[Mageia-marketing] Plan - stuff to do pre Beta 1 release

Wed Apr 6 00:15:59 CEST 2011

2011/4/5 Patricia Fraser <trish at thefrasers.org>:
+>>
+>> Hmm, how many people you want to ask what has to be written in an
+>> announcement of a new version? Isn't it quite clear what has to be
+>> addressed?
+>
+> One man's clarity is another woman's obscurity... 8-). If we're
+> representing a community - which is what I think Mageia's marketing
+> is doing, in part - it's good to know whether or not the community
+> feels comfortable with the way they're being represented. It's also
+> good if the community feels that marketing is actually a useful
+> and valuable part of the community.
+
+And how do you want to do this in practice? Announce the draft of an
+announcement?
+
+> You could check out the last time Yorick and the discuss list had a
+> conversation, to get a really unmistakable feel for this - I should
+> probably not need to point out that the shrinkage to not-quite-zero
+> of the marketing team can be traced back to that conversation. A
+> pity, because we were full of energy and working hard and well.
+
+Hmm, I can't say much about that, it was going to deep into an area I
+am not comfortable with.
+
+> It's all in who you're talking to. If you're talking to a community
+> of which you're part, you're talking to people who are already on the
+> inside - there's an existing relationship of a kind, and they know
+> the context and what's going on and who's who. If you're talking to
+> people who aren't part of the community yet, you're extending an
+> invitation. You want to present them with a picture of the community
+> you're inviting them into (which the community doesn't need), and
+> give them reasons that might lead them to come investigate joining -
+> or they might just take the community's output and still not join...
+> or they might think: no thanks.
+
+What you say makes sense but I still don't see the difference. Read
+previous announcements, they all were targeted at the whole crowd,
+saying geeky things but also trying to establish a relation, asking
+the people to join the fun and all that jazz.
+
+> Would you feel like joining, if you felt like the announcement was
+> exclusive, geeky, very plain-ordinary and didn't actually say: we're
+> looking for people. Please join us - we have room in our community
+> for people with all sorts of interests and talents. We need you! -
+> you mightn't. It might all feel just a bit too elite.
+
+> On the other hand, if you're an established coder, this kind of
+> "soft" approach might make you wonder whether you'd be comfortable
+> here - do people actually code, or package, or do anything really
+> interesting to me? or am I going to get stuck being a marketroid?
+
+IMHO announcements have to be both, not distinguishing between target
+groups. You can do such a distinction when you hold a conference. You
+know what type of people will be in the audience and you compile your
+speech according to that. You can make a distinction in an article
+about Mageia, you know what kind of people will usually read the
+magazine, so you write the article speaking to them in their language.
+But we are talking about an announcement of a release here, aimed at everybody.
+
+>> We never did. We always tried to send release announcements out to
+>> everybody, geek or not geek (I'm relating to former Mandriva
+>> communication policy, around 2003-2005). As I already wrote, we
+>> spread to the geek targets but also to the general IT crowd,
+>> private users and professionals. Best examples are /., Distrowatch,
+>> online and print magazines.
+
+> Yep. It was moderately successful. It could have been more so; it
+> could be for us. It all depends what the community wants to have
+> happen.
+
+Hmm, I think you don't know what we did then, may be not in the
+english Mandrake websites but in some localized areas. Well, what the
+community wants to have happen? What do you think? They want to
+
+ - get the feeling that it is their distribution, that they are part of it.
+ - see success, Mageia becoming what Mandrake was for a short time.
+
+> I'd separate here the "persona" which could have anyone behind it
+> from the people who do any communication with people outside the
+> community (or in it, for that matter, from the "function" of
+> co-ordinating, writing and disseminating targeted, on-point and
+> well-constructed information about Mageia, whether graphical or
+> verbal (or audio, or Braille, or what-have-you). I was positing a
+> "persona"; I do think the...
+
+Well, this depends on what you mean exactly. Of course it would be
+nice to have an ideal setup:
+ - all technical and organisational people will report constantly to
+marcom about what they are doing in detail
+ - marcom is perfectly understanding what those people are talking
+about so marcom can communicate with the press.
+
+As of now we haven't this setup. So, press questions (like request for
+an interview) are done by the person who can do it best. You want to
+change that?
+
+>> > What if we get TV interest? Who will handle that and how much
+>> > backup will they need/want from marcomm?
+>>
+>> This depends 1. on the occasion (local), 2 on the language, 3. on
+>> the kind of coverage the tv company wants to do (more general, more
+>> technical, etc.
+>
+> I'd like to see marcomm be multilingual in time - maybe working
+> together with i18n, which is currently very technically-focussed. The
+> linguistic needs of marketing are a little different from those of
+> package translators (who need to be very precise) and documenters
+> (who need a different kind of precision and communication) - it would
+> be good to have marcomm/i18n people who could look for the marketing
+> nuance as they translated (like it would be good to have documenters
+> ditto).
+
+Depends what you mean with documents. Id you are talking about manuals
+and HowTos there is no room for marketing, neither in authoring nor in
+translation.
+
+Back to that tv show: as I said, it will depend on the occasion. A tv
+station in France will obviously talk to french people, a tv station
+in Berlin will obviously talk to somebody speaking German, etc. In
+such an interview you can't say, "Cut, I have to ask our marcom team
+what to say."
+
+> What you get TV to do for you (we/us) depends entirely on how well
+> you target your approach to them - same as anything marketing. If you
+> can give them an angle that will help them sell advertising, they'll
+> look at you. So it depends on the kind of program you want to target.
+
+This is quite different depending where you are and what type of tv
+station it is. I've done some (radio and tv) in Germany, the occasions
+that they are waiting for you are rare because a Linux distribution is
+no real news to get excited over.
+
+> What I was wondering about, though, was: suppose we're successful in
+> getting a TV spot? What then?
+
+This is a very different thing. There you are on the spot with all
+your thoughts about targets and all other stuff. Because advertizing
+is always a question of target.
+
+> Marketing is the same whether commercial or otherwise - it's about
+> getting the message out. First decide what you want it to be;
+> second, construct it; third, spread it. Simplified, but that's the
+> job.
+
+That's all what I was talking about. :)
+
+-- 
+wobo
+