Minutes from 2004-12-8 marketing meeting

[Ian McIntosh <ian_mcintosh linuxadvocate org>]

I hope this is what people had in mind.  It does seem a little strange
to "keep minutes" for something that was already logged
word-for-word. :)

---------------

Claus suggested creating a HIG or other guidelines for promo material.

Sbiot wanted to use this meeting to clarify our objective and figure out
a time frame for achieving it.
Claus thinks the objective is awareness for the brand 'GNOME'
Sbiot "and how do we measure 'awareness'?"
Claus: "by clicks. PHP script to generate images for other people's
websites, count results, analyze by clients used..."
Sbiot asked if our goal is "more people using GNOME".  Claus confirmed.
Bolsh likes the "beautiful, easy, free" message and thinks the 6-month
objectives are "to have an identifiable campaign up & running...
centralizing information on events and user groups, and providing people
with material which communicates a good, strong message"

Bolsh proposed "GNOME. Software for everybody."

Sri wonders if 'Software' is the correct description.

Luis says we have no money for a full time marketing guy.

Luis wants to see a CD Label and DVD-box cover design.

Sbiot and Bolsh think LiveCD on campuses offers "limited returns."

Claus pointed out that KDE does web advertising.

Luis suggested that if we produce good material some people will spend
their own money on printing and LUGs will likely use it.
Sri agrees that LUGs are important and thinks we should give them copies
of livecd and posters if possible.
Bolsh thinks publishing posters and t-shirt designs on gnome.org is
enough (LUGs will print them up locally)

Bolsh likes Claus's "My desktop of choice" line, Sbiot doesn't.
Claus suggested "Our desktop of choice."
Sbiot thinks "of choice" implies that people do choose which is not true
and "desktop" is a geek word.
Claus thinks "software" is too general.  Sbiot thinks using "desktop" is
a mistake.
Bolsh: OK - so are we happy with "Software for everybody" as a slogan as
an idea which encompasses freedom, accessibility & localization,
usability? 

Bolsh suggests creating both a high cost (color) and low cost (b&w)
poster. Sbiot agrees.

Claus mentioned the "shimano" case: "they do bicycle parts - stuff
nobody is really interested in; but after they set up a campaign, "cool"
bikes have to have shimano parts" and wants to make GNOME to cool
choice.

Sbiot thinks we're already the "cool bike".  Sri agrees.  Claus does not
(cites no mention of GNOME in JDS announcement).

Ian wandered in with bed-head.

sri wants to increase FOSS desktops whether GNOME or KDE and says we can
differentiate ourselves later, once FOSS has greater mindshare.

Ian pointed out that Extremadura coverage described FOSS by quoting one
guy who said it's "free, errors are corrected faster, it can be adapted
to our needs, there's no paying someone in California (?) when you need
to change things, there are far more people developing it, it's less
vulnerable to virus attacks." (Claus thought RMS might not like that.:)

Ian mentioned that banner/poster printing is very expensive at Kinkos
($15/ft^2).  Sri mentioned possible low prices at Costco.

Sbiot summarizes our objective as developing the "software for
everybody" theme and its sub-themes: simplicity, freedom, accessibility,
and targeting LUG members and students with this message.

Ian reiterated one of Sri's points about spreading individual GNOME/FOSS
applications in universities (AbiWord specifically).