*Note: If you’re not sure what Google Wave is – watch this 1 min video to find out.
Earlier this week, I watched a wonderful talk by Rory Sutherland on changing perceptions. In it, Mr. Gallagher tells a story loosely attributed to the king of Prussia. After discovering the potato, the king returned home eager to introduce an additional vegetable to his kingdom. However, the people didn’t take to the potato. After brute force had little affect on the the people, the king tried a new strategy. He set up a royal potato garden outside the palace and instructed his guards to pretend to ‘watch over’ the garden.
The result? An underground potato theft and growing operation developed and the potato caught on like wild fire. The king changed the perception of the potato from necessary obligation, to exclusive indulgence – and we all love exclusive.
Back when Google launched Gmail, it used the same tactic. Leak the news to influential press and then hand out invitations to an exclusive list – while the ‘unworthy masses’ chomped at the bit to get invited. The strategy worked – just like the kings potatoes, Gmail caught on like wild fire.
After getting it right with Gmail, Google made a mistake that so many of us are guilty of: It viewed past success as a formula and then applied that formula to a future problem.
The reason why I think the strategy is a mistake for Google Wave is because the application is only useful if you’re ‘waving’ with others. Google gave out 100,000 invites and in doing so created 100,000 islands each with one stranded person. Of course this wasn’t a problem with the Gmail launch because we can send and receive email with our contacts regardless of their email platform.
Here’s how I would have tweaked the launch strategy:
Add one last area to the invite request form: “Google Wave is more fun when you have people to ‘Wave’ with. Please select an area of interest and we’ll add you to a pool of people who share your interests so you can fully test Wave together, and hopefully make some really great connections in the process”.
Dear Google: Adding this one small wrinkle in the launch not only yields far more valuable test results, but also gives back to your early adopters by facilitating new connections and relationships between them.
Being stranded on an island is a lot more fun, if you’re stranded there with friends.
I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one. - Leo Burnett