"New Higher Price!"

I've been thinking a bit about pricing strategies for a client. Here's the dilemma:

Do we launch a new product at a high price, then drop the price over time to compensate as popularity decreases?

or

Do we launch a new product at a low price, encourage as many people as possible to buy it, hope for a pile of good reviews and other buzz, then gradually increase the price?

The first option is definitely the most common pricing strategy, but I'm intrigued by the second. Three main reasons:
1. In a marketplace where consumers, professional reviewers, amateur bloggers, and others can easily compare notes and often become excited about (good) new things, getting a lot of early exposure is vital.
2. Properly communicated, an increasing-price strategy is attention-getting in itself.
3. Scarcity and time-limitations are powerful motivators. Potential buyers who are on the fence might be swayed to buy now if they fear a price increase in the near future. It's a standard used car sales tactic and it works.

The main thing swaying us towards the more traditional approach is that the brand is new, not just the product. Can we get enough early buzz to justify a price increase? Will people ignore us regardless of our price point, and be further turned off when they see we're increasing the price of something they haven't even heard of? More importantly for the long term: Will a low initial price create the impression that our entire brand is low-end? (It's not.)

My gut is saying to take a more traditional approach to this first product to establish the brand as exciting, interesting, reliable, premium, professional, etc. Once these attributes are proven to be true, and we've had a chance to gauge the level of interest that a new product can garner, we could move to an increasing-price model.