Re: GNOME Marketing Strategy (Was Audiences)

[Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>]

I don't think I understand the distinction. If we don't have an
overall strategy, the 3.0 will be our strategy. So I think it's one
and the same ...

Stormy

On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 2:32 PM, Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org> wrote:
> Stormy brings up an interesting idea I wanted to follow up in it's own
> thread.
>
> I had previously been thinking about GNOME 3.0 marketing as launching 3.0 -
> separate from GNOME's overall marketing and / or marketing strategy.
>
> I had been thinking of these brainstorming exercises around audiences,
> messages, etc. as the building blocks to putting together a marketing
> strategy to be implemented over the next 12 months to introduce our
> audiences to GNOME 3.0 and what is new / better / different.  (Assuming 2.30
> becomes 3.0 next spring).
>
> Is this assumption on my part correct, or are we thinking about something
> larger - GNOME 3.0's overall marketing strategy?
>
> Paul
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>
> Date: Fri, May 8, 2009 at 6:25 PM
> Subject: Re: GNOME 3.0 Marketing Brainstorming #1 - Audiences
> To: Luis Villa <luis tieguy org>
> Cc: Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org>, GNOME Marketing List
> <marketing-list gnome org>
>
>
> I second the targeting different types of users. I really think we need to
> decide on a few niches and really target them. Accessibility seems like an
> obvious one. Users that only use web would also be an easy one but perhaps
> hard to reach without a lot of money to throw at press.
>
> Some others:
> - The mobile space. This is the carriers, OEMs, hardware providers, chip
> vendors. (Intel and ARM both do a lot of advertising.) Plus Nokia,
> Supersonic Imagine, Garmin, etc.
> - Netbook manufacturers/distributors. GNOME apps are being used on Dell,
> Asus, and HP netbooks.
> - Schools.
> - Governments.
> - Accessibility hardware and software manufacturers. (Braille printers,
> keyboards, pointers, mice, cameras, etc.)
> - Device manufacturers (like digital cameras, scanners, etc.)
>
> I think we should list all we can and pick a few (2-3) that we are going to
> focus on. We can have a plan for all of them but perhaps we need to invest
> in a couple.
>
> Stormy
>
> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 2:58 PM, Luis Villa <luis tieguy org> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org>
>> wrote:
>> > I'll grab the easy one:  Users
>> >
>> > So far we have:
>> >
>> > * Users
>>
>> As Brian was saying, users is too broad. Lord knows I love all of
>> them, but we're probably best off focusing on specific groups of users
>> that are within reach. An offhand list:
>>
>> * accessibility-challenged users. (dash of realism: the last time we
>> tried to do this seriously, the answer was 'you people haven't
>> actually tried to *use* your a11y software, have you.' We need to make
>> sure that is not the case this time.)
>>
>> * enterprises: 2.0 had a successful message in this space: cheap,
>> reliable, easy-to-train-on b/c easy to use but not too dissimilar to
>> Windows. 3.0 will have a harder time because it will likely lose the
>> 'fairly similar to windows' tag, but the other things should still be
>> strong.
>>
>> * relatedly to the previous, w/ similar issues: pre-existing gnome 2.x
>> users generally. Need to convince them that the upgrade and changes
>> are worthwhile. Not all of them will be on board, but we need to
>> enlist them- get them to be our biggest cheerleaders, both by selling
>> them on the new stuff but also (importantly) explaining to them what
>> changes were made and why. They are going to lose features they liked;
>> we have to explain to them why the new ones are better. If we do that
>> well they'll turn around and tell others.
>>
>> * free software influencers: convince them that gnome 3 Is The Future
>> of the Free Software Desktop. (again, have to actually execute really,
>> really well, and have a persuasive story for this one.) But this is an
>> important group of users to acquire. (Here I will again drag out my
>> old proposed GNOME slogan: 'GNOME: the Heart of the Free Software
>> Desktop.')
>>
>> * college compsci students: these are the next wave of our developers;
>> lets reach out to them at a time when they have lots of time and
>> energy to experiment. Ideally this branches out from not 'just'
>> marketing into educational and training outreach- get them to work on
>> gnome projects and such, like Mozilla does.
>>
>> * 'low functionality' windows users- windows users who live 95% in
>> their browser already (lots of parents, grandparents here- don't use
>> many apps, don't use many peripherals). Pitch them on having firefox,
>> and the rest being virus free and easy to use.
>>
>> * (if somehow the product blows our minds): normal windows users.
>> focus on security but also the awesome new features. Again, depends on
>> actually having awesome new features, and (ideally) a suite of apps
>> that integrate them. b/c both of these are still somewhat
>> hypothetical, a major push on this front may have to wait.
>>
>> HTH-
>> Luis
>>
>> > * Linux distributions
>> > * Media
>> > * Developers
>> >
>> > Who else comes to mind?
>> >
>> > Paul
>> >
>> > On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 6:59 PM, Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Luis, this is perfect, thanks for kicking it off!
>> >>
>> >> Paul
>> >>
>> >> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 6:47 PM, Luis Villa <luis tieguy org> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Paul Cutler
>> >>> <pcutler foresightlinux org>
>> >>> wrote:
>> >>> > Hello marketing team!
>> >>> >
>> >>> > As we think about GNOME 3.0, who are our target audiences?  (Who
>> >>> > should
>> >>> > the
>> >>> > marketing team be bulding messages for?)
>> >>>
>> >>> I know I've written on this before, but I can't find it. :(
>> >>>
>> >>> Because I'm short on time, some important audiences that we have
>> >>> tended to forget at times in our marketing:
>> >>>
>> >>> * Distros: the reality is that they make the default choice that
>> >>> determines what most of our users see. If we don't sell them on 3.x,
>> >>> our users will continue to use 2.x, as simple as that.
>> >>>
>> >>> * Linux Media: the various and sundry Linux media have a big say in
>> >>> what people perceive as 'the' Linux Desktop. Sadly, this is a fairly
>> >>> dysfunctional media, so telling them 'here is why Real People are
>> >>> going to be sold on 3.0' is a sometimes, but not always, effective
>> >>> technique.
>> >>>
>> >>> * Developers: they need to know why they should integrate with GNOME
>> >>> technologies, and particularly with whatever new ones we come up with.
>> >>> We need them to buy into it to build our ecosystem.
>> >>>
>> >>> Sorry I can't be more verbose-
>> >>> Luis
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > --
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>> >
>> >
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