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January 23, 2009
Your flying car idea
Let's say you're building something that you and others have dreamed about for years.
Let's say that product is a flying car.
What daily commuter hasn't dreamed of a flying car? It's an idea that's so easy to talk about.
Let's say your company is run by MIT grads who are hip to recent advances in composite technology, GPS and in-flight computer systems. Like this company, which says it will have its cool-looking flying car (pictured) ready for delivery next year. It's taking down payments today.
Great. Love it. But if I may, this company is lacking one crucial element: a gurgling ground zero for friction-free word of mouth. There's no blog, no social network to join, no Twitter account for updates and, remarkably, no videos! (update: there are videos, albeit primarily animations).
Here's why a participatory word of mouth system is especially crucial: A year from today isn't what it used to be. With credit markets dried up and everyone cutting spending, a year from now could be a very long time in cash-flow terms. Or a death sentence. Let's hope not.
Word of your work on solving the flying car problem of your industry may spread well before you have a product to release, just as it happened with Emanuel Rosen in the 1990s when he was working for the company that made the software product EndNote; he was flabbergasted purchase orders started showing up before the product was announced, much less finished. Today, social media tools capture and scale word of mouth. A social network is now a tangible asset, just as important, if not more, to the balance sheet as a paid sales force or expensive PR firm.
Opening your company to a participatory, social media system for potential customers, vendors and fans before you have a product to release is an insurance policy against your most dreaded outcome: obscurity.
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I think it works on a scale: the more amazing your product/service truly is, the more important it is to be on word-of-mouth platforms like twitter. If you make horrible pizza, that publicity wouldn't help ;-)
From the link provided in the post:
http://www.terrafugia.com/imagesvideo.html
and
http://www.youtube.com/user/TerrafugiaInc
I had to click on News & Media to get to the videos, but they are there.
Pinny -- It would help to be on those platforms to understand the depth of distaste for said pizza!
John -- Thanks for the pointers. I updated the post to reflect the videos.
Fascinating post. Too bad a flying car is out of my price range. Like most other people, I'd like to subscribe to something that gives out news about this. And I would pass it along. It's interesting stuff.
Giving these guys the benefit of the doubt, I suppose they realize the customer base for the first version of this product is tiny, and direct marketing going to be more effective.
However... these "brochure ware" web sites are a waste of time and money. There's no sense of flow, no call to action. (Apart from a survey, which doesn't look much fun at all.) They are "black holes" for attention. You try to drive people to these URLs, then when a visitor hits them they have nothing to do except turn around and get out. Dead ends.
I wouldn't advocate any new business building a brochure ware web site. They require too much planning and cash. Instead, get a Typepad account, a Twitter for the business or some of the staff members, a Flickr pool, and move from there.
its only a matter of time for detroit to get on board with this concept, retool and start mass producing these for our western air commuter "master planned communities" (see Coyote Springs north of Las Vegas) that are just too far to drive, but who really wants to live in a congested city anyway? work, ok ... dash in and dash out, all at the same amount of time it takes to drive to a train station. soon, very soon . . . the price will be just right for the next generation of our personal transportation.
David -- Amen! I couldn't have written that better myself.
Voodoo -- I hope so. But do you really think it'll be Detroit, or will it be a band of outlaws that leave Detroit and set up shop in Silicon Valley, aka Aptera? Or Burt Rutan?
You are cordially invited to see my flying car project at www.strongware.com/dragon. I may be somewhat biassed, but I think it has a much better chance of success in the long term than the other flying car and roadable airplane projects.
