Re: GNOME Marketing Strategy (Was Audiences)

[Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>]

I don't think I understand the distinction. If we don't have an
overall strategy, the 3.0 will be our strategy. So I think it's one
and the same ...

Stormy

On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 2:32 PM, Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org> wrote:
> Stormy brings up an interesting idea I wanted to follow up in it's own
> thread.
>
> I had previously been thinking about GNOME 3.0 marketing as launching 3.0 -
> separate from GNOME's overall marketing and / or marketing strategy.
>
> I had been thinking of these brainstorming exercises around audiences,
> messages, etc. as the building blocks to putting together a marketing
> strategy to be implemented over the next 12 months to introduce our
> audiences to GNOME 3.0 and what is new / better / different.  (Assuming 2.30
> becomes 3.0 next spring).
>
> Is this assumption on my part correct, or are we thinking about something
> larger - GNOME 3.0's overall marketing strategy?
>
> Paul
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>
> Date: Fri, May 8, 2009 at 6:25 PM
> Subject: Re: GNOME 3.0 Marketing Brainstorming #1 - Audiences
> To: Luis Villa <luis tieguy org>
> Cc: Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org>, GNOME Marketing List
> <marketing-list gnome org>
>
>
> I second the targeting different types of users. I really think we need to
> decide on a few niches and really target them. Accessibility seems like an
> obvious one. Users that only use web would also be an easy one but perhaps
> hard to reach without a lot of money to throw at press.
>
> Some others:
> - The mobile space. This is the carriers, OEMs, hardware providers, chip
> vendors. (Intel and ARM both do a lot of advertising.) Plus Nokia,
> Supersonic Imagine, Garmin, etc.
> - Netbook manufacturers/distributors. GNOME apps are being used on Dell,
> Asus, and HP netbooks.
> - Schools.
> - Governments.
> - Accessibility hardware and software manufacturers. (Braille printers,
> keyboards, pointers, mice, cameras, etc.)
> - Device manufacturers (like digital cameras, scanners, etc.)
>
> I think we should list all we can and pick a few (2-3) that we are going to
> focus on. We can have a plan for all of them but perhaps we need to invest
> in a couple.
>
> Stormy
>
> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 2:58 PM, Luis Villa <luis tieguy org> wrote:
> > On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org>
> > wrote:
> > > I'll grab the easy one:  Users
> > >
> > > So far we have:
> > >
> > > * Users
> >
> > As Brian was saying, users is too broad. Lord knows I love all of
> > them, but we're probably best off focusing on specific groups of users
> > that are within reach. An offhand list:
> >
> > * accessibility-challenged users. (dash of realism: the last time we
> > tried to do this seriously, the answer was 'you people haven't
> > actually tried to *use* your a11y software, have you.' We need to make
> > sure that is not the case this time.)
> >
> > * enterprises: 2.0 had a successful message in this space: cheap,
> > reliable, easy-to-train-on b/c easy to use but not too dissimilar to
> > Windows. 3.0 will have a harder time because it will likely lose the
> > 'fairly similar to windows' tag, but the other things should still be
> > strong.
> >
> > * relatedly to the previous, w/ similar issues: pre-existing gnome 2.x
> > users generally. Need to convince them that the upgrade and changes
> > are worthwhile. Not all of them will be on board, but we need to
> > enlist them- get them to be our biggest cheerleaders, both by selling
> > them on the new stuff but also (importantly) explaining to them what
> > changes were made and why. They are going to lose features they liked;
> > we have to explain to them why the new ones are better. If we do that
> > well they'll turn around and tell others.
> >
> > * free software influencers: convince them that gnome 3 Is The Future
> > of the Free Software Desktop. (again, have to actually execute really,
> > really well, and have a persuasive story for this one.) But this is an
> > important group of users to acquire. (Here I will again drag out my
> > old proposed GNOME slogan: 'GNOME: the Heart of the Free Software
> > Desktop.')
> >
> > * college compsci students: these are the next wave of our developers;
> > lets reach out to them at a time when they have lots of time and
> > energy to experiment. Ideally this branches out from not 'just'
> > marketing into educational and training outreach- get them to work on
> > gnome projects and such, like Mozilla does.
> >
> > * 'low functionality' windows users- windows users who live 95% in
> > their browser already (lots of parents, grandparents here- don't use
> > many apps, don't use many peripherals). Pitch them on having firefox,
> > and the rest being virus free and easy to use.
> >
> > * (if somehow the product blows our minds): normal windows users.
> > focus on security but also the awesome new features. Again, depends on
> > actually having awesome new features, and (ideally) a suite of apps
> > that integrate them. b/c both of these are still somewhat
> > hypothetical, a major push on this front may have to wait.
> >
> > HTH-
> > Luis
> >
> > > * Linux distributions
> > > * Media
> > > * Developers
> > >
> > > Who else comes to mind?
> > >
> > > Paul
> > >
> > > On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 6:59 PM, Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org>
> > > wrote:
> > > > Luis, this is perfect, thanks for kicking it off!
> > > >
> > > > Paul
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 6:47 PM, Luis Villa <luis tieguy org> wrote:
> > > > > On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Paul Cutler
> > > > > <pcutler foresightlinux org>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > Hello marketing team!
> > > > > >
> > > > > > As we think about GNOME 3.0, who are our target audiences?  (Who
> > > > > > should
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > marketing team be bulding messages for?)
> > > > >
> > > > > I know I've written on this before, but I can't find it. :(
> > > > >
> > > > > Because I'm short on time, some important audiences that we have
> > > > > tended to forget at times in our marketing:
> > > > >
> > > > > * Distros: the reality is that they make the default choice that
> > > > > determines what most of our users see. If we don't sell them on 3.x,
> > > > > our users will continue to use 2.x, as simple as that.
> > > > >
> > > > > * Linux Media: the various and sundry Linux media have a big say in
> > > > > what people perceive as 'the' Linux Desktop. Sadly, this is a fairly
> > > > > dysfunctional media, so telling them 'here is why Real People are
> > > > > going to be sold on 3.0' is a sometimes, but not always, effective
> > > > > technique.
> > > > >
> > > > > * Developers: they need to know why they should integrate with GNOME
> > > > > technologies, and particularly with whatever new ones we come up with.
> > > > > We need them to buy into it to build our ecosystem.
> > > > >
> > > > > Sorry I can't be more verbose-
> > > > > Luis
> > >
> > >
> > > --
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> > > marketing-list gnome org
> > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
> > --
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