Re: real marketing or just catchy slogans?

[Dave Neary <dneary free fr>]

Hi,

Murray Cumming wrote:
> > Andreas created a bunch of really good posters
>
> URL?

http://live.gnome.org/MarketingTeam

See the top of the Materials section.

> This why I am trying to
> a) Encourage a very simple positive theme (our only possibility until we
> get some real marketing smarts) so we have something to rally behind. We
> have never gone that simple before. It would be something new.
> b) Start discussion about how to communicate that theme.
> c) Encourage people to make these little decisions, and find out what they
> can support enthusiastically, so they don't wait for someone (nobody) else
> to do it for them.
> d) Make it clear to the real marketers that we are this desparate for real
> progress.

I agree that we have a problem empowering people. People on the list 
seem to be waiting for direction (from you, me or Luis...).

I think both John and Santiago are ideal candidates for developing and 
leading a strategy of merket analysis - getting information from our 
target markets, and figuring out how we can communicate with them on a 
wider scale. But getting information is the start - when their 
information retrieval contributes to technical decisions in a project, 
our marketing will begin to be more successful.

We have a bunch of critics of GNOME, and while sometimes they're wrong 
(!), it mightn't be any harm to somehow communicate their concerns with 
the appropriate people, and try to get some of those concerns addressed 
for 2.14.

For example, Santiago's mail: 
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/marketing-list/2005-September/msg00067.html

There were criticisms in there of Nautilus, the menu editor, performance 
and usage of GNOME VFS (without specifics, it has to be said). Did those 
ever get sent back to the Nautilus developers? How about a proposal to 
include SMEG in 2.14?

Marketing comes in 5 stages -
1. action,
2. communication,
3. information retrieval,
4. reaction,
5. communication,
6. goto 3

How good is our feedback loop? What Santiago is saying, if I understand 
correctly, is that right now we don't seem to have one, and one would be 
nice.

> If we don't plan to target these people differently, then there isn't much
> point in targetting them separately.

We do, though.

Example:

Target: Windows hobbyists
 - Help get copies of WinLibre or the OpenCd on magazine covers
 - Hand out copies of same at conferences, alongside LiveCDs (there's a 
reason Ubuntu is putting windows software on their LiveCDs).
 - Make the Windows binaries easier to find & download (look at 
www.gimp.org for an example of hard to find Windows binaries - comare & 
contrast with getfirefox.org)
 - If a bunch of projects have Windows ports, how about centralising 
everything for downloads? Have static links, help people avoid the user 
nightmare that is Sourceforge downloads.

Target: Distros
 - Email advisory board members regularly, just to keep in contact
 - Find out who the decision makers for distros are
 - Use the phone
 - Make sure feedback gets back to relevant developers

There are few enough distros that the correct way to "market" to them is 
to be available, and listen.

Target: Third party developers
 - Improve API docs
 - Provide a third party application developers guide
 - Listen to Bugzilla, mailing lists
 - Keep in contact with people who are having problems, and put people 
having similar problems in contact to see if they can't solve the 
problem themselves, together
 - Poke a developer now & again about outstanding problems to see if 
anything's happened

Target: Public administrators
 - Go to your local town hall & ask to speak to the head of IT
 - Go to the website of your local town hall/region/county/state, and 
try to work out who the head of IT is
 - Use the phone
 - Figure out which conferences are important to local government 
decision makers, and make sure there's a GNOME presence there
 - Make sure feedback gets back to relevant developers

Target: Momentum users
 - Read blogs
 - Send email
 - Make sure feedback gets back to relevant developers
 - Build up a mailing list of "insiders", and send them a sneak preview 
of each release (an e-mail would do, but a LiveCD with a preview release 
by the post would be cool)

This is a lot of work, but this group is where we're currently suckiest, 
and where we most need to improve. They also offer huge potential gains. 
These guys become our communications department if we get them on our side.

Each group needs a different approach, and has different needs. Which is 
why we need answers to those 5 questions for each group.

> They groups above have a great deal
> in common - everything we do for them is about improving the experience of
> their end users. That's the GNOME advantange that I'd like to push.

A public sector end-user isn't the same as an early adopter. Where the 
public sector IT manager's primary question is "How can I stop a user 
installing unauthorised software?" the momentum user's question is more 
likely to be "how can I install cool software X?"

> I'm not a marketer, so I'm only guessing. But I guess that these are
> secondary details - the information that goes into specific ads as part of
> a simpler, more emotional campaign.

Ads is communication. Marketing is more than that. And knowing your 
market (or at least, believing that you know it ;) is not secondary, it 
is the thing which drives everything else. Marketing with a campaign 
without knowing who you're aiming for is like playing darts with a 
blindfold on.

> However, I think this is a very good basis for discussion. It can help the
> marketing guys here understand what we think we have to offer, and what
> our users think of us as offering.

I agree.

I also don't want to come across as a negative energy guy here - I think 
it's good to have some slogans, work on some posters & get them printed, 
and do some unfocussed communication.

But in our current state, we're essentially communicating with existing 
Linux users, or people who are going to move to Linux. That puts us in 
competition with KDE, which isn't where we want to be. Or we're 
marketing to everyone, and our message isn't getting great penetration. 
But at least we have a message, and focus can come later.

So let's decide on a slogan, or on a bunch, let people loose on them, 
get some more artwork, and have some kind of marketing drive. But let's 
start seriously concentrating on the people we want to use our software, 
and work out why they're not using it already. Chances are it's because 
they haven't heard about it, but maybe there's more to it than that.

Cheers,
Dave.

--
David Neary
bolsh gimp org