As the Bazaarvoice gadget guy it was a moral imperative that I got an iPhone on Friday – so we could ALL share in its wonder. When I left the office at 3:30 on Friday I thought FOR SURE I’d be too late. I was wrong. When I waited in line and I was #200 or so I thought FOR SURE they’d come out and tell us they only had 100 units in stock. I was wrong. When the line finally started moving I figured they’d only have a few counters going and it would take forever, or they’d only let you get one, or they’d only have the 4gb iPhones, not the 8gb. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Apple did it right, exactly right, from the hype to the experience of getting one to the device itself. And their buzz couldn’t be hotter right now.
Steve Jobs set the blogs ablaze in January by announcing the iPhone and continued causing a word of mouth stir all the way through the interview with the Wall Street Journal. Looking back to my post in January, from day one the iPhone was a hit. The expectations were overwhelming and the dissenters numerous, but Apple adhered to one key rule in marketing – live up to the hype. Apple called their shot and told consumers EXACTLY what to expect, with demos and details metered out carefully, then simply released exactly that. Creating the buzz is easy, but nailing it on launch day is where some products have missed the mark. Not the iPhone.
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