Re: Informix Marketing

Tim Schaefer scrwaled with chalk on the bathroom wall: > Mike Segel wrote: > > > > Tim Schaefer wrote: > [ME] > > Informix has really till end of second quarter before all hell breaks > > loose. > > > > And it hasn't now? > No, it hasn't. It can always get worse. Anyone with half a clue would realize that Informix has too much market momentumto suddenly keel over and die a quick death. Of course, we are talking about senior management in both Informix and their client companies so maybe you are right. (Damn, I'm going to hell for that one.) These are the same people who are in awww of Bill Gates, the evil emperor. [That's really awe, but I say awww as in awww shucks!] Yet I digress in an attempt at some humor. Finocchio has just gotten started and should be given time to turn things around. This takes time since there has been some major reshuffeling in sales and sic, marketing. There has to be some time for the fallout before we can review the effects. > It's interesting how Oracle advertises constantly on TV, and spends lots > of time promoting their products. But they don't sell technology, they > sell solutions. The overall feeling of the ads are that they've come in > and taken care of your problem. A lot of building of mindshare. Reaching > out to people on TV, many who could care less about Oracle, but I can go > into an eatery, and ask probably 6 out of 10 people if they ever heard > of Oracle, and you know what, they probably have. Informix? > Oracle has always had great marketing and sales. This has always been the one thing Informix has always lacked.Oracle is much larger than Informix and most likely spends more on advertising alone than Informix spends on doing ports, and probably more than their operational costs as well. > As far as regaining confidences, that's one thing. But possibly it might > be a good idea to advertise and get some mindshare. This doesn't have to > just be an ad campaign. There are ways of building mindshare with other > relatively low cost solutions. :-) Right now is a great time to start. > Well, I agree that Mindshare is extremely important. Finocchio kinda shot them in the foot bygoing in reverse of that by parterning with companies like PeopleSoft, Baan, etc ... While this improves the numbers of who actually runs Informix, they are still not Informix shops. It also opens them up to some other risks too. > > I'd cut Bob some slack because he doesn't realize that you can say new > > and improved only so much > > before it falls on deaf ears. One must speak through their actions. And > > since the next two weeks are > > gonna be slow, one must look at the first several weeks in January. > > > > -- > > #include <std_disclaimer.h> /* Mike Segel (MS385) */ > ***************************** > > Those who forget Sybase are doomed to repeat it. > > :-) > > That too is a very important point to be made and remembered.Sybase did the partnering route. Just ask CISCO. But they failed to stay in the game with the technology leap frog. That's what made them a second tier company. Informix bit the bitter pill when they bought Illustra. (Of course there was Wingz too, but that was before most of you *young* pups time.) [Now I know I'm gonna catch flack for that because I'm only 31 :-] Informix is making some of the classic mistakes that Sybase made. However, they really weren't mistakes. They were little things that were pumped up to be bigger things. Again, there are things that Informix could do, however, since I am just an arm chair quarterback, I don't know the real skinny on Informix. HTH -Mikey