Re: real marketing or just catchy slogans?

[Dave Neary <dneary free fr>]

Hi,

Murray Cumming wrote:
> > in other words, i'd like to see more marketing, and less
> > selling/advertising...
>
> The selling/advertising does not stop you from doing marketing. Should we
> stop going to trade fairs, close down our website, and stop announcing
> releases while we wait for the traditional marketing to reach step one?

I agree with Santiago.

Going to trade fairs, running a website and announcing releases are 
essential, of course. Suggesting that Santiago was saying otherwise is 
absurd.

But this is perhaps the 3rd or 4th time we've had the slogan discussion 
over the past year. The only possible benefit of having it again is to 
get new people onto the list.

What we need now is follow-through. Something which gets momentum, has 
posters and banners and community buy-in. Andreas created a bunch of 
really good posters - have we really done all we can to push them, and 
to get the slogans he used into the public consciousness?

The target market discussion is another one which we've had at least 3 
times. I'm pretty clear on what our target markets should be:

For the desktop:
 - Public administrations - schools, governments, councils.
 - Distributions
 - Early adopter momentum users

For the platform:
 - Third party developers

For applications:
 - Hobbyist windows users

Why only early adopters? Because aiming for a mainstream desktop market 
isn't acting our age. Because the mainstream will adopt Linux, not 
GNOME, and GNOME will just come along for the ride (see: Distributions 
and third party developers). And the mainstream isn't yet adopting linux 
on the desktop, so focussing energy there is a waste of our time.

Why public administrations? Because we have a track record. Because 
there are decision makers in your town thinking about migrating to free 
software and Linux right now, because everyone's doing it. And you're 
there. And you can help them.

Why hobbyist windows users? Because they install software off cover CDs 
to try it out, but they're not going to install a full OS. Because we 
can show someone the GIMP, Abiword, Gnumeric, OOo, Firefox, gaim and a 
gaggle of other applications, and get them used to the idea that free 
software is great. And once they're more or less running a GNOME desktop
on Windows, it's an easy(ier?) sell to get them to switch to a GNOME 
desktop on Linux.

There's one group that I think we should be focussed on too, which isn't 
in that list - and that's non-profit organisations outside the tech 
industry. There are thousands, it's a niche, and we could fit the niche 
well. But I really don't know how we can penetrate there.

What we need, then, isn't another discussion to decide what our target 
markets are, it's answers to the following questions for each of those 
target markets.

 - What do we have to offer?
 - What are we missing?
 - What are we doing to fill the gaps?
 - What could we be doing that we're not?
 - How can we get at the people involved?

Getting at relevant people is all about communication, but that 
communication has to be 2-way, otherwise we never have an answer to the 
second question.

Cheers,
Dave.

--
David Neary
bolsh gimp org