Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Defining a marketing strategy

Hello,

Sorry I'm cleaning the thread; if some of us would like to discuss DVDs
please start a new thread, as it's important to stay focused. 

I would like to comment a bit on what Tim and Leif wrote yesterday. You
two wrote something very important that I would like to highlight: we
are a project that encourages participation, sharing, and we are a
community. Italo Vignoli gave presentations about LibreOffice being of a
"mixed bowl" culture by contrast of other projects being of an umbrella
culture. I'm sure he could elaborate on this, but yes, we should not
expect top-down instructions, but rather work within the same framework.
Which prompts me to point out that what we might be proposing is at the
same time at least, both a community, and a product, or, to put it in
Leif's words, a soul and a software. 

I believe this is an important point; and it plays at the presentation
level, (we can appeal to many people by being who we are), and at a
functional level (we should understand and accept who we are as a
community and then make the best out of it to grow the software's
audience). Your input is welcome on this as well.

As for a more classical product's audience, that would be of course a
good question to ask. My view on this, which is just my view, is that
LibreOffice, just like the former Openoffice.org, and just like MS
Office itself, is a product with a very broad range of users . It does
not cater to one particular type of users, or at least it shouldn't. I
guess it sounds a bit like I would not want to dwell too much on product
positioning but I think that developing and marketing a software that's
ultimately geared towards mass market has its own challenges. In other
words, if we take the Chevrolet brand (sorry for the cheesy comparison),
Chevrolet has many products to offer that cover at least about 95% of
the population, from the working class to the wealthy class. How do they
remain consistent with one brand, even with other, more focused brands
working just besides (Buick, Cadillac, GMC)?

Best,


-- 
Charles-H. Schulz
Co-Founder & Director, The Document Foundation,
Zimmerstr. 69, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts
Legal details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint




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