- Joined
- Sep 10, 2005
http://www.overclockers.com/tips01017/
There was a very long thread a while back on viral marketing and corporate shills posting on enthusiast forums, so I was more than a little interested to see these sentiments voiced on the front page:
Now, is it morally any different from any other form of advertising? That's for you to judge. But is it effective? Most people on this forum will sniff out guerilla marketers faster than politicians steal lollipops from babies. So whether it is successful is the key question. As has been pointed out before, choice is pretty limited in the hardware market, anyway, so how much of the market share is really shifted by guerilla marketing?
There was a very long thread a while back on viral marketing and corporate shills posting on enthusiast forums, so I was more than a little interested to see these sentiments voiced on the front page:
whether this is deliberate or not, hasn't this proved to be great guerilla marketing; some pretty good advance bang for minimal buck?
I think so, and if that's the case, shouldn't AMD be doing the same thing? Even if there's no Intel "conspiracy," wouldn't it benefit AMD to start their own?
I agree that there is little downside for AMD or Intel. The downside, I think, is in inviting corporate shills to display their cherry-picked (and obtained gratis) merchandise in exchange for positive reviews and to ramp up purchase orders. Arguably this is damaging to the social fabric within the community and the general level of trust (however fragile) between hardware companies and consumers. AMD and Intel and survive this, however, since they have a near-monopoly on the processor market.What's the downside? Some control freak will freak out if a few samples slip out of his/her/their control? Give them a week's worth of Xanax if you have to, and let the product speak for itself. If it's good, it will speak for itself, loudly.
Now, is it morally any different from any other form of advertising? That's for you to judge. But is it effective? Most people on this forum will sniff out guerilla marketers faster than politicians steal lollipops from babies. So whether it is successful is the key question. As has been pointed out before, choice is pretty limited in the hardware market, anyway, so how much of the market share is really shifted by guerilla marketing?