iPhone | The power of “word of mouth”
During the lead up to launch since the announcement earlier this year, the advertising for Apple iPhone has been relatively minimal. This is a strong case for new style marketing handled well. Marketing departments need not apply.
Awareness of the product is high, and curiousity about it very high. Yet according to Piper Jaffray, sales of the device are approximately 500K over the weekend.
Perhaps this is the best example yet of new marketing.
- product quality
- brand consistentcy
- nurture the market conversation
- let the advocates talk it up
- deliver on expectations
This photo of Patrick Scoble sums up the energy around iPhone.
Technorati tags: Marketing
With all due respect, I don’t think this is an example of “word of mouth”.
Apple executed a very public pre-launch press announcement a few months ago.
The press (and blogosphere) has been writing incessantly about it since then.
And I don’t know about where you live, but here in Boston, we’ve seen plenty of TV ads in the past few weeks.
That’s hardly what I’d call “word of mouth”. Unless everything that isn’t a traditional campaign qualifies as WOM.
rshevlin
July 2, 2007 at 11:24
I live in Toronto Canada, and we do get US TV here but the ads are often Canadianised. To your point about the pre launch announcement though, it was actually a Steve Jobs presentation as I recall at an Apple conference, and the advocates took it from there.
My point is that the WOM has been impossible to ignore, from someone who saw no ads, including while in NY City last during the week of the launch.
Colin
July 2, 2007 at 23:14
I like your 5 points of new marketing – back in the old days, the term ‘blanket campaign’ would have been included, but having product quality at the top is surely the most powerful tool – delivering on promises and brand expectations!
robfindlay
July 3, 2007 at 17:36
I agree with your 5pt marketing… just that its not new.
Apple/Steve Job got ‘Mind Share’…
Yuva
July 6, 2007 at 01:48