Re: Seeding the market (was Informix Directions)

Paul Brown wrote: > : > : Read Guy Kawasaki's (?sp?) book on his job at apple. > > In case you haven't noticed (bold on) APPLE LOST! The 'grass-roots' > scheme failed - dismally. Name me one example of a non high-tech > company where you know the 'grass-roots' campaign was even tried. > The reason you can't is that you never got to hear about the product; > i.e. it failed. > Actually no, it suceeded. You seem to confuse the success with the grassroots effort, versus the management decisions. But since you seem to think that grass roots campaigns seem to fail, lets look at something: 1) Snapple 2) Ben and Jerry's 3) Beanie Babbies 4) Iron City Beer (Its a 'burgh thing) 5) Most automobiles (Saturn and Volvo comes to mind.) 6) Most toys. Like Tickle Me Elmo for example. Keep in mind that grass roots also means word of mouth. > Whatever problems IFMX may have, lack of market vision is not one > of them. The reality is that selling commodity SQL engines is > going to be hard. Fine. Don't fight that battle. Instead, go > where the strength is. > Bzzt! Go where the market is yet to be tapped. Create brand loyalty. Sell more than just the tools, sell the solution. (Go West! Young man, Go West! :-) Market Vision? How can you have market vision when you don't know what your customers and potential customers are looking for? You can't have vision without research. You can plan without research. Informix's market vision is saying "Here is the trend of technology. If we build X, they will come." That's gonna get you burned. Paul, I was gonna say more, but it would be best if we take this thread off line to the linux-committee group. Maybe Tim can add you? -Mikey BTW, Paul, You need to get out of the ivory castle more. Perhaps Christine could get you booked to talk to one of the Users groups? I seem to have some pull with the Chicago group, so maybe lets start there? :-) -- #include <std_disclaimer.h> /* Mike Segel (MS385) */ #include <No_Spam.h> #ifdef OFFENDED_BY_CONTENT The author takes no responsibility for this post. Any resemblence to a coherent rational thought is purely coincidence. -The Management. #endif ***************************** Due to AGIS's Refusal to Act Responsibly We are blocking all of their domains at the packet level. This block will exist until AGIS modifies their policies to conform to existing RFCs and net community standards. We encourage all ISPs and domain holders to do the same. *****************************