I live in the land of long line lovers (I love alliteration). If something is new, cool, and launching for the first time in Tokyo, you'd better believe there's going to be a two to three hour long wait to get in there. 

At first I thought it was a bit bizarre (Americans only stand in long lines at Disney World), until a few years ago, Krispy Kreme entered Tokyo and I found myself wanting a donut so bad that I actually contemplated standing in the longest line I've ever seen in my life!  I'm serious.  Don't believe me?  I took photos...

(Indeed, there is a such thing as a Krispy Kreme line monitor. ha!  I love Tokyo.)

In the case for Krispy Kreme's arrival, there was media hype, word-of-mouth, a fantastic product (mouth. watering. right now!), cool open kitchen window display showing how they actually make the donuts, and the longest line ever. This all made for a great launch recipe. The launch was so successful that they continued to have a line snaking in front of the store for months! I literally had to wait half of a year to get a freakin' donut!

I guess I'd consider myself to be an early adopter.  I love trying out new web apps in beta and have I've entered my email address into plenty of coming soon pages. And, I'm beginning to become a bit annoyed with coming soon pages (especially with my own, but for a different reason)  In particular, the latest incentive-based coming soon pages, that ask you to tweet, share via Facebook and yada yada yada to move you up further on the list.

Really guys?

I get it.  You want to build up your beta list. But, why would I invite my friends to sign-up, when I haven't even tested it out first?  

I think this is a major flaw with the popular viral launching soon pages. This 'hurry up and get access to something you haven't even tried out' push, seems to really only work under a certain set of conditions.  Please don't try to trick or force me into marketing for you. If I like you, I'll tell everyone I know about you.  But, I have to like you first. 

1.  If there's a long line of people waiting to get in already.  A long visible line coming out of the door, makes more people want to know about it and in some cases stand in line for it.

2.  If there's major media hype. Or someone with great influence has already used it and likes it.

We'll be taking our coming soon page down soon, yea boiiiii!  But, I think next time (huh? I MUST be crazy ) I'm going to try something different.  Maybe something like the following message:

Thanks for your interest in Hitch'd. 

We're still rough around the edges and are looking for a few opinionated early users to take us for a spin.  If that's you, enter your email below and we'll be in touch with beta access details:

or

If you'd prefer to be notified when we launch a more polished version, enter your email below:

I may just test this out anyway though...  I love the genuine tone of this.  I also love that it is segmenting our future customers beforehand, for customizing activation lists later.

hmmmmmmm.... NTS (Not toooooo Shabby)

What do you think about this LaunchRock?

Edit:  Changed the spelling from Krispie to Krispy