Is it just me, or is there a pattern here? What is this "quiet launch" meme about?
Maybe quiet is more effective in an overloaded information world. I don't have the quote handy, but I remember reading in Mark Gobe's book, Emotional Branding, that a whisper in this attention-is-currency world stands out and would be remarkable.
Quiet has power without the (brute) force.
A quiet launch is counter-intuitive. But it's a totally deliberate (and effective) strategy.
Think: Guerilla marketing, grassroots word-of-mouth, buzz-building, emotional branding, experiential marketing, conversational marketing, business blogging using influencers, sneezers, connectors, power law nodes, mavens -- and, even -- gasp, CUSTOMERS.
Quiet evokes mystery.
Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, talks about mystery as being one of the hallmarks of the future brand, which he calls a Lovemark:
Great relationships are about learning and anticipation. When you know everything, there is nothing left to discover. No more surprises, no more wonder, no more opportunities.In a world suffering from information overload, the most powerful attention-grabbers are the things you don’t know. Remember how hard you want to listen when you hear someone whisper?
It's the Mystery component of a Lovemark that keeps you guessing, keeps you intrigued and keeps you going back for more.
From kottke.org:
The first line of the news.com article on A9 says that "Amazon.com has quietly launched a test version of its long-awaited search engine" (emphasis mine). Curious. I wonder if news.com felt slighted at the way A9 chose to initially publicize the site, breaking the story via a weblog instead of a traditional media outlet (like, say, news.com) and the "quietly launched" is a displeased rejoinder to the strategy. Judging from the response so far (233 news stories on Google News, A9-related posts hold the top 3 spots on Blogdex, a very active thread on Battelle's site, a post on Slashdot, an article at Search Engine Watch, and it hasn't been 24 hours yet), the launch wasn't that quiet.
From eWeek:
On Tuesday [April 6, 2004], Microsoft quietly went live with a new Web site called "Channel 9" that is designed to facilitate communication between Microsoft and its developer and customer constituencies.
Quietly? I recall the first time I heard of Channel 9 (and surely others knew before I did). Robert Scoble (currently #54 out of roughly 2 million blogs indexed by Technorati) was working hard (I had sent him email a day or so before) as referenced in his March 31 post (note this is a full 6 days before the "quiet launch"):
Sorry I haven't been posting. Been working hard on Channel9....Anyway, more to come soon on Channel9 -- I hear we launch next week. If you're a Microsoft employee you can get a preview at http://channel9.
This is building buzz by intrigue, mystery. The building of suspense, the creation of anticipation like any good story. I love stories. Don't you? "What the heck is Channel 9?" I thought. "Hmmm, I'll have to track this."
Or maybe...shhhh...
q u i e t
means starting a dialogue with stakeholders first instead of a THE BIG MEDIA TOUR or the BIG PR CAMPAIGN.
From Business Blog Consulting blog:
Red Hat, the commercial Linux experts, combined the power of a blog, a worldwide customer tour and MeetUp to achieve fantastic outreach for "1/5th the price of a trade show."
From re:invention blog:
Not a surprise, journalists surveyed by Euro RSCG report that when it comes to media coverage, they hold CEO information and credibility in low esteem, preferring to rely on consumers' experiences with a company, the quality of a company's products and company reputation as an industry innovator.David Kratz, CEO of Euro RSCG, seems to validate the importance of linking customer evangelism and public relations in one fell swoop in today's press release: "An integrated communications strategy that unifies messaging across all marketing disciplines is only part of the answer....Companies must go even further if they are to leverage the opportunities created by the emergence of the prosumer. They must partner with and start a dialogue with customers, consumers, academics, media--basically each and every stakeholder--and inspire them to carry the company message."
The bell has tolled for a remarkable change in corporate P.R.
Ending thought: Quickly, here are the 6 tenets of creating customer evangelists from Creating Customer Evangelists:
1. Customer plus-delta: Continuously gather customer feedback.
2. Napsterize knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely.
3. Build the buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks.
4. Create community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.
5. Make bite-size chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
6. Create a cause: Focus on making the world, or your industry, better.
Comments