There are two things that are most important in marketing: popularizing your brand or product, not just reaching the people. One is users’ expectations, and the other is word of mouth. How can it boost your product or ruin your business? Therefore, it is very important to understand how expectations and word of mouth can be used in marketing.
- A movie can earn over 600 crores but still be called a disappointment.
- A video game can break pre-order records but is removed from digital stores just 8 days after launch.
- A sauce packet, which no one probably remembers today?
Why did this happen? Was the product a complete failure? The problem was that marketing had created an expectation, but the actual result could not reach the level of that expectation.
I am going to share with you 5 real campaigns from different industries after analyzing them, because this pattern is seen again and again. Even today some marketers and companies are making such small or big mistakes, which have a real impact.
The hype increases so much that the promise becomes bigger than the actual result that the customer gets on the first day of launch. Let’s see exactly what happened in each case and what you can learn from these examples before your launch, whether you’re a company or a digital marketer. You’re going to learn a lot from this article.
Key Takeaways
- A product can sell a lot and still fail miserably. If marketing expectations are set too high and the supply, quality, or availability don’t match the hype, the customers who were most excited can become your biggest critics.
- Past success automatically raises the bar for the next product. People’s expectations increase. Whether you have a comparison plan or not, customers will naturally compare a new product with past successes.
- If a good director makes a good movie, expectations for his next movie automatically rise. One name becomes attached to another.
- Research such as a director’s test or analytics cannot always capture emotional expectations. Some expectations are connected to identity, memories, and trust.
- Fast, specific, and honest recovery is more effective in bringing customers back.
Power of Word-of-Mouth in Marketing
The best marketing for any company or brand is word of mouth, which is a thousand times better than paid advertising. There was an indie movie called Obsession, which was created by a YouTuber. Despite being a low-budget film, it earned around $488.2 million worldwide. This film was a very good success. Being an indie film, people had low expectations that he would be a YouTuber. However, this film turned out to be very successful. People said that this time marketing happened automatically, word of mouth became strong, and this film became a historic success with the power of word of mouth.
The Real Problem Is the Gap Between Promise and Delivery
Many people make a common mistake regarding marketing failure. This is often the case with beginner marketers and new brands, who, in their pursuit of quick results, rush into action.
They believe that if they don’t make big promises in marketing, they won’t be successful. But if you look closely at the cases below, you’ll see something else repeatedly. The product itself was good, but sometimes the problem was with the promises. The problem wasn’t with the product, but with the promises and marketing surrounding it.
If you expect 10 and deliver 7, the customer will feel betrayed. However, if you set an expectation of 7 and deliver the same 7, the customer may find it a pleasant surprise. The product remains the same; only the expectations around it change.
This means you should avoid mistakes in your marketing. Don’t set expectations that you haven’t even confirmed you can deliver.
This may sound a little complicated, but imagine you go to a shop to buy clothes. They tell you that the suit on display will cost you $2. Then they offer you that if you buy another suit, you’ll get both suits for $3.
Now what happens? You get both suits for $1.50 each. So you think, “If I had bought both suits separately, I would have paid $4. But now I can get both suits for $3.” This way, you’re happy to receive the product at a lower price than you expected, so you’ll buy it.
How to use User Expectations in Event or Seasonal Marketing
This is the most common thing you see in Event Marketing ya Seasonal Marketing, that is, if Halloween is coming, then a Halloween sale is launched with it. If it is Black Friday, then the customer also thinks that if I buy it at the event, then this thing is getting cheaper for me. if i buy later price is increased, then I have to buy it.
For example, if I buy hosting, I do it when it is Black Friday, because I get to see a big discount there. In this way, many people take this thing in a negative way, which is that they have a discount, they have saved, or they have bought one, they have got one free.
Such campaigns and marketing are done because the expectations of the user are different and what is provided to them is very low. That is, if the price is high, then you can get the same thing at a lower price. It is given that your expectations for this product become better.
It could be the features of your product, it could be your pricing, but fake promises that we will deliver such and such while your product does not have that thing, then it has a negative impact on you.
Marketing mistakes that backfire
Now I’m going to tell you about the marketing mistakes you should avoid. These mistakes are explained with real case studies to help you better understand them using real marketing examples.
Case Study 1: Leo vs. Vikram, when a director’s own hit becomes his trap
Tamil director Lokesh Kanagaraj began building a connected film franchise, the Lokesh Cinematic Universe, in 2019 with Kaithi. His 2022 film Vikram, starring Kamal Haasan in the lead role, became a massive hit. The film grossed an estimated ₹424 to ₹500 crore on a budget of around ₹120 crore.
This success quietly set the bar for every film that followed. His 2023 follow-up film, Leo, starring Vijay and Sanjay Dutt, was made on a budget of roughly ₹250 to ₹400 crore and became the highest-grossing Tamil film of that year, earning over ₹600 crore worldwide.
By the numbers, Leo was a clear hit. But reviewers and fans repeatedly compared it to one film: Vikram. Critics called it a mixed bag, pointed to weaker supporting characters, and also said that the hype created by Vikram’s success and franchise connections had raised expectations so high that Leo couldn’t fully meet them creatively, even though it earned a lot of money.
The lesson here is that your previous success quietly becomes the benchmark for your next release, whether you planned for that comparison or not.
Case Study 2: Cyberpunk 2077, 8 years of hype, one broken launch
CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 in 2012. Eight years of marketing followed before release, through trailers, Keanu Reeves’ reveal, and repeated delays. The game was initially scheduled to launch in April 2020, then September, then November, and finally, a December 10, 2020, launch date.
By launch day, pre-orders alone had reached 8 million copies. Anticipation in gaming marketing couldn’t be higher.
Then people actually played the game. On the base PS4 and Xbox One consoles, the game suffered from dropped frame rates, constant crashes, and so many visual bugs that entire highlight reels were created online. One reviewer reported a seizure, and the developer even had to add a formal health warning.
Just eight days after launch, Sony completely removed Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offered full refunds. Analysts called it an almost unheard-of move for a major console platform. CD Projekt’s stock fell by as much as 20% in a single trading day.
The game improved through patches in the following years. But the launch itself still serves as an example of how risky it can be to promise more than you can deliver on release day.
Case Study 3: McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce, when the demand you create outruns the supply you planned
In 2017, an episode of Rick and Morty referenced McDonald’s discontinued dipping sauce, which was released in 1998 as part of a Mulan promotion. Fans started a petition. McDonald’s took notice of the demand and brought the sauce back for just one day on October 7, 2017, along with the launch of new chicken tenders.
The marketing worked, perhaps even more than expected. Some locations reportedly received only 20 to fewer than 100 sauce packets, while hundreds of people arrived. Fans waited in line for hours, some crossed state lines, and police were called in at several stores when the sauce was unavailable.
Unopened packets were subsequently resold online for hundreds of dollars, with one listing reportedly reaching almost $1,000.
The response was also significant. McDonald’s publicly apologized, admitting they hadn’t properly anticipated demand, and relaunched the sauce nationwide in the US in February 2018 with 20 million packets. This follow-through was a major reason the brand was able to recover, instead of becoming a permanent punchline.
Case Study 4: Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, hyped as the future, broke in reviewers’ hands
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Fold in February 2019. It was their answer to a genuinely new phone category: a $1,980 foldable screen phone, presented as the next real leap in smartphone design.
Ahead of the planned April 26, 2019 launch, around 50 units were shipped to reviewers and journalists. Within a few days, the screens on several review units began to flicker, bulge, or completely fail. Some problems were related to reviewers removing a layer that appeared to be a screen protector but was actually a functional layer. The remaining issues were related to hinges and debris, which Samsung couldn’t detect in its testing.
Samsung indefinitely delayed the launch, recalled all review units, and brought the Fold to market several months after the originally planned date.
The company had created real anticipation around a genuinely new type of device. The mistake was to send the device to reviewers before it could survive a week of normal use by the very people whose opinions would shape public perception.
Case Study 5: New Coke, when the data said one thing and the emotional expectation said another.
This case is a little different and useful to include because the gap isn’t just caused by broken promises. Sometimes problems arise when you ignore what people already believe about your brand.
In April 1985, Coca-Cola changed its formula for the first time in 99 years. Proper research was behind this decision. Nearly 200,000 people participated in blind taste tests, and the new, sweeter formula beat both Pepsi and original Coke in those tests.
Yet the backlash began almost immediately. Coca-Cola received up to 8,000 calls and roughly 40,000 complaint letters a day. People protested outside company events and held signs demanding a return to the original formula.
Taste tests captured which taste people preferred in blind sips. But those tests didn’t capture the strong emotional attachment people had to the drink they had grown up with for 99 years. And this gap became the main reason for the backlash.
Coca-Cola reversed its decision after 79 days and brought back the original formula in July 1985 as Coca-Cola Classic. Classic quickly regained its dominant position in the market.
How to manage expectations before your next campaign
You don’t need a McDonald’s-sized budget to make this mistake, and you don’t need a budget to avoid it either. This applies as much to a blog launch, course release, or client project as it does to a global brand.
Confirm your delivery before you announce your promise. If you’re planning a sale, make sure your hosting and checkout can handle the traffic your marketing is bringing. If you’re promising a feature, make sure it works properly before the announcement post goes live, not just when you have to deliver it.
Separate excitement copy from commitment copy. “This is going to be huge” builds curiosity without making a specific promise. But “You’ll get X by Friday” is a commitment. You should know what type of copy you’re writing, and only use the second type when you’re genuinely sure you can deliver.
Check what your audience already expects from you before you decide what to announce. If your previous product, article, or launch performed well, people will naturally compare the next one to it, whether you mention the comparison yourself or not. So, instead of hoping no one will compare, plan for it in advance.
Test with a smaller group first. Doing a soft launch with your email list or a small segment of your audience can help you spot problems before they reach the entire audience. McDonald’s discovered its supply problem the hard way, in front of a crowd, where even the police got involved.
Respond fast and specifically when you miss. McDonald’s didn’t just apologize. They explained exactly what went wrong (they hadn’t anticipated demand) and exactly what they would do differently (20 million packets, nationwide). Vague apologies rarely rebuild trust. Specific apologies are usually more effective.
Conclusion
In every example given here, the marketing part was done right. People wanted to see Leo, they wanted sauce, they wanted a foldable phone, they wanted Cyberpunk 2077, and in blind tests, people even liked the taste of New Coke more.
But in all these cases, the final result, winning the race or making headlines, didn’t depend on how well they built the hype. The real thing was whether they were ready to meet that hype or not.
So before your next campaign goes live, the first question you should ask yourself is: not whether people will want it, but whether you can actually deliver what you’re promising them?
