If they have no marketing, they are a shit coin.
I don't agree with this fully. I used to work for a project that had marketing because they believed that this would revive the project and keep the business running. Well, little did they know that you can't market a product that isn't fully functional or that doesn't have any utility. So, all the money spent towards marketing was just thrown away in the grand scheme of things.
Every project I look at, people think marketing determines the projects fate. It honestly doesn't. The most successful projects I've invested in and been a part of are the ones that focus on building their platform/product and let that attract new investors/users. That should be the number one priority at all times.
So, in my mind, marketing is useless until the project has a fully functional and valuable product/platform. It should never be pushed until the team is at this stage in development.
This was taken out of context, concurrently I did not express the thought process properly.
Yes you're correct on many accounts, but it's not as simple "marketing" or "developments," when it's both. One doesn't or can't exist without the other, with respect to mostly newer coins. Marketing is adoption, adoption and use of blockchain is what makes it successful.
You can have the best technically sophisticated blockchain, it's useless if there's no adoption or use (aka marketing). Concurrently, a project that has no product or fulfilled on technical developments and is all hype/marketing without substance may thrive, but is a shitcoin.
It's a conjunction and joining of all things. What you may determine to be successful (i'll assume price for most) may not be a true metric for success given enough time has lapsed. Most projects that do little marketing and strictly focus on development, mostly go into ghost mode about a year after their inception, since they may have fulfilled on their blockchain, a small core base, but what's next? Death.
It's a balance of development, marketing, adoption and integration. Development and marketing are only 2 components and represents the initial steps to get the integration and adoption. Development leads to integration, marketing leads to adoption. These ideas can overlap, but are much different in many respects, depending on what the blockchain's fundamentals are in the first place.
The best teams know how to run the business. Some of the earliest cryptos didn't need to market, strictly due to the size of the market and amount of coins. Coins like Ethereum were so revolutionary, the blockchain marketed itself. Coins like EOS marketed itself, due to the large amount of funding. Name any coin in the top 200, and either they have either had majority publicity early on, or have captured a niche that is respected by all.
Marketing is adoption, and i'll express again, if there is no adoption or use of blockchain or crypto, then it serves no purpose and is dead for all intensive purposes. Any exposure, any branding/name, website or however you can learn or interact with that particular coin is all encompassed in this elusive word called "marketing."