alt Hacker NewsI've been a digital marketer for 10+ years.
What this article is trying to say is selling benefits vs features
Which description below interests you more?
A: "The GeeWhiz personal helicopter: the most efficient, best helicopter ever. Its dual cast aluminum blades spin at an incredible 600 revolutions per minute. It's as silent as a mouse's fart. It weighs only 750 pounds thanks to its innovative carbon alloy frame."
B: "Cut your commute time in half with the GeeWhiz personal helicopter"
B probably got your attention more, unless you have a personal interest in helicopters. Most people don't, they just want to know what it can do for them. Your eyes may have glazed over A because it was a bunch of words you don't care about.
A lot of people lean into feature marketing because either THEY are excited about it or they want to dazzle you - feature bombing is a real thing. For example you are NOT going to go drive up some huge rocks like the trucks in the commercials do - it just gives you a warm fuzzy. But it belongs AFTER you convince the person of the why it matters. In this case, they're reaching people who want a truck, they're deciding which truck.
I tried to do this with my vibe coding platform "Reduce your token costs by x%" and "Lets you easily control exactly who can access what data", "Full detailed usage analytics so you can see how users are accessing data" and "Apps are easier to maintain" but the problem is that EVERY SINGLE vibe coding platform makes similar claims. None actually deliver. So the consumer has been immunized against 'benefits' and especially if they don't recognize the company brand.
So I have to list out technical features as a way to create trust that there are technically capable people behind the product.
But TBH it probably doesn't really work either. Now it's all about social connections as implied in the article. It was already like that before, now it's a different level. Now the importance of nepotism has reached full-blown communism level.