The Product That Became Famous Before It Existed
I have always found it a little strange that we can become interested in a product long before we have any real experience with it.
Sometimes all we have is a photograph, a short demonstration, or a company saying, “This is what we are working on.” There is no product sitting in front of us. We cannot try it, compare it with something else, or even be certain that the final version will look exactly like what we have seen. Still, within a few days, people are discussing it as if it has already become part of their lives.
I think that says something interesting about the way product marketing works now. A product does not necessarily enter the market first and create attention afterwards. Quite often, the attention starts much earlier, while the product is still being designed, tested, or kept away from the public.
What happens during that period is easy to overlook. People start forming expectations.
We see a preview and begin wondering whether we would use it. We hear about a new feature and start comparing it with something we already own. Someone posts a reaction online, and suddenly we have another opinion to consider. If enough people join that conversation, the product can become familiar before most of them have ever had a chance to touch it.
Apple has been very good at creating this kind of anticipation, particularly around its major product launches. The interesting thing is not simply that Apple announces a new device. It is what happens between the announcement and the moment people can actually buy it. Reviews begin appearing, people discuss small design changes, creators test features, and users start deciding whether the new version is worth replacing what they already have.
By launch day, the conversation is already mature.
We have seen the device from several angles. We know what changed. We have heard arguments for and against it. Some people have already decided they want one, while others have decided that their current device is good enough. The product has entered the decision-making process before it has entered their homes.
The Cybertruck created a different kind of anticipation.
When Tesla showed the Cybertruck in 2019, the reaction was not simply, “That looks like an interesting new truck.” The design itself became the story. People argued about whether it looked good, whether it was practical, whether the unusual shape made sense, and whether the vehicle would really end up looking the way it did at the reveal.
That conversation continued for years while the vehicle moved towards production.
Whatever someone thought about the Cybertruck, it was difficult to ignore. That is an important distinction. The attention did not come only from Tesla explaining why someone should buy the vehicle. A large part of the attention came from people trying to make sense of it themselves.
That is where I think anticipation becomes particularly useful.
When a product is already available, there is a fairly straightforward question: do I want it or not? When it is still on the way, the question is slightly different. What is this going to be? Is it actually going to solve the problem they are talking about? Will it be better than what I already use? Is it something I would spend money on?
Those questions give people a reason to keep following the story.
There is also a psychological side to this that marketers can easily underestimate. Once we have spent enough time thinking about an upcoming product, we stop approaching it as complete strangers. We have already built our own version of it in our heads.
That can be helpful for a brand, but it can also create trouble.
Imagine hearing about a product for six months. You watch demonstrations, read predictions, see other people’s reactions, and slowly develop an idea of what the finished product should be. When you finally get to use it, you are not judging it on its own. You are comparing it with the version you expected to receive.
If the real product is better than expected, that can create a very strong reaction. If it falls short, the disappointment can be just as strong.
This is why I am not convinced that “more hype” is automatically better marketing. Attention is useful, but attention also comes with a cost. Every promise creates an expectation, and every expectation eventually has to meet reality.
For smaller brands, there is actually a useful lesson here that has nothing to do with copying the launch style of Apple or Tesla.
A company does not need a secret product, a dramatic countdown, or months of teasing to create anticipation. It can simply let people understand what it is trying to solve.
Suppose a small software company is building a tool because its team keeps wasting hours doing the same manual task every week. Instead of suddenly announcing the finished software, the company could show the problem, explain how the idea came about, share early experiments, and let potential users see how the solution is developing.
That changes the relationship with the audience.
People are no longer being shown a finished object and asked whether they want it. They are watching an idea take shape. If the problem is familiar to them, they have a reason to care about the outcome.
I think that is what gets lost when we talk about pre-launch marketing only in terms of “building hype.”
The real opportunity is not to make people excited for the sake of excitement. It is to give them enough context that they can imagine the product being useful to them before it is actually available.
Once someone can picture that, the product has already crossed an important boundary. It may not exist physically yet, but it has started to exist in their decision-making.
And that is probably why some products seem to arrive with an audience already waiting for them.
The launch did not really begin on the day the product became available.
It started much earlier, when someone first heard the idea and thought, “I could actually use that.”