A discussion about the software industry and their coders

This post continues from my previous post Amazon's Success as an Online Store -- Marketing & Branding in Information Economy where I stated:

Three strategies Information businesses employ to help reluctant consumers to evaluate information goods for purchase -- before they can experience the good actually are: (A) Browsing, (B) Branding & Reputation, and (C) Inducing Trial through free offerrings

A) Browsing
Consumers often make purchase (or time spending) decisions for news papers/websites, books, and movies by looking at

• news headlines
• back-cover of books for authoritative reviews, book summary, and author profile
• movie previews

2) Branding and Reputation

Shapiro and Varian explain this for WSJ :

The brand name of Wall Street Journal is one of its chief assets, and the Journal invests heavily in building a reputation for accuracy, timeliness, and relevance.

Amazon (AMZN) has built a stellar reputation as an online store. Amzaon did not see itself as an online book store -- even if it started with selling books online. Rather it saw itself in the business of providing an online purchase experience. Thus, after its sucess with books, Amazon could easily stretch its brand to cover online sales of Software, CDs, Clothes, Shoes.

Consumers don’t miss a “real store” because Amazon.com innovatively uses technology to improve its consumers online purchase experience. In the context of books, Amazon has provided several innovative services to book buyers to build its Brand and Reputation:

• Easy preview of several pages of a book
• Remembering the book purchase history of a customer
• Providing reviews by other readers of the same book
• Secure & fast ordering and payment
• Promptness in its 30 day money back guarantee program on book returns

To continue... How Software firms like Adobe Systems Promote their "Experience Goods"