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Re: Introductions

Hi Nelson,

Nelson Marques schreef:

Hi Sanne,

On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 15:10 +0100, Sanne te Meerman wrote:

Hi,
I was triggered by this conversation as I have recently approached several companies to sponsor Guadec. One of the companies that declined, was Cap Gemini and I got some interesting feedback that relates to branding as well. They told me that large system integrators like themselves mostly do support and training on whole distributions like Ubuntu and Suse etc. 

 That doesn't surprise me at all. Remember that when you approach a
company to sponsor an event, for them there should be a business
possibility implied. It's distro's that give them money, not normal
software packages. No business possibility, not worth investing.
I understand that of course. And it might not be very surprising that they don't sponsor, but I felt challenged to think of ways to get their attention. If they're into training and system integration, there can be possibilities for them as well, like approaching hardware vendors to help them use Gnome in their products, or maybe even user training. 
Which
doesn't mean that other companies in the same marker segment can have
opposite positions. In this cases, it would be advisable to launch the
same challenge to all, and make sure they know that their competitors
might be present there.
Yes, good one. I'm no marketeer, but the creation of a 'Buzz' and the fact that companies, people and instittions are watching each other has to be used well, true. Having said that, we are looking out for the work of the volunteers who are helping Koen and me to improve the Guadec website as fast as possible, as the website is such a crucial means to create 'the buzz'. So... any advice on how to make them forget about their wifes and loved-ones, to start building the site, are welcome! :-)
The marketing challenge with regard to branding would probably be then to associate one brand with another, like Intel has so succesfully done by having the 'Intel'inside ' logo on hardware and having joined TV commercials with software and hardware vendors. 

The marketing challenge with branding in my opinion is somewhere else, a
set of values that our brand should imply. My laptop has "ATI Premium
Graphics" sticker. I chosed ATI because it's GPU didnt went above 60C
under heavy load, because I do give importance to thermal designs. The
reason that make me go this way was because my previous laptop had one
of those wicked G86 based nvidia cards operating the GPU at 81C in idle.
I won't ever buy nvidia. Consumer choice.
Regarding the brands again, we don't need stickers. Our product, GNOME 
is distributed in digital format, therefore most of our marketing should
around digital formats. We should associate the brand GNOME to brands
who distribute us, who support us and who share the same ideals behind
GNOME. It's more of a ideological set of ideas you want people to
recognize about you.
Both the values of Quality and Ideology are what interests you and are also what you think the brand should project. Your decision to go with ATI might sound obvious to you, but I have my doubts if there are a lot of people who have such a well thought out judgement as you do (even if it could help them avoid burning their fingers haha). FLOSS people seem to be a well informed bunch in general, that might not be as sensitive to 'the Buzz'. As Gnome is moving out of this subculture and into the mainstream, the amount of people considering the ideology will hopefully remain something closely associated with Gnome and other Free software. But IMHO the thing that might probably help move Gnome more into the a mainstream market might probably be: great software with great functionality that looks great and is also easy and great to use.
Just felt like sharing this. Hope it's useful and hopefully I'll see the 'Gnome inside' logo flickering on my next mobile phone ;-). 
regards,
Sanne, Guadec organisation


You touched a sensible thing. If we look into the market, as Brian said
in another thread, the industry is changing quickly. We're going into
the netbook/tablet æeon (era), for reference, see the efforts being made
by Ubuntu on this field. Their option to replace openoffice with
googledocs... the reaction of the community... They went back on that
one, but still, from a marketing point of view, such replacement would
please either netbook vendor (indirectly association with google) and
possibly breaking grounds amongst users.
just some thoughts, great to think about things like this, thanks. About Guadec, I will definitely forward your suggestions to Stormy, as she's doing most of the contacts with companies on behalf of Gnome. Vodafone and BenQ might be really excellent suggestions, and with Nokia on board, they could be triggered, as other companies might be as well. about the local companies: we're approaching them too, yes. 
About Guadec, have you contacted Vodafone? or any other big Mobile
operators? I would assume that pushing the right keys, they would tag
alongside with Guadec. Also try to have small local business present,
and push hardware manufacturers into it aswell. Tryed BenQ ? it's a
Benelux based company, should be interest from them.
Having a company like BenQ with us could help.

;)

-- my 2 cents,
nelson.


thanks!
Sanne

Nelson Marques schreef:

 Brian,

 I can provide some documentation regarding Brand Management if you
need. This is actually a complex subject. If you need help I can help
with it as well.

 There's a very good publication from Philip Kotler (currently the top
personality in Marketing) named "Brand Management", there is also a
chapter in "Marketing Management" (the bible of Marketing) which covers
some points.

 I have a large collection of books which I can share with whoever wants
to take a look.

 Meanwhile I'll just compile some stuff that I have from my university
which might be useful.

 Anything you need, just ask.

 Nelson.

 PS: I would assume GNOME is going to be taken as an "Umbrella brand",
correct?


On Thu, 2010-02-11 at 09:23 -0600, Brian Cameron wrote:

Hello, my name is Brian Cameron and there is some information about me
here:

   http://live.gnome.org/BrianCameron

I have worked for Sun Microsystems (now becoming Oracle) for over 10
years, over 8 of those years on the GNOME project.  I am on the GNOME
Foundation board of directors and acting as the secretary.

I am really more of a developer than a marketing person, but I have
been involved with marketing-related discussions for the past few
years, and attended the last Marketing hackfest in Chicago.  Any board
member often deals with marketing topics and opportunities, and one of
the reasons I participate is because I think the GNOME marketing-list
is one of the more important GNOME forums for board members to be
involved with.

I also tend to work closely with the GNOME legal team, and I tend to
get involved with marketing issues that involve working with the legal
team.

For example, one marketing related task I am currently working on with
the legal team is to put together more comprehensive trademark
agreements so that GNOME is better prepared to license the GNOME brand
to organizations who want to sell GNOME branded merchandise.

Brian
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