John Baer wrote: > Fellow Team Members, > > I did not get the type of response I feel is required to go forward with > this project but my conviction of the need is still there. > > I was reminded of this again when I saw the following news article on > DistroWatch, "The Ubuntu project has announced their newest addition: > The Classroom". First of all a round of applauds for "nixternal" aka > Rich Johnson. Rich is teaching the KDE class, well done and thank you. > This effort certainly has the potential to grow into something much > larger. Here's some marketing opportunities to consider, "Ubuntu > University", "The University for U", and more! > > But the curious thing about the announcement is the sound bite "Ubuntu > project". In my mind the author was struggling to identify the Ubuntu > Community and I can see why. How would they know how to address the > Ubuntu Community without branding.
I think the 'Ubuntu Project' is a gift of an idea, produced as it was, when needed, by those who apparently know what they would tend to call it! The family of products are all patently closely related to Ubuntu - the names make it obvious. The word ubuntu is very significant in itself, and this is at the heart of (the) Ubuntu (project...) Each product has a logo, the logos are themselves obviously related. As far as I can see, there is hardly a problem, unless we want to create one! [...] > The difficulty of branding is it's tough. It's even more difficult after > the fact! Far easier to say leave the status quo, no need to tip the > apple cart. I am a new arrival to Ubuntu (Kubuntu) and this team too, - sorry if I have missed something but I think the names, logos, existing public facing explanations etc, and the (implied) brand, are all excellent. An overall name would be valuable, but Ubuntu Project sounds good to me! Are we trying to persuade others of something in a false way? Ubuntu really means something. Work its meaning! Don't make up something else. I have even heard a clip of Nelson Mandela explaining what 'ubuntu' means! > But is backing away from the tough decisions the right thing to do for > the Community? The decision to re-brand is not an indictment the current > branding was not best effort. I'm convinced folks are doing the best > they can, but Ubuntu is not the same as it was with Warty Warthog ( 4.10). I am not sure how to take this. I was not here for 4.10, I was using XPee only, everywhere.... Think on that. Whatever it was for you (?) folks, it was not (then) the same for me. It did not get through to me then, I was not attracted to what you saw then. For whatever reasons. I started three years ago with linux with a -Retail- Suse 9.1, and I still use Suse a lot on many machines. I am however attracted (note that please) - for the *Branding* and the ethic - to UBUNTU, for a number of reasons. These include the implied branding. The product is good, and improving, but there is a lot of competition. None though, has so far equalled the community. 'Ubuntu'!! Whatever marketing has been, it has worked very well on me, I am not the only example - I see Kubuntu CDs as the most popular on my monthly (charity based) Infopoint table at the local computer fairs. It is not just the pretty CD pack which does this. > My perception is the Team lacks the focus and determination, we are not > ready. Maybe the team needs branding not the product? :-) [...] >defines the marketing team, what > we want to do, and what we do not want to do. For example the document > may describe the Team's purpose as follows. > > "The purpose of the Team is to gather marketing data, formulate > strageties of execellence, and execute projects which promote the > Community and encourage users to select the best Ubuntu Product to > fulfill their need and satisfy their preference of style." May I suggest a slightly sharper focus on 'marketing': The purpose of the Marketing Team is to gather marketing data, formulate marketing strategies of excellence, and execute marketing projects which promote the Community and Product Family and encourage users to select the best Ubuntu Product to fulfill their need and satisfy their reference of style. hth -- alan c -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
