Don't Make Launch Mistakes Of Smartphone VP
Friday 11 March. Huge national radio audience. VP Europe, Rory O’Neill gets three minutes of precious airtime to plug the new Samsung S7 smartphone.
Alright, I feel compelled to state upfront. It was a poor performance. Substandard. One certainly not befitting someone of such lofty rank and remuneration. Especially when you consider the promoter appears to have years of industry experience.
Before we re-imagine how it really should be done, let’s first read through finger-caged eyes the ineptitude as it unfolded, live.
Question One:
How important is this product to your company?
Well, it’s a critical product for us really to delight European consumers because the European smartphone market is now a mature market and we have to study how they use their phones and delight them with our premium products like the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge.
My jaw instantly dropped when hearing this. His following three responses were of the same cloth.
Structurally it is flawed. Tactically it is misguided. Overall it is a seriously missed opportunity.
Dealing with the theme – so essential to any Q&A prep – despite what he may think, it is all about them. Not about the people that cough up their hard-earned for him. Wow. Or as he constantly calls them, “consumers”. Double wow.
As for that word “delight”… He even used it again later. Yuk. When will marketeers learn? And do I really need to spell out how toxic the label “European” can be to a UK audience?
I couldn’t believe his first answer did not start something like…
Yes, well it is yet another important, new product for us for sure, but that’s by the by, we’ve designed it to be important and exciting for anyone that wants … [better, quicker, higher, cheaper, longer …]
There’s other language he mistakenly thinks acceptable. Three examples;
immersive experiences
a three thousand six hundred milliamp battery
an ecosystem of experiences
Indeed, if you “study” the detail like they claim to study “consumers”, you’ll think the only reason to possibly get his “great design” new phone is “to bring 360 film to the smartphone experience.” #samsungfail.
Of the six questions he faced, the final two were on the Apple FBI encryption battle. He must have expected one on this. A lesson for us all to prepare for views on the latest sector controversy. Which he didn’t and damagingly came across as vague and suffering with splinters from fence-sitting.
As a Samsung phone owner presently, I was really hoping the guy would do well. Wanting to hear compelling reasons to upgrade myself. So I found my bewilderment compounded when I surfed reviews of said new phone. They are universally glowing. 5-stars abound. The best model out there today. So even more baffling that Rory sadly did not get any of the latest magic across. If he’s still in situ for the S8, I really hope he’s upped his game. And yours is happily higher too.