Apple’s Tablet is going to be announced next week and the buzz is reaching crescendo.
Nobody is better than Apple at building buzz, lathering us up with rumors, expectations, excitement. This creates a huge energy outside Apple, about Apple.
Today: here are the communities orbiting Apple responsible for creating and driving its buzz and energy. Apple’s huge mainstream success could not be possible without all four of these committed communities:
- Brand evangelists: The groupies. Apple is the only consumer electronics company to have evangelists among mainstream consumers. It’s easy to have early-adopter evangelists. But when middle-age and grandparent consumers spread your word as truth, you stand alone. Google has not attained this position yet.
- Intense media interest: Make no mistake, Apple has evangelists in the media. Newspaper and magazine writers, radio hosts, anchors, editors and producers love Apple for its cutting edge products and the buzz that they generate. I repeat: news people love Apple because is news. Ever been in the media room at a consumer electronics trade show? At least 75% of the laptops are Apple’s.
- Blogger & Social Media Passions: For most electronics, social media buzz follows real media stories. For Apple, blog and Twitter rumors turn into real news.
- General consumer interest: The iPhone happened. The iPod happened. People are interested in what comes next. Following Apple is like following your NFL team.
These four communities feed off of one another, each stoking the interest of the others.
Although not a single other company enjoys the outside buzz that Apple has, two companies are close: Amazon.com (with its Kindle and its Web site); Google (with its online properties and its Android phones).
I can think of two companies that have come close to attaining this buzz but then fell away: Palm. TiVo.
Tomorrow: what Apple does to stoke, provoke, encourage and assist this incredible evangelism.