you what they want.

First and all Bitshares needs to solve problems. We can go with your vision and statement, but this will not bring enough people.

[dna_gym]

  ! I am inspired!!
I think Bitcoin has grown because it appeals to the INSTINCT of human being.

I was intrigued by Nick Szabo's paper (The Origins of Money).
Bytemaster, If you haven't read it before, I recommend it.

[http://] szabo.best.vwh.net/shell.html

[Thom]

Saying doesn't even begin to convey how much I appreciate what you said here BM, and I'm with you all the way.

You had me back in April when I first heard you speak, and since then your words have continued to resonate this same, underlying spirit of the mission of freedom, financial as well as personal. I sincerely hope you will cling to this goal and persevere through the difficulties which will certainly come.

Thank you for your service and dedication to freedom.