[Mageia-discuss] Wish List

Graham Lauder yorick_ at openoffice.org
Sun Oct 3 22:46:36 CEST 2010


On Monday 04 Oct 2010 08:30:58 Robert Wood wrote:
> > Actually, Ubuntu's naming convention is perfect for their target market,
> > there must be something right about it because it certainly hasn't hurt
> > their market share.
> > 
> > Besides which doing something because of a negative attitude is not a
> > good idea.  We should learn from there mistakes and make sure we don't
> > repeat them rather than trying to avoid what was patently successful for
> > them.  :)
> 
> I don't think it necessarily follows though that they are successful due
> to that naming convention. They might do even better were it not so naff
> a scheme. ;~)

That is your opinion, and of course unprovable.

I remember when I first saw it I thought Cooooool somebody is going away from 
boring bloody decimals and numbers, people got a laugh out of it.  

The simple fact that it has got you focused on it means it was successful.  

In it's target market 18 - 35 yr old it was very successful, it got a buzz 
going, people trying to figure out what next, the mail lists fill with 
suggestions for the next funky name. (My personal favourite was Warty Warthog 
and I actually installed it.  Too bad the I didn't like the interface and I 
dumped it after a week or two.)  

Ubuntu wanted to look funky and youthful and a little bit rebellious, they 
succeeded, good marketing. They targeted a market that was open to change to 
establish a credible User Base.  It was also good marketing to later shift 
focus to numbering to broaden their market into more conservative space

The point was that Ubuntu had a marketing plan right at the start.  They had 
defined targets and geared the look, naming convention and branding for that 
market.  There was a lot of complaining from other Distros that Ubuntu stole 
market share from them rather than MS and it was true, but instead of doing 
something about it most just cried into their beer.   However it is also true 
that Ubuntu has taken more market share from MS than any other distro.

When observing a marketing policy, you have to look past your own emotional 
response and try  to see what the Marketer were trying to do.  You may not 
agree with it or like it but what they did was successful, certainly more so 
than Mandriva.      

Cheers
GL


-- 
Graham Lauder,
OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html

OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant.

INGOTs Assessor Trainer
(International Grades in Open Technologies)
www.theingots.org


More information about the Mageia-discuss mailing list