[Mageia-dev] Identifying Target Markets

Thu Sep 30 15:04:26 CEST 2010

Le 2010-09-30 07:21, Graham Lauder a écrit :
+> A group of the marketing and communication peoples got together to get our
+> heads around Vision and  Mission Statement.  Everyone brainstormed what they
+> saw as the core values of Mageia to give a direction that the Projects Vision
+> and mission statement could head.
+>
+> The reasoning behind this is it points a figurative arrow at our  primary
+> target market and thus gives us a guide toward where our branding should be
+> aimed.
+>
+> A mistake that is often made is branding from an internal aesthetic when in
+> fact branding should be more aimed externally to attract a new demographic.
+> If the gods are in alignment then ideally it should point toward our principle
+> point of difference and again this influences our branding choices in terms of
+> Colour Pallet Logo and so forth.
+>
+> The "feel" to me that came from the brainstorming was that Mageia could be
+> marketed as the "Family Distro".   This being a principle point of difference
+> when a user makes a decision as to what operating system to run.
+>
+> Our principle competitor, MS competes against the Linux universe as a whole
+> but other distros compete for the MS user base aimed at particular
+> Demographics. For instance:
+> OpenSUSE aims at the "Power User" Market
+> Ubuntu aims at the young individual end of the market
+> CentOS at Community enterprise and Not For Profits
+> Fedora at the Computing Professional
+>
+> Mageia could therefore aim at the Young Married professional market, being the
+> Distro that could be installed on the home computer and geared so that the
+> whole family could use it.
+>
+> So for instance as well as the standard software, educational programmes would
+> be installed by default, be NetSafe (Dans Guardian), have OOo4Kids installed
+> as well as a full office suite, Tuxtype, TuxPaint and so on.
+>
+> Documentation added to show parents how to set up accounts for the kids and
+> how to make it Net safe.
+>
+> I think that this is an untapped market right now and something that the
+> project could leverage into a marketing campaign and guide us in terms of
+> branding.
+>
+> Comments?
+>
+> Cheers
+> GL
+>
+
+I think that if you target the software packages that are compatible 
+with Educational software advocated by educational organizations, we 
+could make quite large inroads in the adaptability of Mageia.For 
+example, when marketing the OS, emphasis on the distro that can carry 
+your kids through their educational paths with such packages as 
+OpenOffice (soon to be LibreOffice -- make sure the MSWorks plug-in is 
+also included) compatible with MSOffice; GIMP similar to Photoshop and 
+some plugins are compatible; Freemind mindmapping; etc. If Mageia 
+concentrated on making these software packages work solidly then you 
+could have a good run at competing with other linux distros in the 
+educational field.
+
+BTW, in Canada, many school boards still use the Novel Netware setups 
+and they are just now in the midst of planning out its replacement. My 
+school board for example will have to replace close to 10,000 units if 
+they were to move to a Linux setup. I sat in on a meeting about 5 years 
+ago to hear out a RehHat re-seller's pitch. Most school boards are 
+almost at the break point and will be actively looking for new 
+networking/desktop solutions.
+
+So, compatibility with educational software. The distro should also be 
+an easy install for everyone and GUI run. If we are going to make it and 
+contend with other distros, the majority of users want a GUI run install 
+where everything works right away. There should be as little fiddling 
+around as possible. Install (15-20 minutes), then, register user 
+accounts, shares for accounts, re-name the computer to instill a sense 
+of ownership to the user (rather than having your computer called 
+"localhost" all the time, and then you are done! (Cups and 3d should be 
+installed automatically during the install phase). Make the install as 
+easy as possible.
+
+The next is a distro with games and solid multi-player game setups that 
+work. Get the distro to play nice with WOW and other popular games. This 
+will kill the competition and grab kids attention. Have a Mageia games 
+advocate(s) who periodically send out "snazzy" e-newsletters and a 
+"Magei Games Korner" on the website to foster gamesmanship on the 
+distro. Get the kids talking about the "rock-solid" install of WOW (for 
+example) using Wine -- the distro should come "hard wired" to play! and 
+rock!
+
+Have a great advocacy group that will stand up to Mageia bashing and 
+hand out comparative studies on the distro's performance and keep the 
+name in the headlines with such sites as LinuxToday.com. Be proactive 
+rather reactive to Linux possibilities of use where it can rationalized 
+as a good replacement desktop distro.
+
+Sorry for the long note.
+
+Cheers
+
+Marc
+
+