Chocolate Blog
Paul highlights the blog behind the phone. This is a terrific example of a PR blog. Like Paul, the transparency here is great. It describes the program and highlights their intent. Love the links etc. Great work by H&K.
The blog is definitely a “blogvertisement” or PR blog (“Prlog“) that uses blog features to promote the phone. What is missing here is community activation (as far as I can tell) – that is, activating the community of early “chocolate phone” adopters by providing them with a platform on which to engage and participate. It also doesn’t link to citizen recommendations on the product.
That said, it’s a great example of what it is and not ashamed to be that. It does highlight – in case anyone was confused – that their is a difference between commercial and marketing blogs and citizen blogs.
What they really meant when they said that…
Some classic quotes here… Including a range of Bush gems…
The First Mover PR Advantage…
Apple is enjoying a little first mover PR advantage with its pricing comparisons to Dell. First mover advantage is something that has been both promoted and discounted, but in the PR wars it’s worth lots – especially when your foe doesn’t move quickly (real-time) to counter the noise.
What I think people are missing here is that Dell’s model is geared to moving prices in a competitive way. I’m not sure Apple’s is as aggressively geared. They’re a smart bunch down in Austin – watch what happens next with Dell Pricing… If there is one things I have learned – competing with Dell on price is a fools errand.
I’ve been watching Apple’s announcements of the past week with keen interest (esp as I just installed a mini mac at home with Sonos). As someone who lives on both the Mac and Windows I care less and less about the operating system. Apple’s is lovely and reliable – I would argue better. Windows is annoying and ugly – but fast and supports a plethora of software that I have no choice but to need (Internet Explorer) and some that I prefer (Outlook, Office, Powerpoint). Pogue does a better job than me on all of this.
So long as Microsoft and Dell have that advantage I’ll keep buying their products – first mover advantage or no first mover advantage. So long as Apple has its advantage, I’ll keep buying theirs. And so long as my employer keeps buying at least one of these systems, I’m stuck with that as well.
Which leads me – very circuitously – to my main point. The future won’t be about who is better but rather who can tie it all together – and from that standpoint Apple is off to a good start… I’m going to want the best of both worlds on one system.
And oh, those Dell guys, they’ll be in the middle of this as well, you wait and see.
Authenticity & Astroturfing
Great page on the New PR Wiki on astroturfing.
Press Release Optimization…
Good wrap on press release optimization (or press release SEO) for search. And more here on search.
