Trade shows intensify many perspectives about product marketing. One reason for this is that if you are working a booth, you spend the day talking to people. The more you talk with them, the more you understand what kind of conversation works and what doesn't. It's an intense education in selling. When you're not in the booth, there's time to see what other companies are doing and checking out their marketing/selling methods.
Now that I'm back from NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) and ESC Silicon Valley (Embedded Systems Conference), I realize that these two shows offered another lesson in marketing. At both shows, acquaintances mentioned their new phones. Three people told me that they had just purchased a new Blackberry and that they were very pleased with it. One person told me that he purchased a new iPhone and that he loved it. He then gave me a demo! He showed me his photo album, including a Christmas party 10 years ago! He showed me the free apps, how he schedules meetings, how he calls his wife and kids, how he checks the weather, shows, restaurants and their menus. On and on he went.
As I sat captive to his monologue, I realized that the Apple iPhone was more important to him than our conversation. More importantly, I realized that he was a better salesman for the iPhone than any TV commercial or news story. Then I realized that my niece, nephew, and other friends and acquaintances who have iPhones, all spend time demonstrating how it works and what they like best about it.
And then I realized that not one Blackberry owner - including the ones I met at the shows - ever gave me a demo of their Blackberry. I wonder why?
My takeawy is that Apple has forever changed the way consumers use their phones and how they perceive them. The phone is no longer a tool. It's information, communication and --- a PASTIME! The Apple iPhone is adult entertainment at its best. Congratulations to Apple for creating a product that their customers are selling for them, and doing it in a most effective way.
-Barbara Kalkis, Maestro Marketing & PR (sm)
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