Is this evil?

[alfredo]

A patent application from Microsoft.

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220090307073%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20090307073&RS=DN/20090307073

SOCIAL MARKETING

Abstract
The described implementations relate to social marketing. One technique identifies potential buyers of a product, the potential buyers belong to a social network. The technique determines a price to offer the product to individual potential buyers that considers both influence of the individual potential buyer within the social network and overall revenue from sales of the product to the potential buyers.

So if you lack influence, have few friends, you get to pay more for Microsoft products? The popular kids get good pricing, the outsiders get the shaft.

[Ken Burch]

1. Capitalism as a big high school cafeteria.

:eyes:

[alfredo]

3. No shit.

[anonymous171]

2. Marketing is the reason both Apple and Microsoft have such diehard fans

Apple is especially guilty of this. I hate both companies though, so I don't really care about what they do to sucker people into identifying with their products.

[alfredo]

6. This isn't about identity. It is about Microsoft adjusting the price of their

products based on how much you are worth to them. If you have a large social circle, a good deal on software could enlist you into promoting their product to those in your circle of friends and associates. The little people don't get such a break. It's a caste system.

[tblue]

4. I think of Mucrosoft as an evil company.

From personal experience, it's a dickwad of a corporation. We avoid buying their stuff as much as possible.

[Psephos]

5. It's a variant of dynamic pricing, and you're going to see a lot more of it. n/t

[alfredo]

8. So it is going to price according to your social class, but MS will determine your class.

[Psephos]

10. Not just social class, and not just Microsoft.

Besides, who's to say someone in a lower socieoeconomic class won't get a good deal? It's quite possible that lower classes use social media more, or at least, more in ways that trigger Microsoft's "influence" metric. From MS's point of view, someone's class means nothing. What they care about is that person's effect on product "velocity" and ultimately, upon their sales revenue.

Trying to paint this as a class issue is very 1910. Wrong paradigm.

This is a result of digital technologies transforming potential purchasers of a good from one in a faceless mass, into individuals with unique characteristics. In any range of buyers, there are some who are more valuable to a company, and some who are less. We do the same thing in reverse as consumers - we choose suppliers/merchants based on their suitability for our own purposes.

Personally, I see myriad opportunities to game dynamic pricing systems. Actually, I already do.

[alfredo]

13. There could be a backlash when the less connected start resenting the

ones that get preferential pricing.

[Psephos]

15. More likely, there will be a black market.

Either in cheaper goods, or in the information needed to game the system so one gets preferred pricing.

Think of it as an information arms race.

[alfredo]

20. I can see the Mac/PC adds now... MS is handing a golden opportunity to

Apple and Google.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. That's how capitalism works, and why I consider it a piece of sh*t

Capitalism is perfectly designed for the rich and powerful

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[alfredo]

12. It isn't social marketing, it is social engineering to increase their profits.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. It's basically all bad. :( nt

[alfredo]

24. Maybe the guys at MS are caught in a perpetual adolescence. They never got

over having to take their mother to their senior prom.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

26. Somebody should kick their behinds and maybe their brains will fall into place correctly? LOL nt

[alfredo]

27. MS has peaked, we'll have a new overlord: Google.

[patrice]

31. It's perfectly designed for conformity.

[valerief]

9. That's life. Those with the most get more. nt

[provis99]

11. how ironic. How much would friendless supernerd Bill Gates pay for his own product?

[LooseWilly]

14. Consumer as marketing tool. Germ theory and viral marketing hand in hand.

Optimizational strategies and synergy...

It seems like a rather socio-organic marketing strategy... no more evil than being popular. On the flip side, using this strategy with a shitty product will be a very bad idea, as all of the "popularity" of the consumer will turn into a sales drag in that individual's circle of friends for that shitty product.

It basically just creates a whole lot more "critics" to opine on a product, and therefore serves as a marketing tool meant to get around the established "product critic" aspect of the established media... in the end, I think the proper response is for people to pool money so that their "popular" friends can acquire the software/hardware to pirate the products that they get at a discount... and let anarchy ensue. :)

[notesdev]

16. There is absolutely nothing new about this

If anyone here knows someone who is wealthy, you can ask them - wealthy people get all sorts of shit offered to them for free, since the potential reward of adding a wealthy customer to your client list is very much worth it.

Likewise, referrals have value, and it's worth it to give a cut rate to someone who may potentially be able to provide a lot of referral business.

This has been going on a long long time - probably thousands of years in one form or another - and there is no way in hell that Microsoft can legitimately patent it.

[MilesColtrane]

17. Certainly that way in banking and investing.

The more money you have, the less fees you have to pay, or the better performing stock you can buy.

[Loudmxr]

18. Yes its evil.

It sets up your friends to be used. I do not use my friends. I don't even use my friends to do jobs for me unless they are the best. And I am really talkin' THE BEST.

[JVS]

19. So can I send my popular friend to buy it for me and then get a better deal?

[alfredo]

21. How about buying a product from a competitor, or go open source for

your applications. OpenOffice works just fine for me. GIMP and Inkscape handle my graphics needs.

[bridgit]

23. Shapes of things to come, Ads that will in time refer to you by name...

Google CEO said they were looking at ways to anticipate then script what you will search for before you key in parameters

http://searchengineland.com/google-lets-you-tell-them-which-url-parameters-to-ignore-25925

[alfredo]

25. I'm glad I am in the autumn of life.

[Odin2005]

28. This shit is frightening.

:puke:

[alfredo]

29. It's creepy.

[jgraz]

30. You had me at "MicroSoft"

Of course it's evil. Happily, given their track record, they'll probably fuck it up.

[alfredo]

32. Balmer has been less than stellar at the helm. Their stock has been flat for

a very long time. Growth is difficult when you have a 90+ percent of the market, so it isn't all Balmer's fault. You have to find other revenue streams outside your core business and that is risky.

I just read this morning that one brokerage has raised Apple's cap to about $230. I don't even want to know how much my Apple Shares would be worth if I had kept them. I bought in a $10 a share.