Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Free & Libre are bad "selling points"

Hi :)

The assumption in this list appears to be that "free" is the only "unique 
selling point" (=USP) that LibreOffice has and that it will generate large-scale 
uptake.  


However, i think 10years of OpenOffice using that USP has resulted in 
MicroSquish dominating the market.  This proves that the USP of being free has 
NOT been favourable.  


If 10 years worth of real-life data is not enough then i doubt a market survey 
will make much difference.  


In that same time-frame Firefox grew by a very much larger percentage to the 
point where it has now overtaken Internet Explorer within the same time-frame.  
Firefox did have the advantage that people though IE was free and therefore were 
relatively happy to accept that IE might not be high quality.

Ubuntu has also grown in a similar  time-frame to the point that in almost any 
newsagents you will see at least 1 magazine mentioning it or even carrying a 
full article about it.  Where are the articles about OpenOffice?

Regards from
Tom :)






________________________________
From: Ian Lynch <ianrlynch@gmail.com>
To: marketing@libreoffice.org
Sent: Sun, 2 January, 2011 12:03:39
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Free & Libre are bad "selling points"

On 2 January 2011 08:44, Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> In my country this is what people think of when they hear the word "free".
>
> Anyone that hears the words "free software" will find that
> indistinguishable
> from freeware which is much more widely known but only as something that
> has
> caused a lot of problems.
>
> I am beginning to accept that maybe my country is possibly a little
> different
> from other European countries but i really thought this was part of the
> human
> condition.
>
>
> I didn't start using OpenOffice because it was free.  I only moved away
> from
> MicroSquish Office because i had no choice when i moved to linux.  I did
> try to
> install it inside Linux but it wasn't easy and that was nearly a blocker
> for me
> so i kept re-booting back into Windows to do stuff with linux just being
> for
> fun.
>
> However when i did finally try OpenOffice (by mistake) i found it was
> superior
> to MicroSquish Office because it didn't keep changing styles, formatting,
> language, tab-stops;
> 1.  I didn't need to sort all the formatting after finishing the document
> 2.  Numbered lists were easier, numbers didn't get randomly missed out
> 3.  Numbered and bulleted lists lined up within themselves
> 4.  Bullet-points didn't randomly change size
> 5.  Spell-checker stayed in my non-american language throughout
> Also no pop-ups stole the focus while i was typing so i didn't have to deal
> with
> other stuff in the middle of writing and i didn't have to re-key anything.
>  This
> last point is an advantage of linux rather than OpenOffice/LibreOffice.
>
> So at the end i didn't need to spend ages sorting technical formatting
> problems
> and was able to use the time purely proof-reading and shortening things.
>  The
> whole thing was completed in less than half the time i had expected!
>
> However i would never have used it if i had any choice.
>
> Do other people here "settle for" LibreOffice purely because of it's price?
>  If
> it cost more would you really all run back to MicroSquish's "superior
> product"?
>
> Regards from
> Tom :)
>
>
>
>
> Am 01.01.2011 16:44, schrieb Tom Davies:
>
> > Free means "has no value", "is worthless", "cheaper than "cheap and
> nasty"",
> > "so bad it can't be sold", "not worth having", "about the same value as
> > garbage".
>
> If this is your understanding of the meaning of free software, then
> why do you engage yourself in a free software project?
>
> LibreOffice by its definition is free software (not freeware). IMO
> freedom is a good selling point, maybe the main point at all.
>
> Stefan
> --
> LibreOffice - Die Freiheit nehm' ich mir!
>
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A lot depends on who you are targeting. Some people now expect to get stuff
free. No-one expects to pay for social networking or search on the internet.
Young people can appreciate free and good enough. So let's intelligently
target particular markets based on evidence of what that particular audience
wants to hear rather than pre-conceived generalities that might or might not
apply. Market research is needed if marketing is to be effective.

-- 
Ian

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