Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!van-bc!
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga marketing
Message-ID: <658@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 24 Jul 89 11:42:07 GMT
Lines: 58
To: van-bc!rnews

In <783@bnr-fos.UUCP>, protcoop@bnr-public.uucp (Co-op Student) writes:
>Just to get my 2 cents worth in about Commodore marketing.

That's about what it's worth alright.

>I have owned an Amiga almost since the beginning, and I love the machine.
Unfortunately I do not think that Commodore marketing does it justice.

I don't think CBM markets the machine as well as they could either, but I do
pay attention to what _has_ been done, and I don't make the assumption that
just because I haven't seen something, that it isn't there.

> To date, in the 4 long years that the Amiga has been out, I have only seen
>ONE ad promoting the Amiga, and this was an ad in a U.S.  newspaper that a
>friend of mine brought back from the states (I am in Canada).

I am in Canada too. Did you not see the long running TV ads that showed the
Amiga? You know, the ones that ended with either 'Try that on your Tandy,
Andy.' or 'Try that on your monochrome Mac, Jack.'? I saw them, and chuckled
long and loud. Prime time ads they were too. They appeared all over Canada, and
if someone like me, who watches TV only out of the corner of my conciousness
because my wife happens to have it on inthe same room as my Amiga, can spot
them, it makes me wonder what rock you've been hiding under.

> Here in Ottawa, there is a dealer who broadcasts his own commercials about
>the Amiga, but I do not count those since they are not paid for by Commodore.

How do you know? Did you know, for instance, that CBM has a fund from which
delaers can draw for advertising and promotion? It works on a cost sharing
basis. If your dealer is paying for the entire ad, he is not as smart as he
should be.

> Base on my personal experience, I don't see how anybody can claim that
>Commodore is doing anywhere near a respectible job of marketing the Amiga.  One
>measly newspaper ad in FOUR YEARS!?!

Are newspapers the only thing that you look at? What about the early Canadian
ads, the 'Boing Ball' bouncing out of the screen? What about the MTV spots, the
ads in USA Today, various DTP mags, Video mags, etc., not to mention the local
(partly paid for by CBM) dealer ads in newspapers. I have seen quite a number
of ads. I have no idea why you haven't.

>If the average person saw the same, then I am very suprized that we have
>reached the 1 million machines that Commodore claims they have sold.  You know,
>sometimes I wish I had an Amiga Lorraine rather than a Commodore Amiga.

I wish CBM would spend more on marketing too, but at least I pay attention to
what they _DO_ spend. I wish you had something other than an Amiga too.

-larry

--
"So what the hell are we going to do with a Sun?" - Darlene Phillips -
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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