A week and a half ago, I had the privilege of being invited to the National Museum of Singapore for the launch of the brand new Sony Vaio P, Sony’s venture into the realm of ultra mobile computing. This blog post is more about the social media/communications standpoint of the event, rather than the actual product itself because I had to leave early and didn’t actually get to “play” with the product.
The Unveiling
First up, I have a video of Mr. Kazutoyo Araki (Senior Manager, Area Marketing Group, Global VAIO Direct Department Business Planning and Strategy Division, VAIO Business Group), telling us a little about the history of Sony’s innovation from the Walkman, and unveiling the actual product. Now I was expecting someone to walk on stage and flash it or a curtain to be swept aside to show the product, but how he did it was way better. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it:
The Message Tech 65 has their interpretation of the Vaio P from a pure technology point of view, but I look at the communication of the message. Whether it was Mr. Araki or Ms. Janice Yang from the VAIO Product Marketing Department of Sony Singapore, the key message was clear: It’s a premium, portable device, for the road warrior who needs regular access throughout the day (or on trips), but won’t necessarily use it for extended periods of time.
Word Of Mouth
One thing I think Sony did excellently (at least for the bloggers) was to provide us with a pamphlet the exact same length and width (but obviously not depth) as the Vaio P. While I was working on this blog post, I had that pamphlet with me and invariably, many of my friends asked to have a look and were oohing and ahhing over the size. Excellent way to reach the tertiary crowd.
Sony Vaio P
The pamphlet also allowed me to take a “real” representation of how small the Vaio P is with the picture to the right. Barely the length of three business cards. All this is proof that you don’t need expensive, crazy collaterals to make an impact, just the right one.
All in all, as an unabashed Sony fan, I have to say I think the Vaio P has chosen the right time to enter the market because everyone wants to be mobile without carrying around a 2kg laptop, and with their clear messaging to the public, they just might have a silent winner on their hands.
To close off this blog post, I leave you with the models strutting their stuff, as well as the Sony Vaio P at the product launch:
[Disclosure: A family member works at Hill & Knowlton, the PR firm behind this event, and as such, I have opted not to comment on their role in the event.]
My stand on companies entering social media has always been that the very first step is to make sure your product doesn’t suck. By that I don’t mean it has to be perfect (I love Sony but I can’t stand their sensitive hard disk), but it needs to do what it says it does. If you put it out there saying “Try this, it will do X”, then it damn well better do X. And if it does Y instead, don’t get angry and blame the blogger for a negative review or reaction to a sucky product.
Priscilla mentions correctly that making products requires a lot in terms of money and investment. But here’s the thing, if you don’t do that properly in the first place and thing social media will make up for whatever wasn’t done properly in the development stage: it will not.
One of the best examples I have is Claudia’s coverage of Podcamp Singapore. At the bottom there’s a little banner saying all the pictures/videos are taken from the Samsung Innov8 which has the tagline “the ultimate entertainer.”
Now, if the Innov8 has that tagline, but took grainy pictures and/or videos, it’s just going to get smashed online. The Innov8 does it pretty well, that’s why it can stand up to public scrutiny.
If you tell me it’s an ultramobile PC, I can overlook a slightly slower processor, but it shouldn’t weigh more than 2kg.
If they’re noise canceling earphones, I can excuse a lack of base, but not hearing the noisy person chatting next to me on the train.
If it’s a relatively good product that does all that it says it does, but consumers want more and send that feedback to you, then that’s how you win in social media because you’ve created a feedback channel that will be beneficial to your company over a long time.
The problem is companies tend to want to over-hype their products and tout it as the second coming. Consumers are smarter than that. Create the proper expectations and live up to them. If your product doesn’t do anything well, then send it back to the R&D lab. The consumers these days are way too demanding for such a product to survive.
More on the IDC Web2.0 Conference yesterday (attendees aside), there were some great insights that I’d love to talk about.
Prof. Michael brought up a point that I personally identify with. He says sometimes he has a guest in the class room and the guest is talking to the class, but the class is talking to each other via IM (or maybe Twitter), in other words, we’re having multiple levels of conversation.
Sarah will tell you they won’t even read this far down a blog post. Ian will tell you we have the computer on talking to 7 friends with MTV in the background and alternate-tabbing between games while stopping once in awhile to sms someone.
And that’s the truth.
Marketers are not going to get our full attention. And they certainly can’t demand it. They’re going to have to fight for it, not by interruption, but with darn compelling content. Does this mean we absorb less if we’re doing five things at the same time? Without empirical proof I’m going to say maybe. But I feel it also makes us aware of more. I can’t walk out of a movie these days without picking up at least one or two brands featured in the show, and more often than not the conversation becomes a “hey did you see that BMW insert?” after the movie.
Speaking as a Gen Y consumer myself, I love it when brands make the effort to connect, and seem like they’re genuine. (not some scammy thing). I’ll talk to you about Sony, about EA Games, about Bluehost and about HP because I know that they’re at least recognising the new presence of the new consumers and trying. They may not be fantastic at it, but it’s better than pretending we don’t exist or are a “fad”. (full disclosure: my office does PR work for HP)
Speaking of listening, I wanted to talk about this yesterday and am further prompted by this comment. Dear Yahoo!, I love that you sponsor stuff like the Web2.0 conference, but Jonathan is right. Does it make sense to sponsor it when people don’t get what you’re about? I love the “social” ymail and I love how it was presented in a non-intrusive way together with the goodie bags. But wouldn’t it be cooler to connect with say, 60 people who are in the space, in the know and can really appreciate what your product is about? Or give them a chance to try it and be bought over?
If you’re willing to listen to a proposition (not for me, but for the local Singaporean blogosphere), let’s start a conversation!
