Why do manufacturers set release dates ???

I was going to post this in the DaVinci thread but though it best to give this a thread of it's own.

What's is happening in that thread is typically what happens when ANY manufacturer, software developer, what have you...........sets a release date before the product is ready to be released. For the life of me, I can't understand why they do this simply because there is no way in hell that they can foresee problems that may arise while at the same time, setting expectations to the buying public by stating a release date, thereby telling the buying public that they in fact, CAN foresee problems that may not have arisen yet.

It's just such a silly game that is being played and has the potential to create more bad-will than stoke the fires of positive anticipation. If they want to stoke those fires, than why not just release the product when it is ready and limit the distribution for a bit rather than give out a release date that they AND us know that, more than likely, will never be met. And if I'm wrong, and they actually really believed that they could meet that date before the product was finalized, than that kind of naivety just boggles my mind.

But again, DaVinci is not alone in the practice, for before there were vaporizers on the market, there used to be a term for this kind of product that never seems to come to market on time in the software industry, and it was called........vaporware.

Theres no way to win in the retail business. It doesnt matter if the product was ready and released when they announced. Theres bound tobe problems or issues, especially with the first production run. So if people arent complaining about the missed release date they would be complaining about the product having issues and being released too soon

Mynameismud said:

Theres no way to win in the retail business. It doesnt matter if the product was ready and released when they announced. Theres bound tobe problems or issues, especially with the first production run. So if people arent complaining about the missed release date they would be complaining about the product having issues and being released too soon

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The product could have issues anyway, regardless when it's released. Hell, if manufactures wanted their product not to have any problems, they would never release it. There's ALWAYS going to be problems with the first run of anything. That's kind of a given, and is the reason that there is typically, always a price to pay for being the "first on your block" to own anything.

I kinda think we're saying thing here, but my issue is, why state a release date in the first place? Just release the fucking thing when you think it's ready to be released.

I was in the retail marketing game for decades and this practice still astonishes me.

Oh yeah I was completely agreeing with you, I just wanted to add that point. No matter what they do, people will compain. Especially in the vaporizer community

And from the devils advocate perspective, if they did not have a release date and just released it when it was ready, people would experience issues and say that they rushed the product to the market or compain about something along those lines. At least with a release date, and pushing it back they can say " we want to wait until everything is perfect before we release it" and have the missed release dates as proof.

Not like its any better, but i think the devils advocate perspective is probably whattheir customer service department is thinking.

Man i wish the good old days when nothing was pre ordered and I could just go onto gotvape, vapeworld, vapornation see a new product is outand purchase it then and there

Mynameismud said:

Oh yeah I was completely agreeing with you, I just wanted to add that point. No matter what they do, people will compain. Especially in the vaporizer community

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You're right. People always do complain, but why not give them one less thing to complain about rather than give them the ammunition to label you as a manufacture that can't stand by their commitments.

I don't get this either, especially when you have an established manufacturer that you would be able to anticipate what sort of things may come up, just from their own personal history. If you want to give a release date the pad the hell out of it for essentially a closed type of tester/reviewers and then this window is what would be lengthened/shortened as needed.
Funny thing - the promo vid on the davinci front page still says march, just clip the end of your video!

To be fair, DaVinci is far from being the only manufacture that has done this. It is a far too common practice that in many cases, totally backfires.

Sorry, didnt really mean specifically either, they just happen to be one of the many in the whole realm of product sellers that has some attention at the moment for it.

I shake my head at this too sometimes, but this is a heavily deadline oriented society. I've seen foreign suppliers jack around with this or that by re-negotiating deliverables and fees, and stalling here or there to get the upper hand, and doing all this late in the game as a deadline approaches knowing that meeting that date will be foremost in their U.S. customer's mind. In this society meeting goals is Business 101 and they can take advantage of sweaty managers trying to meet deadlines who are ready to compromise to make it happen. That mentality shoots through marketing and to the customer base here too who are always thirsting for release dates.

Also, some foreign suppliers will outright lie and promise the moon just to get a contract. Of course U.S. suppliers do this too, but they are often more sensitive to their reputation as far as meeting deadlines is concerned. Although this mentality leaves them somewhat vulnerable, if DV hadn't set solid targets the product may have taken even much more time to arrive. The release dates also help build buzz and anticipation (and frustration when things slip). All that seems to have worked!

I realize I'm mixing overall manufacturing goals and deadlines with the topic of release dates, but I think a lot of that goes hand-in-hand though maybe it shouldn't.

satyrday said:

.... if DV hadn't set solid targets the product may have taken even much more time to arrive.

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Agreed, but those targets could have stayed internal.

satyrday said:

.The release dates also help build buzz and anticipation .......

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That could be done without setting release dates. Just takes a bit of marketing savvy to pull off.

But I hear ya when it comes to manufacturing and supply deadlines, especially dealing internationally. That could be a fucking nightmare.

I like that Herbalizer is manufacturing (or at least assembling) on U.S. soil. Might cost more in the short-term, but I wouldn't be surprised if it paid off nicely overall. Especially now that U.S. wages are not as out of whack globally.

But back to release dates, yeah you could separate the manufacturing side and just not set a release date, but it might drive marketing crazy. I've seen video games marketed 2 years in advance of a set release date. A little extra savvy could help with that like you say. But I think most customers like a firm date - makes the product seem more real and pre-orders are big business I'm sure.

Good one tagging this industry with "vaporware"

I wonder the same thing when there's road construction being done around here... why even bother naming a completion date when it's rarely done by then? Funny how the world works sometimes.

satyrday said:

But I think most customers like a firm date - makes the product seem more real and pre-orders are big business I'm sure.

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Ya know, talking about savvy marketing, makes me think of Apple. Now while it's true that they've lost a lot of their luster since Jobs died, I don't think I've ever seen them not make a committed release date, or if they did, it was rarely. They built anticipation by putting out leaks as to when their Apple "premier/press show" was going to happen and it wasn't until that very public premier that a release date was given, but at that time, the product was already sitting on pallets waiting to be delivered.

Were there bugs on some of their new pieces? Sure there was. That "mapping" issue comes to mind along with a few others, but overall, most all their products had a smooth launch without having to break committed release dates.

They built anticipation not by setting release dates, but rather anticipation as to when those release dates would be announced. Big difference.

Most smaller companies would be too broke or nervous to let product sit on pallets. They need to belch it into the marketplace ASAP, or anxiously feel they need to.

Speaking of bugs, it would help if the vape manufacturers made their models user flashable.

It' hard to argue with using Apple as a role model for marketing though.

Pre-orders and hype. To get pre-orders, you need to set a date, or else the majority of people are just going to wait for the release.

Maybe the vape market is different, but in general, consumers want a set date. Shipping "May 13th, 2013" sounds a lot better than shipping "Summer 2013". The latter sounds like "It will be sometime in the summer but we don't really know when" and just sounds unprofessional.

So it's really a lose-lose situation unless you miraculously hit your release date.

I do feel like a solid company like Da Vinci shouldn't have to worry about generating pre-orders and hype, especially when they see the massive support on all these different forum communities.

Hype is definitely a big part of it. Buzz, anticipation build excitement in the press and social media world. How does that saying go? "All press is good press." Or something like that.

But a lot of the hard release date promises are to appease backers (financially)
They need money (whether from bank or vc's or other investors) and those backers need a date when they are going to see a payback and/or a product. Without a hard date, they usually won't commit.
Then when product isn't ready to release, hopefully they can get backers to sit tight a little longer so they can release a quality product. Otherwise they rush a product too early or they loose their backers and sit in purgutory (I think mvape may be a victim of this scenario)

Just the way of the world... Sigh.

I think most manufacturers now don't fear of giving release dates wich might not work out because they see from the other manufacturers that it doesn't hurt sales if you come out with a great product. Look at cera, it took TET much longer then anticipated but still everybody was nuts about it when it came out. In the meanwhile, when they keep a good contact with their potential customers, like here on fc, they can show us that they are "tweeking" the device to give us the best possible product, they listen to our complaints (wich we have a buttload of here on FC) and give us our much needed vape porn every once in a while.
I don't think they will loose a lot of customers when they don't meet their expected release date.
There is the lonely complainer who doesn't own a vape and desperately wants this particular one so those people will get mad.
On the other hand, when they do a pre order, then understandably a lot more people can get mad because they feel a bit robbed of their money. (again, see Cera...they had it both)