How bees create buzz -- and the iPad launch

Since the word "buzz" often is used in conjunction with product launches, I thought it only fitting to describe how honeybees create buzz for a flower patch. The parallels between the collective behavior of colonies and consumers are striking.

Bees that find nectar return to the hive to tell others about their discovery through their famous waggle dance. Their enthusiasm (plus direction and distance) for the location is communicated in their dance by the number of dance circuits they complete. Other bees that see the dancer will travel to the patch that is being advertised. Therefore, the more excited the bee, the more likely other bees will notice and check the site out for themselves. If it's as good as the dancer says, they will return to the hive to tell others, and so on. Of particular note, since each bees' enthusiasm for a patch decreases with each visit at a relatively fixed rate, successive waves of bees to the site will have to find the patch to be attractive in order for it to remain an active harvest site because prior visitors are no longer as passionate and communicative about it. Once there is no more enthusiasm for a site, the patch is abandoned. What does this say about buzz? First, if a flower patch (product) is no good, it will never produce much enthusiasm or harvesters (buyers). Second, the early indicators of excitement are critical since they will attract others to the patch (product). In the case of the iPad, favorable comments from highly visible and credible reviewers and long lines outside retailers' doors that denote high interest would be most welcome in the Apple offices. Third, if "follower" consumers aren't as excited as the first finders, then the desirability for a product will decay until consumers gradually move on to the next new thing. In the hive, over time, patches become progressively less attractive because the bees drain the nectar and better, more seductive patches emerge - the bees go to those new places. They won't harvest from the old site again until it has something for them that is worthy of a promotional dance. Under comparable conditions, consumers won't return until the company adds new product features or finds some other way to reinvigorate interest.

To read more, visit my website: http://www.thewisdomofbees.com/