[rgbrenner]

What Simon says is actually marketing 101.. they teach this in undergrad intro marketing (without all the bs about 'greatness', etc). The problem with it when it comes to startups/small businesses, is that it's expensive. If you want to go that route, you need to get out the entire message - A + B + C. Whereas, the sales-based approach he's criticizing, you only need to get out C and part of B.

So if you want to go the marketing route, you're going to be spending a lot more on ads, pr, etc to get your entire message out there.

Despite what he says, Apple did not follow the path he says. Apple in its early days followed the sales-based approach. It wasnt until they were making money that they turned to a marketing-based approach. This is a very normal route for companies to take.

[Edit: now that you understand this is marketing vs sales.. you can find plenty of articles on this by pg, jessica livingston and others.]

[oxplot]

Are you sure about it being marketing 101 and not 901? I can clearly see 100% of ads I've seen over the past month from established or younger companies doing exactly what Simon is criticizing.