Re: Marketing, GNOME 3.0 and subteams

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Alex:

> While I agree with the sentiment, the situation is that for most people
> Windows is gratis.

Yes, it is a challenging situation.

> Most people factor the cost of software into the initial acquisition
> cost. The cost of office for non-corporates isn't huge. I honestly think
> the cost argument is basically a complete loser; I've never met anyone
> who's had a cost problem with Windows/et. al. and wasn't a geek of some
> description.

With the economy in the situation its in, perhaps people might be more
interested in saving money.  At any rate, the fact that free software
solutions cost less is a point worth highlighting, even if it might
not be the most significant motivator.

One reason why accessibility is a good market to reach out to is because
the costs for most users with accessibility needs is so much
larger than the normal desktop user.  As more and more organizations
and institutions adopt accessibility-friendly solutions, any proprietary
based solution gets fairly expensive when you have to pay thousands
of extra dollars per-seat.

> I absolutely 100% agree with your points about access for people with
> impairments, though - I think GNOME is extremely strong in that area;
> sadly, I don't think it's a marketing benefit in the wider sense: I
> think it's a relatively marginal issue.

As I mentioned before, many people purchase free-trade products because
they understand the humanitarian benefits of spending a little extra
money to benefit the disadvantaged.  By choosing GNOME, you benefit the
disadvantaged and you save money - even better.  If free-trade coffee
can sell, then I would think that helping people to understand how free
software benefits people, more people would be willing to try out a
free software solution.  As you say, appealing to only the cost-benefit
is probably not, by itself, a significant motivator.  But appealing to
people's humanitarian interests would help.

However, the market of people who have the consiousness and motivation
to base their consumption on a humanitarian basis is a fairly specific
market.  Reaching out to them would require marketing in forums that
such people would tend to notice.  Yoga Journal, perhaps.  :)

As with any marketing strategy, I think you should first focus on those
markets where you have strength.  Then, you tend to get benefits like
word-of-mouth to further spread interest in free software.

To date, the GNOME community has made really no effort to try to reach
a broader audience through free TV or radio station advertisements
that are available to not-for-profits like the GNOME Foundation.
Without making such efforts to get the word out, it's hard to say how
successful they would be.

> However, that said, I don't think GNOME is marketable as mainstream
> software - mainly because, it's not Windows. I don't think marketing
> GNOME as a Windows competitor per se is a winning strategy either :)

Then perhaps you are on the wrong mailing list?  Obviously one major
goal of this forum is to figure out how to overcome these issues.  I
don't think throwing up our hands and saying "it can't be done" is
helpful.  Or do you have any suggestions on what you think would make
for a more successful marketing strategy?

Brian