Leaked company information as a marketing advantage?

Browsing the internet, I came across a video published by a tech Youtuber called Marques Brownlee better known as MKBHD. In this video Brownlee talks about companies’ differences on how these protect their upcoming products from the fans, followers and public in general before the products are ready to be presented. Brownlee points out two companies in his video. These are Apple, Inc. and Tesla, Inc. These two industry leading giants have a surprisingly different approach on how they show and what they show to the world before the official launch of their new product. The research and development in these types of companies is very expensive and therefore the information leaked outside the company premises is minimized with different types of physical barriers and in-paper agreements with their employees. One of them being a non-disclosure contract (NDA) in which both parties agree to not disclose certain type of information.

Interviews to the employers of these companies are very common all over the world and the internet is full of them. Interviewers tend to ask spicy questions to get interesting headlines and therefore views to their article. In a case of an employee being interviewed there is always certain off-limit questions which are not being allowed to ask or answer. These off-topic questions are most of the times the ones regarding future products.

Brownlee points out the Streisand effect, which means that the more you try to hide something the more attention It attracts. As said before companies tend to hide their trade and commercial secrets as well as possible to prevent valuable information leaking out for others to use for free. Keeping things a secret causes more interest and therefore people are willing to do innovative things to get this information. A new rising trend to get information is flying drones above company premises. When a leak of information occurs, it gains a lot of attention. The demand around the tech industry is huge and the growth is exponential. Misleading information and even conspiracy theories are very common around the tech industry nowadays.

Apple and Tesla are the ones mentioned because they have a totally different approach on privacy when developing new products. An article (Humbert, G. 2020.) talks about the approach of CEO of Tesla Elon Musk when flying drones above the companies’ premises while they are being built. Tesla has taken a conscious risk allowing these drone flyovers and knows it’s pros and cons. The company doesn’t use any money on advertisement, which leans to think that these drone flyovers could be a free advertisement channel to the company. Tesla has shown in the past that they can keep products hidden from the public before the launch. In my opinion it is a marketing strategy like never seen before.

Apple has a more traditional way of approaching their privacy which is very strict and clear. They don’t allow any kind of drone flyovers. Apple’s image is very precious, and they want to keep it that way. In this article (Gimenez, G. read March 2022) Gimenez talks about the increased security provided by Apple to prevent drone flying over the premises of the company. This is to protect the company image but very importantly also in my opinion to give privacy to the employees. In my opinion in a company as famous as Apple the privacy of their employees is very important to protect them in their private life. Apple is one of the biggest job creators with two million workplaces in the USA.

When buying a product from the already mentioned companies you don’t only buy the product itself. When buying a car from Tesla or a phone from Apple you are not only buying the product but also the narrative of the company. These brands take brand loyalty seriously creating brand dependency. This meaning that if you buy a product from these companies, you are most likely going to stick with the brand because of the brand status.

Marketing industry is currently in a big change. Marketing actions done by fans, followers and influencers will be increasingly important to the brands. It has been seen in the past years that marketing is transitioning from traditional channels to new ways of reaching customers. An increasing amount of people make their purchasing decisions based on the narrative of the company. This is something that I find extremely interesting, and I wish to learn more about this topic in the future with the hope of learning new skills and competences around modern marketing.

Sources:

(Gimenez, G. Drone flight over Apple Park. It is increasingly difficult to fly over the venue)

https://www.soydemac.com/en/drone-flight-through-apple-park-more-complicated-to-fly/

(Brownlee, M. 2022. On new Cybertruck updates from drone footage)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_OOiuaZSKc

Humbert, G. 2020. Elon Musk supports fans´ drone footage of Tesla Gigafactory construction)

https://www.torquenews.com/11663/elon-musk-supports-fans-drone-footage-tesla-gigafactory-construction

(Apple.com Job-creation. 2016 Two million U.S jobs. and counting.)

https://www.apple.com/job-creation/