On Wed, 2010-08-18 at 01:12 +1200, Graham Lauder wrote: > On Wednesday 18 Aug 2010 00:13:25 Jean-Daniel Dodin wrote: > > Le 17/08/2010 13:19, Graham Lauder a écrit : > > > Right now we are suboptimal on all fronts. > > > > I don't think so > > Our market penetration is below what it should be considering the corporate > backing we have, the maturity of the project and the quality of the product. >
Sry, I'm not aware of those numbers; could you share them in value and volume? Could you present the goals and so we can understand how far we are from it? I'm not going to enter on the maturity issues, but how do you define quality and once more how can you back up such claim? Just curious > > > > > Our logo doesn't convey the right feelings and it's not particularly > > > attractive either in style or in colour. > > > > not so bad > > The phrase that "not so bad" brings to mind is "Damned by Faint praise" we > should be able to say "Our brand is bloody fantastic!" and believe it. > > From a visual impact point of view and from a style point of view it is not > good, we like it because it's familiar. Familiarity however, breeds > complacency. A brand to marketing is a promise. All visual identity is part of that promise, but in a way, you have an excellent logo. Unique.... if you place it under a black and white color set you have a unique silhouette, and it's the outcome of a community process. A re-branding operation can't be based in such vague assumptions and could use some more backup data. > > > > > > The two open source brands that have the highest awareness are Ubuntu and > > > Firefox. > > > > ?? Firefox, probably, but Ubuntu?? The *name* Ubuntu is well known, but > > the logo? > > It is in fact well known compared to ours, if only because of the warm fuzzy > story behind it Ubuntu logo isn't exactly spectacular. Does openSUSE strive to follow others or strives to take the lead? Do we really care about Ubuntu? From my point of view. I believe Novell investments on GNU/Linux and open source are way different from Canonical and target different segments. Should we actually be looking into what someone who targets a very different segment does? Are our targeted segments similiar? I would risk to say, "no way jose". > > > > > > viewer feel good and excited. Green, does none of these things, green is > > > a calming colour but doesn't immediately attract attention. > > > > on our ecological days, green is the best possible coolor, including > > political groups uses this color! > > Not denying and if I was marketing an ecological organisation I would suggest > green and in fact have. > > Ok then, define for me if you will the target demographic that this branding > and style was aimed at. My personal view; Novell is a company which has social responsibility, in many ways, even a project like openSUSE has social responsability. Keeping an ecological bond somewhere would be nice... Now about the green what does Marketing sees in it (backed up by academical studies based on what human beings perceive from colours, valid for western world): Green: Positive Associations: nature, vegetable, spring, life, hope, fertility, security, satisfaction, rest Green turquoise is considered icy, aggressive and violent. Negative Associations: Green turquoise is considered icy, aggressive and violent. So from my scope, green is nice... Most of those associations can be benefic in several fields, from social responsibility to engineering. You should consider colors for what people perceive from them and associate them with, specially your targeted audiences. I would suggest that to the green you add some line of 'silver'. Why? Because since ancient times that a enamel should be complemented with a metal. Silver can provide it with green. Silver has no negative associations and provides the following: Positive Associations: Modern, Technology, Innovation. This would be a possible proposal to keep it simple, not torn down a community driven process in the past. This has nothing to do with Ubuntu or Canonical does, our concerns should be about what OUR community wants us to be, and specially how we want to present ourselfs to the community. About Ubuntu logo, test it, black and white, 150 feet distance and ask a battalion of ubuntu fanboys without any debrief on the goals if they recognize the silhouette of their logo. I would speculate about a massive fail and that would translate how good their logo is... same method on ours... probably would have better results. > > > > > > > instance doesn't have that issue, their marketing is just about > > > reminding, the same for MacDonalds. > > > > how many billions $ spent ? > > Oh agreed, that's about ubiquitousness, however the colours are well chosen > and the style > > > > > > > 1) The name openSUSE is cumbersome and I believe a return to simply > > > SUSE would be a good first step. > > > > this is not false. The low case initial "o" is boring :-( > > > > Changing brand is always extremely dangerous > > Not dangerous, scary, it's an entirely different thing. If a brand isn't > working then change it. Find the demographic of the target market and design > to suit. It doesn't actually mean that we need to abandon the old branding. > Changing the branding is only problematic if it's done badly and really > speaking there was no real plan around our present branding, it was done to > make the project feel good about itself, in other words it was aimed > internally. Scary? If you excluse re-positioning a product, re-branding is the most dangerous process in Marketing and it can sink companies. A re-branding process can take years, banks usually take 2/3 years for this process... I dont believe re-branding is a solution... neither it should be applied to openSUSE. > > One of the good things about doing a brand refresh is that everybody thinks > it's "dangerous" and so it becomes newsworthy. > > > > > jdd > > > Cheers > GL > > -- > Graham Lauder, > OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ > http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html > > OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant. > > Ambassador for OpenSUSE Linux on your Desktop > > INGOTs Assessor Trainer > (International Grades in Office Technologies) > www.theingots.org.nz > > -- > Graham Lauder, > OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ > http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html > > OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant. > > Ambassador for OpenSUSE Linux on your Desktop > > INGOTs Assessor Trainer > (International Grades in Office Technologies) > www.theingots.org.nz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
