[Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection

[Graham Lauder]

On Thursday 14 Oct 2010 16:16:39 Tux99 wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Oct 2010, Graham Lauder wrote:
> > It is a well known fact, that you cannot be all things to all people, to
> > try to do that would end up being everything to noone.  I would prefer
> > to be the best we can be to those who grow to love the brand.
> 
> True, but you are forgetting to take into account the views of the
> developers and packagers of Mageia. Without them there will be no Mageia
> distro and since partecipation is on an unpaid volunteer basis, no
> grand plan of shaping the distro from a marketing POV will succeed, if
> it doesn't match the views of a large part of the devs and packagers.

What has that got to do with it, there is always an internal component to the 
marketing, goes without saying

> 
> This is not a criticism of your work (which I'm sure is well meant), but
> it's a simple but crucial fact that you have to take into account.

Damned by faint praise, and frankly I'm insulted, I suggest you read the Core 
Values statement which is up on the website now I think and which I and my 
team put together in deep consultation with the founders.   

> 
> > All linux distributions at the moment have a less than 1.5% of the total
> > market, however in the area where they have targeted a particular user
> > set, Webservers, the market penetration is somewhere around the 65%
> > mark.
> 
> And that's because of the simple fact that Linux is the best technical
> choice for that specific application and the decisionmakers are techies
> who know that, it has nothing to do with marketing.
> If anything it shows how marketing counts for nothing when techies and
> experts make choices.

I'm really trying to be restrained here but I think you should talk to RedHat 
and SuSE and so forth the companies that have driven most of that market and 
ask them if the did no marketing.

> 
> > How many users does Mandriva have worldwide, compare that to the number
> > of computer users and you will see that the "one size fits all" does not
> > equal significant market share.
> 
> Mandriva is not a "one size fits all". It is the best Linux desktop
> distro, but it's not the best choice as a server distro or for many
> other uses.
> The fact that it doesn't have more users is primarily due to the unfair
> advantage that Windows has because it comes preinstalled on PCs.
> 

That is in fact patently untrue, I remember when Mandrake was trumpeting the 
fact that you could buy it preinstalled back about 9.0 I think, can't 
remember.   MS spends 500 million a year on marketing, just to maintain that 
market share. 

> > OOo is targeted at office productivity people for obvious reasons,
> > it's branding, colour design (Blue engenders a feeling of  reliability
> > and efficiency) is aimed at that market group.  The Logo design  is
> > aimed at a 30 to 45 age group, who are the decision makers in this group
> > and to whom "Gulls" = Freedom.
> 
> I very much doubt any OOo user chose it because of the logo, personally
> I chose software on technical and usability merits, not logo design and
> even all non-techies I know do the same.

Oh for crying out loud is there a virus around here that imbues density... OF 
COURSE they didn't choose because of the Logo, ye gods if you so much as had 
an inkling of the smallest piece of Marketing science you would see how 
nonsensical that statement is in terms of what we are talking about, 
especially when you say it as though you have a deep dark knowledge.  I don't 
really have time to do marketing 101 here and It's wasting my time when I 
could be doing the more useful things that the Founders have asked us to do.

However:
Marketing raises Brand awareness
It connects a value with the product in the Consumers mind
It connects a brand with people on an emotional level

That's it, Getting people to use it is Sales which is a different beast 
altogether.

We get people to see the brand, connect with the brand and then think about 
investigating it after that it's sales and engineering.  

> 
> Software is not a car or a handbag or a jacket, those are items where
> looks and design counts a lot, with software the only design that counts
> is UI interface design aimed at maximising usability.


There is an old saying there are none so blind as those that will not see, and 
it doesn't matter how good the UI is, if no-one looks at it, it's the same for 
anything, you can make it as pretty and as usable as you want if nobody knows 
the brand exists then the only ones that will connect are the ones that 
stumble across it accidentally. 

Once more, this is wasting my time and there is no point in discussing this 
with a closed mind and entrenched attitudes. 

GL

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

OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant.

INGOTs Moderator New Zealand
www.theingots.org.nz