Marketing Fedora Worldwide

[David Barzilay]

A few comments of mine below...

On Tue, 2005-10-18 at 10:35 -0400, Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote:
> Ah, I love talking about ideas.  :)  Comments inline.
> 
> On Tue, 18 Oct 2005, David Barzilay wrote:
> 
> > Hi Folks,
> > 
> > There are a lot of well-intended people here, so allow me to suggest a
> > more organized approach towards the subject matter, then we can optimize
> > our resources.
> > 
> > Let start from the beginning! We gotta be able to respond some basic
> > questions:
> > 
> > 1) APPEALS: what are FC's appeals?
> > reduced IT costs (software, hardware), collaborative work philosophy,
> > reliability, bleeding-edge technology...., reducing digital divide....
> > 
> > Who can benefit from these?
> >
> > 2) TARGET: who should we promote FC to?
> > There might be two or more different audiences here, interested in
> > different sort of benefits i.e. developing countries decision makers,
> > the computer-savvy masses, secondary school, lobbyists, IT students....
> > 
> > What do we know about them?
> > 
> > If we have more than one defined audience, we might consider splitting
> > the next questions, and having different strategies for each.
> >
> > 3) OPPORTUNITIES to meet with target(s) in appealing occasions: local
> > user groups meetings, events, partnerships with universities, seminars,
> > open source projects, govmt events, etc
> > 
> > Questions: What are the commonalities between "the opportunity" and FC?
> > How do we relate FC with "the opportunity" goals?
> > Leverage from there, focusing on the answers for the questions above,
> > and elaborating "tailor-made" material for event.
> 
> I believe in this, but I think we're putting the cart before the horse 
> when we talk about tailor-made collateral.

Of course this would be a step further. That's exactly why I numbered
some previous actions above.

> We need a good set of 
> multi-purpose collateral.  And we need to get started on this yesterday.  
> :)

Hang on.... where's the horse?

Sorry, but I think we need to discuss the strategy that will nurture and
empower all communication and marketing actions before, then decide on
best media to accomplish it...

So why don't we start discussing marketing strategy before media
production (i.e. FC LiveCD, mktg material...)

Can you help me with these:
. What are the goals of fedora-marketing?
. Who are we approaching?
. How are we approaching the different audiences?
. Then: what are the best marketing and communication actions to
approach these?


> /me puts his collateral-writing-hat on...
> 
> > 4) FEDORA-MKTG ORG: a bit of a brainstorming here...
> > Obviously, we cannot centralize everything to cover the globe, so maybe
> > CMCs can create their little organizations, specially dedicated to their
> > markets.
> > 
> > Local CMCs can organize an effective FC presence in local events in
> > advance, so we make sure they get enough material (as mentioned in an
> > earlier email); can also talk to universities, distribute FC LiveCDs,
> > invite more people to take part on open source projects, talk to
> > teachers......organize LUGs....
> > 
> > Responsibilities can be shared among local organizations i.e. one looks
> > after events, another looks after local universities, a third might
> > lobby with govmt, a fourth might look after the Fedora users website in
> > his language...
> 
> Yeah.  My concern is that we're putting a lot of weight on the shoulders 
> of the CMCs without giving them much direction.  So we need to discuss 
> what we expect out of CMCs, and give them the tools that they'll need to 
> fulfill these expectations.

Agreed! CMCs can also "recruit" other Fedora enthusiasts in their market
to share the weight...

> At a very basic level, this is:
>   * Go to LUGs
>     + And say what when they get there?
>   * Go to tradeshows
>     + Running a booth is hard work!  
>   * Pass out Fedora DVDs, and maybe collateral;
>     + And where do they get that stuff?
>   * Recruit;
>     + For what projects?
>   * Represent.
>     + Represent what message?

As stated before, I do believe that's the time for a proper and
professional marketing approach. We got a bunch of community folks eager
to make it happen, but our response cannot be that slow anymore!

Otherwise, Ubuntu (which has been doing some very smart marketing
actions) will beat FC...

> > Let's take the collaborative work spirit to the Marketing field!