The High Stakes Product Launch: What We Should Learn
Can your product still become a “big deal” without the pomp and circumstance?
One of the most high-pressure moments for any major tech company today is the product launch. In the months leading up to it, anticipation, rumors and speculation build about what the product will look like and what functionality it will have. In the internet era, most tech pundits will have already weighed in on whether the company has gotten it wrong or right, before the product is even released.
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Despite all the pressure, the anticipation around these launches is vital for today’s tech companies for one simple reason: it builds hype. Given the 24-hour news cycle and the crowded tech market, companies need all the help they can get to build momentum and hype around their product. Getting something trending or flying around social networks is a dream come true for them, and increasingly not something that they can simply pay an advertising or marketing agency millions of dollars to do for them. For all these reasons and more, the product release has become a theatrical affair in the tech world with big implications for a company’s bottom line.
Case and point: On September 7th, both Apple and Sony hosted mega events to release their new products: the new iPhone and the PlayStation 4 Neo. Running these events in direct opposition to each other is not an accident, and it’s a tactic we’re seeing more and more in the tech world. Pundits and enthusiasts have been writing blogs and editorials for month weighing in on the merits of each:will the iPhone 7 have a headphone jack? Will the PS4 have a “slim” model? Simply unveiling the features that everyone has already read about is not enough.
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Apple in particular has become adept at these kind of product unveilings, thanks in big part to the legacy of Steve Jobs, who saw them as a kind of performance. As TechCrunch wrote, we’ve see the trend spread.
“Apple has arguably perfected the product unveiling press conference over the past twenty years. Since then, tech companies have reproduced the same pattern — they ache for the spotlight. Sony could have unveiled the PlayStation 4 at E3 in June, or during the Gamescom last week. But the company chose to do its own mega-event in New York three months later in the big PlayStation theater in Times Square.”
Conferences like this are as much about entertainment as they are about conveying information to users and shareholders. But they also perform another function: in the era of internet leaks, they serve as the only official source of information for insiders who wants to know what’s what. Ahead of the September 7th event, it appears that some people have gotten their hands on the PS4, but the company dodged questions, in favor of building even more hype and the kind of is-it-or-isn’t-it that gets everyone turning in.
Let’s Get Ready To Rumble…
As one tech blog put it: “It sure does look like one of Sony’s surprises has been spoiled: A slimmer PlayStation 4 with a slightly revised controller, an easier-to-replace hard drive and a way to directly connect that controller using a USB cable for increased responsiveness. I guess we’ll know for sure on September 7, when Sony’s press event will likely also reveal the more powerful PlayStation Neo?”
It would be wrong to think that this kind of head-to-head conferencing is just about theatrics, though. It really is likely to have a measureable impact on either company’s initial sales of the product—or, as TechCrunch said, “one of these two companies is going to regret the timing of their press conference the next morning.” After all, you can’t buy hype, you can only build it.