[libreoffice-marketing] MARKETING PLAN: Some Proposals

So far, I have not participated to the discussion, hoping that this
could help others in pushing forward their proposals. Unfortunately,
this has not happened, so I am trying to share some thoughts and
proposals for the following action item:

1. Product Label for the community supported version provided by TDF

First of all, it should be clear that this label is not targeted to
community members, but to the outside world of LibreOffice users (so,
probably to 99.9% of all users). Rejecting a label because it is not
seen as appropriate for community members is not helping the decision,
because we need to improve the positioning for all those people who do
not contribute at all to the project (apart from donations, which are
not seen as contributions for this decision).

The unfortunate reality is that the majority of enterprises is using
LibreOffice for free - is their right, but they usually save a rather
substantial amount of money by replacing MS Office licenses with
LibreOffice - without giving back anything, while they should support
the project at least in the same proportion of individuals who donate
(because they recognize the value of the software).

So, we need to exert some moral suasion on enterprises by making it
clear - with a label - that the LibreOffice version they are using is
not targeted to enterprises, as it is not supported professionally, or
it is not packaged according to the needs of enterprises deploying
LibreOffice on a large number of PCs.

Proposals in line with the objective:

COMMUNITY: makes the Community happy, but does not communicate to users
the right message, as Community is the feature-limited version of open
core projects (best case, competent users or 1% of all users), or the
organization where you treat addictions (worst case, or 98.9% of all
users). IMHO not applicable.

PERSONAL: does not make the Community happy because Personal is not
interpreted in the right way by OSS advocates (Personal as in personal
computer or personal productivity), on the contrary is rather clear for
users outside the community ("I can use it for free on my PC"), and is
providing the right message to enterprises (by the way, a label will not
stop anyone from using LibreOffice for free on hundreds or thousands of
PCs, but will give us a reason for a strong message). IMHO the best.

ROLLING: Rolling is a techie term for OSS advocates, based on several
Linux distros, although not popular amongst users provides a feeling of
something which is not perfectly stable, and as such could be used - but
the deployment should be carefully studied - to provide a message for
enterprises. IMHO sub-optimal but probably acceptable.

CLASSIC: Classic is a typical branding term used by very large brands to
label the "original" product, when there are variants available. As such
it could work, although the message for enterprises should be carefully
crafted and added. IMHO sub-optimal but probably acceptable.

BASIC: this is the closest label to "home" or "unsupported", which were
suggested by ecosystem members (but have a negative meaning which is not
appropriate for a quality product such as LibreOffice), it is not the
most elegant solution but it could be deployed with some extra care, and
some specific message targeted to enterprises. IMHO the last resport, if
nothing else works.

Looking forward to other proposals, possibly with a rationale.

Of course, please remember the planned meeting on Wednesday, November
11, at 2PM UTC.

2. Where to position the label: title bar, about box, start center

I would like to get some ideas also for the positioning of the label. I
am not sure that adding it to the Start Center would make a difference,
because most users do not read what they have on the screen, and so the
enterprises.

Of course, we have to find a place where to add the label, in addition
to the About Box (which is the natural place for it).

In any case, the effectiveness of the label will be related to the
communication effort around it, which will be based on specific actions
and messages. We will have to educate enetrprises, which are not trivial
to educate as a target. On the other hand, if enterprises do not give
something back to the project, the sustainability is at stake.

Sorry for the long message, happy to read other contributions.

-- 
Italo Vignoli - LibreOffice Marketing & PR
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