Need some time in a future Marketing Meeting.

[Nelson Marques]

On Sun, 2010-03-28 at 21:19 +0200, wonderer wrote:
> Hy Nelson,
> 
> 
> > meeting to introduce and discuss some topics:
> >
> >  * Cultural aspects in Communication - it's importance, as Fedora aims
> > to an International Community.
> >  * Consider what we shouldn't associate with Fedora.
> >  * Symbology and Brand Association
> >  * Restriction policy towards potential "harmful" symbology
> >   
> I see your point regarding the mailings you posted also across the
> ambassadors list. But (me personally) also I think there is at THIS
> point in time more important work to do regarding upcoming F13 release
> (feature freeze is already on the move), the marketing tasks already on
> the move and upcoming marketing tasks. We should have such things in
> mind if it comes to new slogans and icons and stuff like that, but also
> know that there are also a Red Hat legal Department which will have a
> look at our work as far as I know and if there would be a potentional
> harm there would be persons who let us know about it. Also there are
> many blogposts, irc discussions, etc. around and if something with bad
> influence came up it had popped up already.
> Also I think words like "restriction policy" is here totally wrong.
> Maybe one tiny section in the upcoming kind of brandbook or Design
> Guideline should be enough
> >  Give me 2 weeks to get prepared, set a document and gather some
> > scientific marketing production to backup this subject and present it. 
> >  If possible I would like to go remote on voice aswell for this.
> >   
> I think we ALWAYS could find something that can be uses "against" some
> freedom ideas, symbols, etc. Somebody can say that the "f" look like a
> hook and associate it with "we hook you up" or "I plow with that hook to
> your nose" or something more surreal ;-)
> I'm looking forward to read about your thesis and I know what you mean,
> but also I think that we are so far really good with "our" symbolism.
> But thats only my 2Cents :)

I'm not dumping a thesis neither I will take much time, 20 minutes
should be enough. All I want to do is to show how symbology, cultures
and sub-cultures (in the field of Anthropology) are important for our
work. By ignoring those we are providing free ammunition to be used
against ourselfs. In a real corporate world, companies like Coca Cola,
Nike, Citroen and others have already loss loads of money and hurt their
brands because of small/tiny things like this.

It is something we can try to achieve. I'm going to place it in the
Agenda, still today and prepare a small presentation for everyone who
wants to read it based on some practical examples I am aware off. Then
if people find it is relevant, good, else, I rest my case and will
release a document for those who want to read it.

By the way, this is not an issue in the field of Legal Departments, they
are not trained in cultural movements/sub-cultures/symbology. This is
mainly a part of Anthropology, which alongside with some other behavior
sciences are a part of Marketing.

And please that "f" example (which I've always associated with inFinity)
is something rather different. No one was ever arrested and prosecuted
for such, which people have been arrested and prosecuted in Europe due
to using the "Hands Horns" gesture, to be precise, 5 people in Italy
during a Vatican event. So I think this gives a new insight about
things, considering that 1.1 billion people might feel offended by such
symbology, which is apparent un-harmfull for US citizens. That sign
excepting Northern America is deeply related to religion in all the
places, dodging such topics would be great for us, right ? Not to enter
the cultural/sub-cultural movements that I referred previously on the
ambassadors list.

I'm just trying to help, nothing more, nothing less. And since Red Hat
owns the Fedora brand, I do think they should send a representative to
check out if this issues are worth looking or not. I'm pretty sure they
will agree with some things.

nelson

> 
> 
> 
> 
> mit freundlichen Grüßen / best regards
> Henrik Heigl - wonderer at fedoraproject.org
> 
> PGP/GnuPG: 8237 D432 0616 D567 DBC6  3FE3 0D52 B374 F468 A5F0
> 

-- 
Nelson Marques <07721 at ipam.pt>