My apologies. Post #228 was mine. My wonderful wife had logged in on the home computer to send a PM to someone and I had not noticed that she had not logged out.
A key observation. In the former world of the sorting goods business, these sorts of things were done at key industry trade shows. Recall the Cervelo P4 was launched with a great deal of internal fanfare at Interbike a number of years ago. This was the way it was done in most businesses, is new stuff was launched at Trade Shows and fairs to the industry first. There was often an underground world of "Spy Photos" circulating around, but this was really only for those in the know and those who really cared and were connected.
The world of social media and networking has turned all of this up-side down in just the last couple of years. Now it seems everyone from Apple to even small companies in our business, have broken away from this tradition of inside industry launches, and are going it on there own launching product using their own schedule, micro marketing and social media. Again witness this shift even within a company like Cervelo - the S5 was launched, well before any of the key industry trade shows just before the Tour de France, and in a rather secret and stealthy fashion with a heavy emphasis and utilization of social media and networking to spread the word. Of course the timing and perhaps the luck for Cervelo in this regard was brilliant as Thor Husvold, rode the bike to several stage wins and in the yellow jersey for a number of days. The exposure was huge and right in line with Cervelo's booking deadline for next year. I am guessing that S5's booked well on pre-season orders for many dealers for 2012, which is a key metric internally in the business!
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
A key observation. In the former world of the sorting goods business, these sorts of things were done at key industry trade shows. Recall the Cervelo P4 was launched with a great deal of internal fanfare at Interbike a number of years ago. This was the way it was done in most businesses, is new stuff was launched at Trade Shows and fairs to the industry first. There was often an underground world of "Spy Photos" circulating around, but this was really only for those in the know and those who really cared and were connected.
The world of social media and networking has turned all of this up-side down in just the last couple of years. Now it seems everyone from Apple to even small companies in our business, have broken away from this tradition of inside industry launches, and are going it on there own launching product using their own schedule, micro marketing and social media. Again witness this shift even within a company like Cervelo - the S5 was launched, well before any of the key industry trade shows just before the Tour de France, and in a rather secret and stealthy fashion with a heavy emphasis and utilization of social media and networking to spread the word. Of course the timing and perhaps the luck for Cervelo in this regard was brilliant as Thor Husvold, rode the bike to several stage wins and in the yellow jersey for a number of days. The exposure was huge and right in line with Cervelo's booking deadline for next year. I am guessing that S5's booked well on pre-season orders for many dealers for 2012, which is a key metric internally in the business!
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog