GNOME's Target Markets

[John Williams <jwilliams business otago ac nz>]

On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 22:25 +0200, Murray Cumming wrote:
> > So, let's decide who our customers are (home users, corporates, distros,
> > ISVs IIRC) and then test our branding materials on some of them, and see
> > what they think.
> 
> Our customers are all these people, but it looks like we want to target
> a few of them specifically:
> http://live.gnome.org/MarketingTeam_2fTargetMarkets
> (surely we want fewer primary targets?)

It depends.  The accepted wisdom in marketing is to target the smallest number of market segments necessary in order to achieve well-defined goals.

Segments are selected in decreasing order of "bang-for-buck", i.e.
maximum reward for minimum effort.  These considerations are based on
the assumptions that the marketing department/organisation has finite
resources, specifically, a finite marketing budget and number of
workers.  These assumptions may not be true for GNOME, due to the
volunteer nature of our organisation/community.  (OK, very large, not
infinite ;-) 


> Can you suggest concisely how our marketing might differ if we chose
> different primary targets? Will our image really be radically different
> or in conflict with other targets?
Sure.  If our primary market is ISVs, we may want to emphasise
stability, specifically API/ABI stability, and complete and
comprehensive API documentation.

If our primary market was private end-users we may want to emphasise
exciting new features, ease-of-use, accessible technical help etc.

We would also use differing advertising and promotional media, and so
on.

> I personally think we only need to target end users and system
> administrators and we'll get everyone else as part of that. But I'm no
> marketing expert so I'm happy to defer to any expert who actually gets
> the marketing moving.
I'm sort of an expert (I have a PhD in marketing, I should be!) and I can tell you this: I don't know.  I do know that we NEED RESEARCH before we can make any reasonable plans.

In particular, I am thinking of what we in marketing call "gatekeepers".
These are people who actually make the purchase decision but who may not
be the actual end-user.  (The classic example is a parent buying
breakfast cereal for a child.)  In our context, these would be CIOs
and/or CEOs, perhaps?

I have an idea that it may provide more bang-for-buck to tarket distros
and organisations (corporations, universities, public sector...) because
they in a sense make the decision to use GNOME or not for their users.
If people get used to using GNOME at work they will probably want to use
it at home.

If they don't, this should send us a HUGE message!

> > Potential new users are a tricky one.  What impression do they form of
> > GNOME when they see the logo?  If GNOME was a person, what would they be
> > like?  Male, female?  Young, old?  Straight, funky?
> 
> Young, helpful, patient, anticipating your needs, not particularly male
> or female, just funky enough to be confident of itself.
That's what you think.  What do our target markets think?  Or is that what you want them to think.  Why?  Do others agree?


> Try to explain the issues to us, and suggest definite actions. There are
> many people here who would love to help to put a plan into motion.

OK, I will try.  It is difficult to do this without access to
information.  The issues, as I see them from a top-level strategy point
of view, are this:

1. Concentrate on the low-hanging fruit.  What can we do with minimum
effort to get maximum results (number of users)?  Only people working
with distros, governments, corporates etc. can answer this.  I don't do
that.

2. RESEARCH!  Ask users why they do or do not use GNOME.  Include users
who have seen/used GNOME and also those who have not.  Measure the
results of marketing actions in the only terms that matter: number of
users.

3. Manage the corporate culture.  We cannot simply order people to do
things.  Motivate the people who actually make GNOME (programmers,
documenters, usability team, accessibility team, translators, ...) in
terms they will respond to.  I am a marketing/market research person,
not an HR person.  (But I think if you treat people as people and not
pluggable production units you're probably on the right track.  Do unto
others and all that.)

I find myself repeating myself in many fora.  The bottom line is that
you can't make rational decisions in the absence of information.  I do
not have access to the information at the moment.  I am working on it
though.  

If you want to help, visit the marketing space on live.gnome.org and
make some constructive comments.

Hot issues now are being discussed on the gnome-marketing list and the
#marketing channel on irc.gnome.org.  I try to summarise these
discussions, particularly at

http://live.gnome.org/CountingUsers
http://live.gnome.org/MarketingTeam_2fSurveyUsers
and
http://live.gnome.org/MarketingTeam_2fSurveyDevelopers

See also
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeFeedback

That last link contains a new initiative to gather feedback about GNOME.
Currently we have none (on those pages).  Please give us some.