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Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

joshlehman.com

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Re: Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

#31

Post by DougBTX »

mmahemoff wrote: post #16

I think there's a deeper cause behind many of these arguments. People hate to feel ripped off, to a degree that is highly irrational if you assess the impact in purely utilitarian terms. Even a billionaire will feel a bit shitty after paying $0.99 for a lemon. There are various reasons why this happens. Partly it's the fact they wasted time researching and purchasing the app, and people's time is usually more importa…

Lets take it that people are worried about being ripped off. If it was easy to return an app for a refund from Apple, would you expect the baseline $0.99 price to go up?

Re: Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

#32

Post by notJim »

romey wrote: post #14

I'm not so sure about the argument that most people would forgo the $4 cup of Starbucks, given a free alternative. Every office that I've ever worked in provided free coffee, and half of the office would still regularly pick up coffee from the nearest Starbucks daily. I think there's something to be said for 1) Crafting the "image" of superiority that people get from purchasing Starbucks (having that nice branded Sta…

Yours is a good point (and I can't fully refute it), but I'd like to point out that the article's argument is that Starbucks doesn't offer a free alternative. Surely if Starbucks offered a free alternative, people would choose it instead, as long as it provided a reasonable number of the benefits the paid version does.

To bring the analogy back around to apps, let's say there was an Instagram app that costs $9 and a notJimstagram app that does something similar for free. Instagram = Starbucks, notJimstagram = your office coffee. Most people would buy Instagram, because Instagram is well known, has a strong brand, etc.

On the other hand, suppose there was the $9 Instagram and the free Instagram. In that case, most people would probably choose, or at least start with the free Instagram.

Re: Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

#33

Post by napillo »

mc32 wrote: post #18

I get the point, but I think the analogies are a bit artificial. "Starbucks is a trustable experience." The assumption is that all people all the time buy known brand coffee. From my own, I know I walk into coffee shops I have never been to before. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Even at Starbucks there are times I ask for decaf and get caffed coffee, or other times, the green tea latte is just not mixed right, or the…

I can tell the author is an Apple user - if I used an app for 15 seconds and didn't like it, I'd get a refund.

Re: Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

#34

Post by fleitz »

mmahemoff wrote: post #16

I think there's a deeper cause behind many of these arguments. People hate to feel ripped off, to a degree that is highly irrational if you assess the impact in purely utilitarian terms. Even a billionaire will feel a bit shitty after paying $0.99 for a lemon. There are various reasons why this happens. Partly it's the fact they wasted time researching and purchasing the app, and people's time is usually more importa…

Yes, it reminds me of a story about a guy named Joe who spent hours on the phone with the phone company and had the erroneous billing charges removed saving him $11.

Joe tells his neighbour Bob of his ordeal and how he got his $11 back, Bob has the same problem and asks whether the Joe could take care of his billing problems with the phone company for $11, but Joe refuses insisting he isn't being paid enough to deal with the phone company for hours.

Re: Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

#35

Post by amartya916 »

Really enjoyed reading the article (though the criticism by kineticflow about using "Fact", seems valid to me), thanks.

For me, the two stellar points were: "The Starbucks Craftsmanship Is On Full Display" + "App Craftsmanship Is Hidden Away".

I'd also like to add that the "Craftsman is hidden away". Apps do not connect at a human level the same way a person selling you a cup of coffee does. Even for mega corporations like Starbucks, at the end of the day, you interact with a Barista or someone at the cash register. We being creatures of habit, tend to go back to the same Starbucks (mostly), and in the process bolster this connection. That doesn't happen with an app. You might go back to the app every day, but there is no tangible connection with the craftsman. So what exactly can be done? For starters, one can associate the developer's name and face with the app. I think this is particularly important for Free apps. If you've ever used Adblock on Safari, at the end of the setup, there's a note that "humanizes" the app as being the creation of a person. You get to see the name and a photo.

One of my favourite mobile apps, Instapaper, has the developer leaving tiny personal messages during app updates. I know his name, the fact that he recently had a baby and at some basic level it helps me connect to the person.

Does this make any sense?

Re: Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

#36

Post by mc32 »

siglesias wrote: post #30

I used to develop apps for Dan Ariely and we would often chat about this topic. By the latest in psychological research it's less rational than that [1]. Additional factors: Mental Binning— when we think about buying a $1 app, it doesn’t occur to us to ask ourselves what the pleasure that we are likely to get from this $1 app — or even what is the relative pleasure that we are likely to get from this app compared wit…

That's somewhat encouraging, I think. At least it seems that some of the behavior could be changed, if the right references are invoked and if people's expectations can be changed (which they can, it would seem, as free was not the expectation, even 10yrs ago).

Re: Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

#39

Post by therandomguy »

While good points, these counter arguments are not strong enough.

Trustable Experience: Most people make many transactions in a week that are not trustable. The lower the price the lower the hesitation. $0.99 is as low as it gets.

Free alternative: For many transaction higher than $0.99 there are free alternatives. Newspapers, magazines all have free substitutes online. Still people spend on these.

Craftsmanship: True for Starbucks, not for majority of transactions. Maybe be not even... most people are staring at their phone anyway waiting for their coffee.

Re: Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

#40

Post by Tichy »

nickzoic wrote: post #38

I'd like an App Store with a "if you delete it within X days you get an automatic refund" model. That would make buying apps risk free and refunding them hassle free, without the annoyance of having "Lite" vs "Full" versions.

Doesn't Google Play work like that? The rebate period might be a lot shorter though, perhaps even minutes. I think they started out with a day but it was exploited too much.
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