Re: Marketing, GNOME 3.0 and subteams

[Claus Schwarm <clschwarm googlemail com>]

If any of my formulations appear to be impolite, I apologize. Yes, I think you misread my email.

All successful non-profit ads I remember appeal to the viewers emotion: pity, sympathy, compassion, mercy. Of course, an emotional campaign about "freedom" would be possible. But that's advertising for GNOME, in general. I thought this thread is about GNOME3.

Best regards,
Claus

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 12:57 AM, Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org> wrote:

On Thu, 2009-04-30 at 00:42 +0200, Claus Schwarm wrote:
> Shaun,
>
> you're arguing against a straw man. Nobody said, it's an either/or
> scenario. Nobody said we should drop communicating what GNOME's about
> completely. Nobody said anybody should drop his or her values. It's
> only in your head.

Sigh.  This is not a productive way to disagree.  Your
email indicated to me that you would prefer to downplay
topics such as freedom and accessibility.  If I misread
your email, just say so politely.

> However, in my simple opinion with over 10 years in marketing-related
> jobs and studies, people simply don't care what your core values are.
>
> Microsoft's core value is to make a profit because they're a
> cooperation. Do they communicate that? No. Why? Because most people
> don't care when buying the stuff they need. They are just interested
> what profit they're going to make.

Users don't care about Microsoft making a profit because
they're not Microsoft.  Freedom is something we're offering
to our users, not hoarding to ourselves.  Accessibility is
a benefit to our users, not a profit angle.

And comparisons to Microsoft aren't at all fair.  We are a
non-profit organization.  Do other non-profits play up their
values when talking to people?  You bet they do.

--
Shaun