The Sad Product Launch of GOP.com

"And what we're looking for still isn't found." - Tevin Campbell, Round and Round

The Lady and I were mocking the launch of GOP.com yesterday but in the midst of the comedy I found something to like. That little bug up there. It's a cute little flash promo at the bottom of most pages that animates on roll over. That coupled with the well structured footer is the highlight of what just about everybody has considered a pretty abysmal launch for Michael Steele and the RNC.

I'll disclaim that I'm a registered Democrat. I voted for Barack Obama last year and have voted Democratic, Green, or Independent on every ballot I have ever cast. So, you know, I'm not coming into this with a favorable point of view to begin with so I'm going to try to stay out of the politics and focus on the problems with the product launch itself...after I get a few points out of my system.

• it's completely disingenuous to highlight a diverse (and heavily Black) population in the GOP faces when we know that the Grand Ol' Party of 2009 is overwhelmingly (some might say scarily) white.
• Many of your Republican Heroes (particularly those of color) would not be Republicans today.
• You're going to claim Jackie Robinson? Seriously?!
• <I was going to crack on Michael Steele's awkward gaze photo on the leadership page here but they've updated it since yesterday.>

Okay. I feel better. Nobody else does, though. As Mediaite notes, pretty much the entire internet agrees that the new GOP.com is not very good. They focus most on the content and the lack thereof in key places of the site, like

but I want to focus on what seem like some key factors they didn't consider or may want to re-consider.

1. If you're going to launch a community, be prepared for what people might do with it.
2. Protect your brand. Don't present your key figures and themes in ways that are easily mocked (especially when you have the opportunity to change the story).
3. All launches have defects and small issues that need to be fixed soon after (and kudos to them for seeming to take action quickly) but posting password/admin instructions on your live site? Not copy-editing your primary piece of launch content? Come on, now.

This serves as a reminder to me that with any launch, big or small, you better have a launch plan and you better understand what you're doing to insure that your product is presented in a way that gives it the best possible position in the market. I'm sure a mountain of work by a lot of talented people went into this new site and, instead of popping champagne, those teams are now scrambling to correct very public problems.

That's not a successful launch. It doesn't provide a satisfying sense of accomplishment to the product team, it means the customer didn't get what they wanted, and it means guests and fans of GOP.com are probably unhappy.

Come on, Repubs. You can do better.

There's a lot more that I could go into, i'm sure, but the overwhelming red is hurting my eyes.So, I'll leave you with some remixes of the GOP.com Faces logo. Enjoy.