[Lf_desktop] Re: [Desktop_architects] Desktop Linux marketing slogans

Aaron J. Seigo aseigo at kde.org
Mon Jan 21 12:08:13 PST 2008


disclaimer: i've drank too much coffee today. all the below is just my 0.02 
and i hope there are bits of usefulness to be picked from what follows.

On Friday 18 January 2008, John Cherry wrote:
> Greg Raiz wrote:
> > Branding and slogans aren't about the product, they speak to the
> > culture and emotional experience you want people to have.

precisely.

> Greg, you are so modest when it comes to the topic of branding and
> slogans.  

=)

> Greg led a very interesting discussion at DAM-1 regarding the "image"
> around Linux.  His slides can be seen at...
>
> http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/Gallery/Linuxthoughts/default.htm

i do wish i'd been able to be there. the KDE project has spent a rather good 
amount of time and energy on exactly this set of issues. not just on the 
marketing and communications side, but also on the development side. 
obviously, our scope is slightly broader than just Linux exclusively, aiming 
at the slightly larger reach of "all things Free software". however, our base 
is strongly centered on Linux, and generally we are comfortable with that.

i'm not sure i agree with everything on Greg's slides (probably the normal 
level of "i'm not you, you're not me" fuzz ;) but in general i think he hit 
several hot spots rather accurately. nicely done, Greg =)

personally, i'd love to see a real and concerted effort across the stack 
towards these issues. it really does need to include not just the faces on 
the front lines of communication, however, but also the developers and 
designers.

we need to take data in from the market and ask ourselves who our immediate 
target markets are. i don't think "enterprise" or "consumer" are adequate in 
the least; not only do they completely miss out on probably the largest 
untapped opportunity (SMB/SME) but they fail to answer the question of which 
groups within those markets are our current best targets.

we need to ask ourselves which shifts in development ideas would allow us to 
shift the conversation in marketing the most. an example of this might be 
directory integration. it's something we absolutely suck at right now. with a 
little bit of concerted effort, though, we could make all the pieces stumble 
together quite nicely (samba's directory work, kde kconfig integration with 
ldb/tdb (i'm sure gnome has something similar with gconf), kolab's samba 
integration, getting common schema systems out of the box on openldap..) and 
this would in turn give us something new and impressive to talk about, esp 
since this is yet another risk eliminator.

we should also be framing the conversation around areas we aren't playing 
catch up with either, e.g. openID or new ideas in client side search and 
metadata. we should be evangalizing these technologies into our development 
circles and then pushing the results out into the limelight.

some projects are doing the above. but they are the minority and if we wish to 
Do This Together, more of us need to be taking the above approaches or 
similarly serious methods. and all of us should be sharing notes if we want 
this free software on the client thing to sprout wings and fly.

for KDE4 we settled on the following (to summarize grossly):

- we are approaching the early adopters as a central base and enticing the 
early majority (think: crossing the chasm)

- our USP is freedom, or rather the practical results of that spring from 
technology created with freedom as a base principle

- we need a way to therefore tie the benefits of freedom to the self perceived 
needs and wants of the targets. that means we need to be able to articulate 
those benefits.

- next we need to ensure our technology development lines up with.

- next we need to push media, gloss and presentations out into the wild

we now have a basis on which to grow into and i think the early days have been 
good. the Be Free campaign has started nicely and has been well received. 
we'll be releasing "presentations in the can" to our constituency next month 
that help greece this campaign, eliminating the whole "is it grass roots or 
big trumpets?" discussion as we simply cater to both and let each prove their 
value. it's the earliest of days for implementing the strategy, but i'm glad 
we have a strategy now.

if we have the political will to do so, we can accomplish something similar 
for the broader stack of software. in fact, if we don't, the KDE project has 
intention to start reaching out on its own to other key free software 
projects to help harmonize messaging with this umbrella concept.

> The hardware vendors have been targeting low cost PCs and mobile.  These

obviously, this is great! at the same time it doesn't alleviate our 
responsibility to market to them as well. this is something we somehow forget 
at times. =)

> Google.  Linux mobile will explode in 2008 and 2009 and the average user
> won't know they are using Linux.  After all, how many know that their
> current phone is probably running Symbian?

how many people with Windows Mobile phones know their phone uses Windows 
Mobile? pretty much all of them. Microsoft have branded, marketted and raised 
awareness of their software platform in a way Symbian never did due to their 
lack of consumer focus. 

now, we obviously lack the ability to shove our logo and taglines (whatever 
that is =) down the throats of IHVs the way Microsoft can to ensure everyone 
knows it's Linux .... but we can do our part a lot better than Symbian ever 
did in ensuring that IHVs *want* to let people know in some fashion that it 
is Linux on board. how? i don't have definitives, but perhaps by:

* ensuring integration and other such "improved selling performance" features 
are attached to the Linux platform in people's minds, so that to let people 
know their device sports such features it's easiest for an IHV to simply note 
that there's this "Linux platform stuff" in there.

* following through on public communication strategies that are so sexy IHVs 
want to be associated with them.

* working on harmonizing certain aspects of the interfaces that are emerging 
so that each one doesn't look like a complete frankenstein of the one before 
it.

> So who would be the main target for this advertising?  I would suggest
> the target should be enterprise desktops where cost and freedom are very
> important as well as the low cost side of the consumer markets (mobile
> and sub-$200 PC offerings).  You could even say that the prime target
> markets would be for "Web 2.0 users" (social networking, online
> applications, mashups, etc.).

unfortunately, i don't think this tells us much of anything about the target 
audience. while "low cost side of CE" certainly helps us on the engineering 
side by sending the "low power, low latency, small UIs" messages to the 
developers it doesn't help either the architects or the marketeers.

are we after the total-living-space media center CE market?
are we aiming at cell phones for China?
are we aiming at the crowd that gobbles up the DS Lite and Wii?
are we aiming at the 20 something hipsters, the 30 something decision makers, 
the 40-50-something top brass ...?
what sort of enterprise customers are we aiming at? manufacturing? services? 
in emerging markets, or developed economies? are we aiming to convince the 
CTO or the sys admins in the back room?

answers to that then allow one to ask "what are their hot buttons?" the whole 
idea of "low risk" implies the ability to identify what people percieve as 
the risk. and that perception varies greatly from group to group within a 
given market.

for some people "risk associated with technology" means "will this kill my sex 
life by making me appear geeky?" for others it means "will my data still be 
accessible?"

> What should the emotional messages be?  Something like...
>
>    All you need
>    It just works
>    Powerfully simple
>    Top to bottom  (because of the multiple arch support and mobile to
> server coverage)
>    <This is where my creativity grinds to a halt>  :)

=) yeah, it's not an easy question to answer. i think the answer floats to the 
top eventually though once when invests enough time in the processes needed 
before you can even ask that question. in other words, by the time you can 
ask the question, you should also have some answers. 

over the years i think we've spent too much time trying to optimize the 
algorithm here and short cut to The Question. it doesn't work that way very 
nicely.

arriving at something like Be Free may seem trivial. that we got zero push 
back and only support on the idea once unveiled to the community as well as 
partners can only happen when a proper process leading up to it is followed, 
imho. i'm not saying Be Free is the best slogan ever. but it does push 
emotional buttons, we do have a set of messages behind it and the buy in from 
our constituency has been terrific. it also looks equally awesome on a 
presentation slide, a t.v. commercial, a web banner, a t-shirt or a computer 
case.

> A successful "image" campaign has to be based around real products.  We

actually, it doesn't. look at BASF's "we don't make things, we make things 
better" campaign or "A diamonds is forever" or your local dairy board's 
campaigns ("Got milk?"). it really depends on who your audience is and what 
you define a "real product" as.

Linux is a real product in the same way a diamond or milke is a real product. 
marketing diamonds is a great way to sell diamond jewelry which increases (or 
keeps up) demand for diamonds from those who supply the jewelry industry.

Linux is a real product in much the same way BASF's products are: they aren't 
the final product, sure, but they make the final products what they are.

and remember: we can market not only to the various consumer markets but also 
to those servicing those markets on our behalf. there's a huge middle tier of 
companies that provide service and recommendations to the end user markets.

> would have a great collaboration event if we could get real marketing
> representatives together from the desktop/laptop vendors as well as the
> mobile device vendors.  If each of these vendors comes out with a
> different approach, the market will look confusing and fragmented.

i'd be hesitant to let them set the agenda, however. they will be motivated to 
promote their strengths and visions rather than those of the ecosystem that 
creates Linux itself. while there is often (but not always) cross-over there 
at the technical level, there almost never is at the management, vision and 
implementation level.

i think it would be terrific to bring them together to find out more 
information about what the gaps are for them, who their audiences are (or who 
they'd prefer their audiences to be) and coordinate messages from upstream 
into their world. in some ways this is much more the "dairy board" method, 
but one that i think might do us well to follow.

it also probably stands the best chance of seeing real results in the market 
for our brands rather than simply the status quo of each vendor's brand.

> So, will the product vendors be at the next collaboration event?  We
> won't let them leave until they agree on an approach.  :)

heh =)

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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