[Mageia-dev] Art, Logo and Branding

Thu Sep 23 17:55:31 CEST 2010

On Friday 24 Sep 2010 02:16:30 Tux99 wrote:
+> On Thu, 23 Sep 2010, Peter Watson wrote:
+> > Now we really need someone with marketing expertise to drive this
+> > issue forward.
+> > 
+> > Question is WHO?
+> 
+> Umm, I'm sure Graham already said that he is offering himself.
+
+Indeed, being involved at the genesis of a project such as this is exciting as 
+hell.    
+
+> 
+> Graham, I'm not a marketing person, but I agree with almost everything
+> you say, the only thing that I don't agree with is that the name should
+> be up for debate.
+> 
+> Too many practical things depend on the name so if whe change the name,
+> everything else will be on hold until then.
+> 
+> I do think Mageia is a good name, that is versatile enough for you to
+> work with, it sounds exotic (I didn't know it was greek, it sounded
+> spanish to me when i first read it) it's short and unique.
+> 
+> So IMHO feel free to drive the marketing whichever way you like, but
+> please don't ask for a name change.
+> 
+
+Heh, we do get possessive about these things and that is often a problem.
+
+All I'm saying is ask the question, I'm not making any judgements here about 
+the name, I can't, I don''t have enough information, for the same reason no-
+one should say that the name is sacrosanct.  
+
+The reason that marketing guys often come into a situation and have to say 
+"Change the name!" was invariably because the name was not given any 
+consideration in terms of the market.  I mean a Bed manufacturer called 
+"HiTech Concrete" would not make many sales. I know that's an extreme example, 
+but you get the idea.  
+
+A name has to say something about the organisation, it has to give people a 
+handle to grab onto to differentiate it from the crowd.  Redhat didn't have a 
+crowd to differentiate itself from when it started but it added Linux to the 
+name to differentiate it from the main opposition.  
+
+CentOS defined it's market with it's name "Community Enterprise Operating 
+System"  ie supplying an enterprise level OS to Community organisations.
+
+Ubuntu however used it's name to define a philosophy that resonated with it's 
+target market.
+
+We have to remember that the name is just part of the branding and brand 
+meaning is defined by the consumer of our product.  For us the brand should 
+follow our Vision and Mission statement, the name ideally should be part of 
+that branding process.
+
+Now having said all that, :)
+
+It is not a given that the name needs to change, any good marketing team will 
+say "OK How do we make it work for us"
+
+Somebody suggested "The Magic Continues" as a positioner.
+
+Marketing's first responsibility is to the customer, we will look at the brand 
+from their point of view not from our own.  This is a mistake that many FOSS 
+communities fall into, they brand to satisfy an internal aesthetic, the 
+community of developers, rather than the greater community of users.  
+
+Any decisions that Marketing make will have to be sold to the board in any 
+case and I wouldn't have it any other way.
+
+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
+