They're Using it at Coffee Shops

This is all about selling people on a dream, in my opinion. A lot of tech people work in drab settings (at least I do), so images of colorful, social environments awake a yearning for something better, for something more enjoyable. Isn't it a dream that many of us share, to earn a high income doing the things we love, all from inside a neighborhood coffee shop surrounded by smiling faces and cute baristas instead of some sterile office building?

Heh. This should really be titled &quot;they&#x27;re using it while drinking coffee&quot;. Some of these pictures could be offices, coworking environments, desks in home offices, and so on.<p>But yes, the &quot;tech products are better used next to a mug of coffee&quot; trope is amusing :)

Good marketing is often context-based. There&#x27;s a reason all of the shots show a person&#x27;s arms, a computer, and a cup of coffee. They want you to imagine yourself using the product in an ideal setting. Should they demo it on a couch in a messy apartment, or in a drab office with florescent lighting?<p>This is why when you see ads for Porsche&#x27;s and Mercedes, they are parked on a brick-covered street in Soho or a huge mansion with a circular driveway, instead of parked at a red light on a dirty street or in gridlock traffic, which is where they will most likely end up.

They&#x27;re using _Macs_ at coffee shops.

It reminds me of the aesthetics of &quot;enterprise&quot; and &quot;big serious business&quot;. You know: generic stock photos of server rooms, smiling businessmen <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=smiling+businessman+hand&amp;tbm=isch" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=smiling+businessman+hand&amp;tbm...</a>, smiling telemarketers&#x2F;help desk operators <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=smiling+telemarketer&amp;tbm=isch" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=smiling+telemarketer&amp;tbm=isc...</a><p>Most of these companies are selling stuff to developers&#x2F;designers&#x2F;people running startups or tech businesses. There&#x27;s a reason for this aesthetic, even if it&#x27;s quickly becoming stale.<p>I don&#x27;t like it partly because it kind of reinforces a stereotype that software engineering and design is an easy job and the people doing it are somewhat shallow. Working from a coffee shop in no way implies that, but when people dismiss developers&#x2F;designers as hipsters using their laptops in a coffee shop, there&#x27;s a baggage in the discourse.

I&#x27;m not sure what&#x27;s going on here.

A lot of these just happen to have a coffee cup in them and aren&#x27;t necessarily at a coffee shop.

Petty funny. and exposing an over-used cliche web landing page that every apps seems to be following and mimicking these days.

Anyone else do a quick mental check about their own site?

This hits home for me. Working in the man cave eventually gets drab and lonely. The coffee shop for me is a great place to keep things new and exciting. The environment and sense that everyone else is in work mode at the coffee shop forces me to do the same.

Not going to lie. I expected a different kind of coffee shop.

Let&#x27;s face it, its the next best (and more culturally acceptable) pictorial setting compared to your product appearing in-front of a scantily clad porn star... bringing you your coffee.

Working at a coffee shop now--don&#x27;t see what the problem is. :)

Could also be renamed &quot;They&#x27;re doing it on macs&quot;

So Meta!<p><a href="http://placeit.breezi.com/98265d2" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;placeit.breezi.com&#x2F;98265d2</a>

What ever happened to plain old screenshots?

Cement colored offices make people sad, but you don&#x27;t get much done at a coffee shop.<p>I think that making your office space awesome (e.g. Google&#x27;s Tel Aviv office in particular – <a href="http://bit.ly/1ePziyy" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bit.ly&#x2F;1ePziyy</a>) is the ultimate solution. You need a place where people can be creative but productive, and still interact with others around them so that they don&#x27;t feel alone and depressed.<p>If you want the best out of people, you need to give them the best.