ChatGPT is often cited as the most rapidly adopted consumer product of all time. Quite aside from its technological capabilities, the success of ChatGPT is an impressive feat of marketing — and I hope it heralds a new wave of campaigns based not on pandering but on authenticity.
ChatGPT was released last November more as an experiment than as part of a well-thought-out campaign. Its parent company, OpenAI — whose San Francisco headquarters I have visited — did not expect the service to take off as it did. The engineers, not the product managers, were the driving force. It was not all finely tuned to invoke warm fuzzy feelings of loyalty or affiliation.
Consider the name itself, ChatGPT. Many successful tech products have happy, shiny, memorable names: Instagram, Roblox, TikTok. Someone comes up with the name, perhaps in a brainstorming session, and then it is taken to the broader world. With luck, it will prove sticky and continue to invoke a warm glow.
