Re: Rebranding of the Project
Hi Sarah, Great questions here let me see what I can answer. 1. As there is difference of focus for SUSE and openSUSE as you saw from my presentation. Clarifying that to the entire market is good for SUSE and good for the community, giving us (the community) our own identity. 2. I would say it a bit different, as I would frame this more so we have our own identity, I think what you are asking how far from the name SUSE are you looking for us to be? 3. I am not sure what was shared with the board entirely that would be a great question for the board? Rebranding exercises can go really bad or really well. Really well, people accept and love rebranding. Really bad, people hate it, or no one noticed. To say rebranding would damage us as a community might be premature. I agree the topic of rebranding is a bit of a hot topic but, we do get these from time to time. On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 3:26 AM Sarah Julia Kriesch <ada.lovelace@gmx.de> wrote:
Hi Robert,
Thank you for joining our conversation! We - as the openSUSE Community - want to understand more your idea, that a rebranding/renaming can help us. Therefore, I asked, whether any analysis of the "statements on your slides" would have happened. Neal meant, that there were some analysis, but we can not see anything regarding that in the presentation.
Therefore our questions for you: 1) Why does SUSE think, that a new name (rebranding) can help us to solve "openSUSE is not SUSE" problems? My hint/help regarding the statements: If I receive such statements, I ask the people, how their thinking/opinion has been redirected in this way.
2) If you expect our rebranding, "how much" separated should openSUSE be in the future? My hint: Take a look into my last linked email, where I explain that most problems are "house made" by SUSE on customer/partner side. Fixing that would help more from my point of view.
3) Which analysis and risk management did you do already together with the openSUSE Board (or on SUSE side)? -> We are open for feedback, what we should improve.
The reason for these questions: A rebranding would damage us more than helping, from our point of view and the problems would exist continuously. If there are only "Trademark" issues, then I would suggest to bring your Legal Team with and open source Lawyer (who is interacting for free for open source projects) together, that we can find a common solution. At the moment the rebranding topic is more like: "Shoot into your own feet, please!"
I try to help here with the point of view of an (Open Source) Business Consultant. All input regarding your thinking and the reasons from SUSE side can help us to understand that all better and that we can find a compromise.
Thank you! Best regards, Sarah
*Gesendet:* Montag, 15. Juli 2024 um 16:26 Uhr *Von:* "Robert Sirchia" <robert.sirchia@suse.com> *An:* "Sarah Julia Kriesch" <ada.lovelace@gmx.de> *Cc:* "Lukáš Krejza" <gryffus@hkfree.org>, project@lists.opensuse.org, "Lubos Kocman" <lubos.kocman@suse.com>, "Richard Brown" <rbrown@suse.de>, "Neal Gompa" <ngompa13@gmail.com> *Betreff:* Re: Rebranding of the Project Hello,
This thread is a bit deep. Are there any direct questions you would like me to answer?
On Sun, Jul 14, 2024 at 1:08 PM Sarah Julia Kriesch <ada.lovelace@gmx.de> wrote:
Thanks for the hint with the presentation.
Gesendet: Freitag, 12. Juli 2024 um 17:30 Uhr Von: "Lukáš Krejza" <gryffus@hkfree.org> An: "Sarah Julia Kriesch" <ada.lovelace@gmx.de>, project@lists.opensuse.org Cc: "Lubos Kocman" <lubos.kocman@suse.com>, "Richard Brown" < rbrown@suse.de>, project@lists.opensuse.org, "Robert Sirchia" < robert.sirchia@suse.com>, "Neal Gompa" <ngompa13@gmail.com> Betreff: Re: Rebranding of the Project
On Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 8:01 AM Sarah Julia Kriesch < ada.lovelace@gmx.de> wrote:
I would be interested for the reason (how) the SUSE Management
Dne pátek 12. července 2024 14:21:03, SELČ, Neal Gompa napsal(a): people have
received the idea with the openSUSE rebranding as an improvement. It seems, that some self-reflection and analysis of the behaviour (incl. the relationship) have been missing. The presentation that triggered this discussion was given by Robert Sirchia (who is involved in SUSE marketing) at the conference was on behalf of Andy Fitzsimon (who is in charge of SUSE's brand stuff).
It's nice, that both are so active in the community marketing and are open for discussion here.
This has also been a long-running discussion in the background between SUSE and the openSUSE Board. There has been *plenty* of analysis of the relationship.
+1 I can not see any analysis of the statements, why that has happened. If there would have been an analysis on SUSE side (how they have affected this behaviour), such a list would have been created:
https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/project@lists.opensuse.org/message/...
I am also interested for an answer for these questions (as a minimum):
- What were the pros and cons for the rebrand? - What were the alternatives? - Was the voting private? - I guess we can't see any results of the analysis? - Is it a decision and request or just a proposal as marketed?
Why? That is a professional Change Management. Risk management has been missing also until now. But if we want to have changes, we can start as role models with our own analysis. I would be open to volunteer as an (Open Source) Business Consultant. I learned that during my job as a Senior IT Consultant as part of a global Business Consulting company. The theory about risk management was part of the lecture Information Security during my Master's studies. Change Management is already part of my daily job.
That does not change the problems related to brand confusion, defense difficulty, and external perception issues that the current brand situation has.
I have got the same opinion. A rebranding does not help here. There was the hint, that the rebranding was only a "suggestion" by SUSE....
If there would be a voting, my vote is against it. We can solve the problems on alternative ways.
There is no brand confusion. SUSE and openSUSE is one brand (or two symbiotic brands). As long as SUSE uses openSUSE code and community work, it's just that and no "brand" PR talk is gonna solve that.
+1
Regards,
Gfs Best regards, Sarah
-- Robert Sirchia Director of Technical & Community Marketing
SUSE 1.216.577.1943 www.suse.com
-- Robert Sirchia Director of Technical & Community Marketing SUSE 1.216.577.1943 www.suse.com
Hey, On 17.07.24 16:19, Robert Sirchia wrote:
1. As there is difference of focus for SUSE and openSUSE as you saw from my presentation.
I think you are comparing apples with oranges a bit... All your examples are about products. Cleanex, Walkman, GNOME Tablet, Javascript. All product brands/trademarks. They are not about Kimberly-Clark, Sony, Groupon or Oracle brands/trademarks. But you are not asking this community to rename one of it's products (we have done so too many times already) but to rename the "company".
Clarifying that to the entire market is good for SUSE and good for the community, giving us (the community) our own identity.
Also in your presentation you noticed that the SUSE company and the openSUSE Project basically share a lot of "focus" because we are on a shared path. As one of the founders of the openSUSE project, who was in the group of people deciding the initial thrust/direction and it's relationship to the SUSE company I can tell you: The branding we choose *purposefully* emphasized the shared "focus" and the symbiotic nature of the two. The reasons for this was our believe that it's *very* important to recognize and be honest about the amount of influence SUSE has in openSUSE. Not by governance but by boots on the ground (people contributing). And frankly: We did not believe (and I still don't) that this *will* ever be different nor that it *should* be different. We also believed that it's *very* important to make sure that it's clear to everyone involved, that the amount of influence the openSUSE Project will have on the success of the SUSE company is something we both (company and project) intend to grow. The symbiotic nature of the SUSE company and openSUSE project is *still* reality to this day. And it's perfectly reflected in the brand.
Rebranding exercises can go really bad or really well. Really well, people accept and love rebranding. Really bad, people hate it, or no one noticed.
The question for SUSE is: How are *you*, the people asking this question / proposing this change are going to do it? What is *your* plan? How are *you* going to align everyone affected by this? Basically: How are *you* going to make sure this will not go really bad and destroy this community? Or whom do you expect to do this preparation work?
To say rebranding would damage us as a community might be premature.
As premature as saying it will helps us I'm afraid :-) Henne -- Henne Vogelsang http://www.opensuse.org Everybody has a plan, until they get hit. - Mike Tyson
participants (3)
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Henne Vogelsang -
Robert Sirchia -
Sarah Julia Kriesch