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by jplarson 4380 days ago
A business needn't go for as broad a market as they could, and is often rewarded by targeting (and really resonating with) a narrow niche.

Due to the name I immediately felt right at home, that this was totally for me. "Feel Better. Code Better. Level Up."? Heck yeah, speaks right to me.

I signed up without hesitation and enjoyed a nice 26 minute break from coding. Something aimed at "office workers who sit all day" likely wouldn't have gotten that response from me.

(And if the "hacker" tagline really does end up weighing down this venture, spinning off a rebranded version or two for other niches could quickly solve that problem.)
2 comments
Cakez0r 4379 days ago
The idea of a pragmatic plan to get in shape appealed to me as a programmer, but I read this kind of language and cringe:

"Feel Better. Code Better. Level Up."

"Being healthy will make you a better programmer."

I think the "hacker" market can be captured without being so patronizing.

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grrowl 4379 days ago
> "Being healthy will make you a better programmer."

This resonates with me more than "...Level Up.", because it's true. When I was working out my whole body worked better, including my brain, so I appreciate that angle in the marketing.

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pokstad 4379 days ago
My whole point is that they aren't resonating with that niche. Being a hacker doesn't say anything about your fitness level. I know plenty of Engineers that are healthy as hell and work out regularly (myself included). This is basically stereotyping engineers into the pale fraile archetype. Not everyone who codes is a vegan-overly-politically-correct-Bay-Area-hipster. There's a lot of diversity in people who consider themselves coders.

If you want to call it "Geek" fitness or "Nerd" fitness, that's one thing. The whole level up angle is being done by Fitocracy successfully and they aren't targeting coders, they are targeting people who like games and tech, which is a large group of people who may be put off by the hacker angle. By labeling hacker, they are saying that "only people who code will really understand our product".

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