Motorola marketing STINKS!

[danioro]

OK, so am I missing something? Motorola has done a very poor job of marketing this great new phone, IMHO.
Compare the hype about the iPhone before it was released. Specs leaked, speculation abounded, excitement mounted. Motorola's TV ads hinted at features, but nowhere could one find any reliable information about the phone.
As a result, I went into Verizon office on the day of release and found no lines, no excitement, no hype. The associate I spoke with told me to buy a Blackberry, because "Motorola products suck". I grabbed a demo Droid and started to demo the features and he was astonished by what it could do. In other words, the people selling the phone have not been educated about Droid, Android OS, apps etc and have no idea of what the phone's capabilities are!

If you want to sell phones, you have to SELL them! To the buying public, to the sales associates handling them, to your dog!
I will purchase a Droid, not because I am unhappy with my iPhone, but because AT&T service in Peoria IL is so poor. But damn! I am underwhelmed by the marketing efforts. And make no mistake, Apps will not reach critical mass until Android phones are sold.

What a pity.

 

[mazz0310]

There has yet to be a commercial where you can actually see the phone. If I didn't read about it on Gizmodo I wouldn't have known anything about it.

 

[danioro]

Exactly my point! What the hell are they thinking? Trying to get info about the phone's features is very difficult, even on this forum! Oh and by the way, any idea where one can get the accessories for the phone? Car mount and bedside mount are not available in Verizon stores that I have seen.

Weird way to sell phones if you ask me

 

[uberjeff]

Verizon's accessory distribution is handled by a 3rd party company. It is not unusual for the accessories to be limited when the phones are first released. Sadly the selection is usually much better the second week after the phone comes out. I remember when the Storm launched we actually had a pretty good selection, but a very limited number of most things. Even more limited than the number of phones we received.

As far as the marketing goes anyone looks pitiful compared to Apple. I have no doubt Motorola could do better, but I'm beginning to think Apple is actually a marketing company that just happens to sell products. They really are the gold standard in the hype department.

 

[rocksthaman]

link New DROID ads show off Android, will make a man out of you clicky


the link is better but before that it was funny how for the commercials to say "droid Does" and they dont actually show what ......a Droid does .

 

[andrewdoane]

I think their marketing has been great. Not as good as Apple's, but there wasn't a fanboy coalition already built in. Sure, the store guys suck, but anyone under 50 knows you can't trust the store guys, you have to go to BGR and the like.

 

[jTink]

There were a ton of people at my local store coming in and out on the 6th. All the verizon people were wearing Droid shirts and there was a dude running around with a Droid showing its features to everyone. There was also a display model.They even had Droid cookies.

I was actually surprised by the number of people at my store for the Droid.

 

[Matthew]

If I didn't have the internet I would not have known about the droid. The crappy droid does commercials didn't help either.

 

[uberjeff]

I think their marketing has been great. Not as good as Apple's, but there wasn't a fanboy coalition already built in. Sure, the store guys suck, but anyone under 50 knows you can't trust the store guys, you have to go to BGR and the like.

As a prior "store guy" I resent that remark. I have no doubt that the knowledge level among the staff varies to a great extent, but the employees in my store were always very well informed. There are 2 factors at work here. Most of them are not phone geeks like the average person who posts on here, Howardforums, or Crackberry, and secondly they are often under non-disclosure agreements prior to product launches and have to dodge questions to the best of their abilities. The training at the store level is as good as it can be. There is simply no substitution for hands on time with the device as your primary means of communication. That is why these types of forums will always be better for your more advanced level of questions. Not every employee can own every phone. They are taught the basics needed to discuss the features of the phone and sell them. If you want technical support you are better off calling them or coming here and talking to actual users.

Getting off my soapbox now...

 

[QrafTee]

Funny... but true. Since the Droid Does commercials, I haven't seen anything after the Droid was released.

Verizon has been marketing the hell out of the Storm 2 (at least on Spike)... not sure WTF is going on.

 

[MotoDroidHelpandInfo]

There has yet to be a commercial where you can actually see the phone. If I didn't read about it on Gizmodo I wouldn't have known anything about it.

In the Stealth commercial you can see it but not very easily.
The reason there wasn't a lot of hype was because, Verizon trys to keep things locked up so other companies don't know how they're going to react and it will take them a while to counteract it. If that makes any sense

 

[FormerStormUser]

But, you also need to look at when a phone is over-hyped...everyone is dissappointed...Word of mouth works too. You watch the phone will keep selling over the next couple of months instead of a huge hit on day one.

 

[JRowMe]

I think the commercials not showing the device while boasting a ton of features make you curious and make you actually go into the store or the websites.

it's not like it didn't sell just because there was no lines at some locations.
More Droid News: Wirefly Selling DROID and DROID Eris for Cheap, Is The DROID A Success? | Android Central

 

[QrafTee]

In the Stealth commercial you can see it but not very easily.
The reason there wasn't a lot of hype was because, Verizon trys to keep things locked up so other companies don't know how they're going to react and it will take them a while to counteract it. If that makes any sense

And at the same time not attract a lot of customers... So why bother when you don't make money? It's a business; you need to spend money to make money.

 

[aileendq]

At the risk of sounding like a five year old, I'm glad that they (1) did not over-hype this phone and (2) did not create such a frenzy for this phone that (a) it would be out of stock too soon (I have yet to order mine- will be doing so Thursday) and (b) that it become as ubiquitous as the iPhone.

 

[navyasw02]

1. I dont know where you live and what you watch, but I see ads on most of the major sporting events and big prime time network shows
2. Who really cares? You already got yours, do you really want to see ads for something you've already got?
3. Apple has oversaturated the entire computer market to the point where they could take a crap in a bag with their logo on it and brand it the iTurd and everyone will line up for it. I've used Apple products for the last 25 years and they are and always have been overpriced, overproprietary, and underperforming machines that ride the current fads and rely on a glossy user interface to win over customers. Wouldnt you rather have a product that speaks for itself?