On Wednesday 18 Aug 2010 05:31:53 Nelson Marques wrote: Hi Nelson, My apologies that this took so long to answer, other things demanded my attention and I wanted to give this reply the time it deserves.
On Tue, 2010-08-17 at 23:19 +1200, Graham Lauder wrote:
The principle job of marketing is to create "Brand Awareness", it could in fact be argued that it is it's only function and anything else that a marketing team does, goes back to that simple statement.
Brand awareness is driven by several factors
Visibility Attractiveness Ubiquitousness
<snip>
Before all else, a brand is a promise! Where do you fit it there?
I agree with the sentiment but possibly not the wording, however this is not what we are talking about.
Considering we're talking about software, we enter soon on the Service Marketing, which once more reinforces the brand as a promise and as one of the most important tokens to accomplish the goals, specially with fidelization, which is the key parameter on the service marketing.
What is fidelization, it is not a word in any dictionary I use...? Anyway I'm not talking about the brand itself, what I'm talking about is /awareness/, that which makes a brand grab people's attention. What you say above is true and I agree that a brand should be driven by an organisations Vision and Mission statements, what I'm saying is that the visual identity of the brand: Logo, name, colour pallet and style, needs to be attention grabbing and attractive <snip>
Right now we are suboptimal on all fronts.
Our logo doesn't convey the right feelings and it's not particularly attractive either in style or in colour.
Once more, can supply some backup information which can take this from the 'assumptions' field and place it in the 'facts' field ?
Now I will agree that the statement is a generalisation, but it is accurate within my proposed demographic. Green is a soft colour and is not highly visible, that's a fact. Hard colours: Red, Orange, Yellow are much more visible and attention grabbing, You are a marketing person so you should know this as a fact also.
The two open source brands that have the highest awareness are Ubuntu and Firefox. It is not for no reason that the colours they use are ones that convey Warmth, vibrancy and reliability while at the same time demanding attention, Oranges Reds, Browns and Yellows. The colours are sexy and make the viewer feel good and excited. Green, does none of these things, green is a calming colour but doesn't immediately attract attention.
Once more, I would actually request backup data on this. Green out of all non-metal colours is probably the most friendly one and the most well accepted one. Once more, provide data to support such claim.
Aha it seems I was wrong that you would know this. Very well: http://www.ideamarketers.com/?Advertising,_marketing,_money&articleid=1139812 Read the last line of the article in particular http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Color-is-Your-Marketing-and-What-is-It- Saying?&id=427686 http://www.precisionintermedia.com/color.html and a million others, but remember it depends on the demographic of your target market. Now I made the above assertions because I know the target market I am aiming at. However at no point have you asked what that target market is and so therefore any argument you make has no basis.
The things our branding needs to convey, especially at this point is excitement and passion but also reliability and friendliness and be attractive enough to seize the viewers attention and have them wanting to know more.
Do we have data supporting it doesn't do that? Even the output of a tiny focus group will do... but aren't we making too much assumptions here ?
I have done some small research comparing the 11.3 packaging to the 11.1 packaging and the response in a group of IT professionals was 100% in favour of the lighter funky colours of the 11.3 packaging.
That's our problem right now, we are at the "New Brand" stage. Coca Cola for instance doesn't have that issue, their marketing is just about reminding, the same for MacDonalds. Ubuntu and firefox created a buzz around their brand by being attractive and warm and inviting and we need to do the same.
Your judgements are wrong... Coca Cola is an Umbrella brand, we aren't, neither Ubuntu, neither firefox. So why comparing onions with potatoes? What can we take out of it? _NOTHING_. Same applies to BMW, Audi (the most recognized worldwide brand) and others.
I am talking about brand recognition, brand awareness. What are you discussing. You've gone off on a complete tangent here, I was merely comparing the age of the brands in this para. Coca Cola and Maccas are OLD well established brands. Ours is relative to their age, very new.
Firefox used their brand with a promise: we do it lighter... the light wave browser (or at least in the start), and then evolved. Their campaign wasn't based on a brand, but on diferentiation and positioning features towards other browsers.
That's branding, their campaign was to raise BRAND AWARENESS, there was little about how good it was compared to the opposition, their most successful campaign was just about raising awareness. <snip>
So a couple of considerations:
1) The name openSUSE is cumbersome and I believe a return to simply SUSE would be a good first step. Novell has SUSE Enterprise and in fact from a branding perspective I preferred Novell Linux with the big red N
Novell's SuSE Enterprise > Commercial Linux; openSUSE > Community Linux;
There is a big difference between them. 'open' is an identifier of a wider realm than just openSUSE. I like openSUSE... and in a way that 'open' can be considered a promise ;)
2) The colour pallet does not grab attention and so that needs to be rethought
Backup data to support such claim. Qualitative study could be fun in our community. Starting a rebranding process without such data is unthinkable.
Our pallet is green and grey, the last colours you would use to attract attention.
3) Geeko does not engage the viewer in any meaningful way except for being familiar to the present community, he either needs rethinking or we go to an entirely different Logo.
Geeko is nice... Geek-o. It was born from the very own community some years ago. It was praised by the community... It's a logo with a distinctive look and unique silhouette (unlike ubuntu)... it translates the state of mind of the community... it is attractive to our target audience (I don't know any Geeko haters).
Once more, backup data on notoriety of Geeko.
I tell you what, let's reverse that, give me data on how well known Geeko is known outside the Linux community. I haven't seen any to support it's retention. How well known is it in comparison to say the Novell Red "N" I don't dislike Geeko, quite the opposite, as a mascot he rocks, but the representation as a logo is not the best it could be
4) A branding competition, open to all comers, would be a newsworthy event that would get us column inches and get the brand out there.
Though I'm in favor of community engagement on this kind of initiative, and Geeko itself is a proof that the community can come with nice things.. engaging a re-branding process now can be harmfull. Remember that not so long ago, openSUSE community decided to make KDE it's flagship Desktop Environment... We should be focusing on solidifying this first before moving into areas where we can find strong opposition.
Nice things are OK as they gather a wider audience. My experience in the market promoting and selling openSUSE tells me otherwise
Remember that this not about what we as a community like, it's about how we get a better branding impression and thus increase brand awareness.
Without current data to support those claims and future data to evaluate and correct anything, I don't believe that the risk/benefit equation is very attractive.
The only data that needs to be recognised is: We languish way below Windows and Ubuntu on the desktop and Debian, Redhat and Windows in the Server space. Part of all that is brand awareness, PART of it! There are other factors, one being the glacial rate of change in response to the market. We make MS look positively light on their feet! ;) and some negative associations. Raising Brand awareness is one way of countering that and putting SUSE where it belongs in the market: at the top! Cheers GL -- Graham Lauder, OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant. Ambassador for OpenSUSE Linux on your Desktop INGOTs Assessor Trainer (International Grades in Office Technologies) www.theingots.org.nz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org