On Friday 9 March 2007 in Apple buffs marketing savvy to a high shine, Jefferson Graham of USA TODAY reports:
"The avalanche of headlines and TV news stories about the iPhone - which hits the market in June - already have generated $400 million in free publicity, says Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie. "No other company has ever received that kind of attention for a product launch," Yoffie says."
Congratulations to the Apple team. In addition, this article references a 6 March 2007 satirical story, Apple Unveils New Product-Unveiling Product in The Onion. This story presents Apple's iLaunch. It includes:
"Described in its patent filing as a "hype-generating mechanism with fully integrated Mac compatibility," the iLaunch is powered by Intel dual-core processors optimized to calculate a product's gravitas. Apple claims the iLaunch can garner the same amount of press attention as a major scientific discovery, high court ruling, celebrity meltdown, or natural disaster at 200 times the speed of a traditional media-fostered launch."
This story is a cleverly written and humorous spoof.
One "rule" of comedy is that something has to be at least a bit true (5 percent?) to be funny. I know of many companies and consultants that claim to have the "secret" to a great launch. There are plenty of "best practices," tools, and techniques for sale.
A great launch doesn't just happen. A great plan has to be iterated and executed. Context and feedback require a dynamic development and launch team.
How would you develop the appropriate launch architecture? What would be in your implementation of an iLaunch product?
