Scratch and whiff branding
I wasn't a PC gamer in the 90s, but my brothers were. There were 2 memorable promotional techniques for software/games: shovelware and shareware.
Shovelware was packed with games or software. Sure, there were countless titles on the disc but they all sucked. It was the epitome of quantity over quality.
So once you scratched the surface, all you got were wafts of shit.
Shovelware was everywhere. Eventually, people had enough experience with it that it carried the rep of garbage.
How it started:
“Dude, I just got a CD-ROM loaded with free software. Hell yes!”
How it ended:
“Oh, thanks for giving me your garbage.”
Shareware (games specifically), on the other hand, were free demos that let a player experience a limited version of the game. The most important part of the shareware strategy was, you guessed it, sharing.
The intent was to create something worth sharing.
Sharing was the vessel to spread the word, so the quality had to be there. It's how Id Software went basically 90s viral. Shareware was the antithesis of shovelware: quality over quantity.
The devs were basically saying:
"We'll give you this little bit for free. Our shit is so good that you'll be compelled to copy and share the demo with friends and buy the full version."
If people weren't stoked, then it was destined to be buried with all the other BS shovelware.
Shovelware and shareware. Kinda the same, but not. Like, at all.
These concepts exist today in their own modern way. Think about phones stuffed with software no one wants. Or SaaS products offering single features for free as a way for us to get stoked on their product.
So, what's your business doing, shoveling shit or shoveling stoke?
Thanks to this LinkedIn post and the comments convo for the inspiration.
✌️Rvw
P.S. Not exactly shareware (because you couldn't copy + share), but I have vivid memories of Playstation Magazine demo discs. Metal Gear Solid anyone?
P.S.S. Video games seem to allow for a lot of analogies to help understand brand. More to come...
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