Re: About that marketing budget ...

As a consultant in Chicago, when I am talking to client about databases and (especially) the internet, the only solution they mention is Oracle. This a bit disconcerting, especially when the other products that may come up are MS SQL , Sybase and occasionally DB2. Informix was really hammed by their P&L restatement a few years ago since that was the time frame when the Internet really emerged and Oracle took full advantage of the situation. The result is their current market dominance. Since then Informix has not recovered an inch (and actually managed to slip a bit more). While it is true that when they are brought in for a head-to-head comparison they usually win, the effort to get a client to consider doing even this are considerable. The only name clients are willing to consider is Oracle. I am not sure whether a Billion dollar marketing budget would help the current situation as the train has already left the station. A good place to start would be to get their name mentioned in the same conversation as Oracle, and build from that. Full product line support of Linux would also help (refer to the PAM posts and others) as that is another growth area in the Internet, but lack of name recognition is killing them. Oh my, time to walk the dogs...... SC PS. You might also notice that Phil White was the president at the time of the restatement, and while serving on the board of Legato they had a similar problem with sales numbers and subsequent stock price cratering. > About a year ago I remember reading a few posts about Informix was to boost > dramtically its marketing budget. (Perhaps even doubling it, bringing the > total up to US$2!). > > Did this happen, and has anyone noticed the results? I have seen a number > of Informix posters at Heathrow Airport, and was there an ad in the > Financial Times last year? But other than that, not much. > > In my role of part-time courier, I had occasion to drop a tape off at > Informix's UK HQ yesterday, and was reminded of something about Informix > marketing. Am I the only person who finds these registered slogans > pathetic? Underneath the building's "Informix" sign, in strident red, are > the words "way to web". Well, maybe this is a cultural thing, are perhaps > the newsgroup's US correspondents think this sort of thing is deeply cool, > but I really think to impose this sort of thing worldwide makes informix > faintly risible. In any case, "way to ..." is simply not a phrase that is > used here, and "way to web" probably leaves most people scratching their > heads in bemusement.

Stephen F. Cawley <sfcawley@interaccess.com> wrote in message news:8jso1g$b0p$1@news.xmission.com... SNIPPED > Informix was really hammed by their P&L restatement a few years ago since that > was the time frame when the Internet really emerged and Oracle took full > advantage of the situation. The result is their current market dominance. > Since then Informix has not recovered an inch (and actually managed to slip a > bit more). While it is true that when they are brought in for a head-to-head > comparison they usually win, the effort to get a client to consider doing even > this are considerable. The only name clients are willing to consider is > Oracle. > SNIPPED Most companies won't consider anything but Oracle for the same 1970s dogmatic reason 24x7 operations won't consider LINUX options..."No one ever got fired for choosing IBM". Companies want someone to BLAME if things go wrong. They want to be able to point fingers at IBM, SUN, HP, COMPAQ, etc. if the Hardware goes whacky. They want to blame Oracle if the DB crashes...PERCEPTION is that Informix is not big enough to serve this role. Rob Vorbroker