"Growth hackers" imply they're doing this for the long term, which I don't believe at all. All these strategies do is give the organization a short term bump in exchange for a negative long term reputation and customer loss.
I've literally been warned not to sub to the New York Times by random people without prompting when the newspaper was mentioned in passing. Is that "growth hacking?" They've made having a subscription a life choice because cancellation is so painful, and they have so many predatory pricing dark patterns.
I just cancelled my NYT subscription, took me 5 minutes. Trying to cancel my Wired subscription, non-US subscriber, means I have to wait for the next delivery to use a number on the envelope to identify myself in order to cancel the subscription. Well, be it I guess.
Wired is the worst. It's literally impossible to cancel online, and they still keep spamming me with "renewal notices" snail mail even after my subscription ended.
I've literally been warned not to sub to the New York Times by random people without prompting when the newspaper was mentioned in passing. Is that "growth hacking?" They've made having a subscription a life choice because cancellation is so painful, and they have so many predatory pricing dark patterns.