Just an epiphany

BR

I've never done anything for the opensource community. Now it's time to give a hand. But How? BR During holydays I had an epiphany. BR I'm not a programmer nor a designer but I'm studying lots of communication and marketing books so, I'll give you a tipical way (not the only one and probably not the best) to approach the marketing and promotional stuffs. I think that GNU/Linux "got games" to rule the world so it's necessary that the world knows it.BR Don't look at that paper like a commercial paper. I don't want to sell anything. BR Sometimes I use many "commercial" words but it's because if we want to beat the enemy (commercial software) we must use their weapons.

Some advice for a marketing plan

BR First of all should be defined:

• a teamwork composed by some technical expert such as hackers and gurus. Some common users (considered as someone that use only GNU/Linux distros since at least one year), some newbie users (considered as someone that for any reason is using MS O.S.more than GNU/Linux or that has just joined opensource world), someone of the ubuntu team, and some marketing / communication expertsBR

• a period to define the plan: (3 - 4 months)BR

• a periond to deploy the plan (short, medium, long term choices) BR BR Defined these first questions the project should start BR

Context Analysis

BR Lend an hear to the context, pay attention to the most important environment facts. It can be useful take some surveys. We could add some useful well structured survey using that project: http://www.phpsurveyor.org/. In that case we need an host. If an host is not founded it could be interesting read the ubuntuforums posts in order to define "the most important users questions" and the resulting concern BR Environment facts can give a hand or inspiration to our marketing plan. BR At this point we should at least consider as environment facts: BR

social and economical context:BR

• economics trends: which are the economical trends? Are we in an expansive period? depressive?BR

• cultural, social, political worth trends: can we identify some particular people's concerns? BR

• benefit & threat of the environment: a summup of the previous pointsBR

• marketing plans involvments of benefit & threatBR

market sector:BR

• company's market sector: in which sector the company is? which are the caracheristics? BR

• other competitors: which are the main competitors?BR

• analysis of the potential followers: which are the competitors' strategy? which are their weaknesses and strenghts?BR

• analysis of the equivalent products: can we identify some products that could substitute our? which are their weaknesses and strenghts?BR

• analysis of the potential users: how can they influence plan's result?BR

• benefit & threat of the market sector: a summup of the previous points BR

• marketing plans involvments of benefit & threatBR

company:BR

• goals & limits: which are the company's goals? are they well defined? are they reachable?BR

• economical condition: are we rich enough to support the plan? BR

• kind of management: which are management assets? (e.g widespread technical knowledge?)BR

• organizational structure and culture: how's company organization? could an internal conflits influence the results of the marketing plan?BR

• company benefit & threat: a summup of the previous pointsBR

• marketing plans involvments of benefit & threatBR

Marketing Mix

BR

• goals & limits: which are the marketing plan goals? do they coincide with the company's goals? BR

• product analisys: which product do we offer? do they cover all kind of needs? which is the best? the worst? it's necessary to redesign them?BR

• analysis of the potential market targets: which is the market target? how many kind of users do we want to talk with? what kind of user do we want to talk with? what does the user need? do whe know him well? is he loyal? how can we talk with him? what kind of benefits can we communicate to the user? what kind of benefit our product give (social, psychological, practical benefits)? how, the other competitors realize that goal? how much the user wants to pay for that product? (not only $$$, aka at what can I give over for the product?), our BR

• marketing mix analysis: (price - product - promotion - delivery)BR

• which are our delivery services?BR

• how do we advertise the product?BR

• how much does the product cost? (not only $$$, aka at what can I give over for the product?)

• there is coherence between product and company image? which is the advantage that user can feel by using our product? BR

• benefits & threat of the marketing strategy: a summup of the previous pointsBR

marketing plans involvments of benefit & threatBR

concerns founds during the path

BR List the whole problems in a relevance order: BR primary problemsBR

• sort of problemBR

• effects of the problem BR

secondary problemsBR

• sort of problemBR

• effects of the problem BR

strategical choice:BR list of potential choices that can solve indentified problems

• benefitsBR

• costsBR

selected choice:BR

• description and explaination of the selected choiceBR

Technical and financial analysisBR

How to partecipate?

BR If you want to make something for the project read these links: BR https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WinningTheDesktop BR https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReallyWinningTheDesktop BR https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WhatWindowsUsersWant BR https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IssuesAsNoviceUbuntuUser BR https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewUsersImpressions BR Then, if you have any answer to the previous questions, or other ideas, go to:BR http://www.ubuntupeople.com/file/forums/ BR or contact me: rfs(at)studenti(dot)unito(dot)it

BRBRBR Comments and critics are welcome and encouraged.BR R. Francesco Sica