The Power of Online Pre-Marketing

I follow entertainment news online regularly. By that I mean industry news and not the gossipy who did this and that. What has become common is hearing directors and producers become more and more reliant on pre-production feedback received on online. More and more marketing trends are leaning toward development through Internet pre-marketing.

The power of online pre-marketing
At Newsarama.com which is mainly anything to do about the comic book industry ran a post on a new upcoming book in development. The book called “The Savage She-Hulk”. The world is familiar enough with The Hulk funny book character through TV and movies. This is a recent “She-Hulk” character who is that character’s daughter and not to be confused with an already established “She-Hulk.” I know it sounds confusing and almost dopey. Well, the response in the comments forum probably made that clear. From what I read barring a miracle, the book as deemed online may be DOA before being published. To be blunt the feedback was brutal without having read any pages.

The resource of online pre-marketing as a tool
First of all you don’t have to enter into mass production of the product before getting it out to the public anymore. All you need is to make a polished prototype. It doesn’t have to be a finished product. Through feature articles, blogs, and video features a product can be introduced to the public. The anticipation presell technique now goes to a new level. With all the right exposure online it will feel as if the product is already mainstream before it hits the market The best part is feedback from the hype can lead to modifications. This serves to well in for marketing purposes.

The benefits of pre-marketing
As I mentioned before this heightens the anticipation. Feedback from the pre-marketing is used two ways. One is becoming less common is too launch the product with modifications based on consumer feedback. That’s a powerful marketing asset because the buyer feels they had a say in the final version. It creates a sense of wanting to own it because the consumer feels they had a hand in it. The second and what is becoming more frequent is launching a product along with the knowledge consumer feedback has lead to developing a coming upgrade. Many more companies lean toward employing the latter. For the most part, it works well.

Back to that example
This new “She-Hulk” book got savaged on the day the blog posted. The writer got praised. The artwork was complemented. The book thought overwhelmingly panned. I suspect this will pain solicitation scheduling and lower the production count estimates even before orders are placed. This may also caused the book to be shelved on a temporary to permanent basis.

The resulting benefit of pre-marketing failure
Companies will cut their losses. Just like movies will never be made because in pre-production they learned they could not generate a positive buzz, products will die the same way. The upside is the ability to move on sooner to the next “new” whatever. Less money spent in bad development is a good thing. There is a flipside to all of this.

Pre-judging prematurely
Great products will be lost due to pre-marketing. Going back to entertainment some of the greatest movies, had dreadful or low pre-release buzz. In finish premarketing takes away the element of discovery on the part of consumer. Frankly that is part of the allure of many gadgets purchased. The pre-marketing technique goes beyond tweaking interest. It basically lays bare the whole product before you purchase it. That will take part of the fun in the attraction.

For instance
Going back to movies. With all the pre-marketing hype of interviews, previews, trailers and sneak peeks by the time an “anticipated” movie hits the screen, you may have seen twenty minutes to a half hour of a final production under 90 minutes. I don’t know what is worse, going to a movie where you know everything and it seems like a rerun, you’ve seen the best parts already or seeing how badly you were misled about the story itself. This kind of downfall can hit any product pre-marketed to the public.

The point
Pre-marketing is a powerful tool. Like anything with power you have to use it wisely. Definitely for some products seeing it fully in operation and experiencing its function will sell. Now that video is so readily marketable on the Internet, products that never would have sold will fly when it hits the market. You will have video, audio, pdfs and tutorials all at the consumer’s finger tips. The advertising costs will be greatly reduced increasing the profit bottomline. And just so you know, I would have never purchased that “She-Hulk” book regardless. There will still be plenty of consumers out there that will have that same thought about anything. In most cases first time sales will be more vigorous than it would have been without pre-marketing.