Just saying it's not about features.
I disagree. It is about features.
In a market where you choose a product impulsively, like a cheap candy bar features might not play a role - you pick a product which has a nicer wrapping.
In a market when you choose the exchange (and risk more than a price of a candy bar) impulses do not play a significant role. You apply reason when choosing your exchange (you compare features and product robustness: the fees, execution speed, order types, jurisdiction risks, etc.).
It is about features in this market, not advertising.
If you are second, you have to invest in advertising.
1. Not even single dollar should be spent on an advertising of a startup, especially when 99% of its customer base is sitting on this forum! A startup should defend itself by the quality and innovation of its service in relation to competitors and develop organically (not through advertising). The only marketing Kraken should be doing right now is ''how to achieve our business goals while spending no single dollar on advertising'', e.g. creating the exchange's official thread outside the ''service announcement'' would help raise the brand and service awareness among the forum users, and no single dollar would be spent on this.
2. Investing in advertising MIGHT make only some (questionable) sense if Kraken wanted to look for non-Bitcoiners as their consumer base.
If you are in saturated market you have to launch huge advertising campaing to have at least small percentage of the market.
This statement MIGHT be true for fmcg, not for an exchange.