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From: sjm@sun.acs.udel.edu (Steve Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: I've had it with CBM!
Message-ID: <7067@sun.acs.udel.edu>
Date: 23 Jan 90 16:24:59 GMT
References: <15609@well.UUCP> <4ZiqfAK00V4EE2ZUYy@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: sjm@sun.acs.udel.edu (Steve Morris)
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 61

It's funny how everyone here has become a marketing expert. I know
that someone has said it before here, but they are not trying to
sell to people like you and me. If you are going to market to the masses
then you have to speak to them on their level. The ads where intended
to sell A500s to the general public for christmas and bring about an
awareness of the machine. Marketing these days promotes an image more
than the features of a product. And it doesn't take an expert to figure
that out.

Sun Kun Kim writes:
>... print ads were only focused on a few
>publications.(such as newsweek, times, etc.)  Why in the world would
>they do this?  They spend megabucks to print and ad that is 7 pages long
>when all you need is a 1(at most 2)page ad telling people about the
>Amiga and its capabilities.  If they did this sorta ad, they probably
>could've published it in many more publications than those listed above.

Since the end of last year I have seen Amiga print ads (single page) in:
	1)AV Video- Keith Nealy
	  AV Video is a trade magazine which has an amiga
	  column, they ran an Amiga art contest last year
	  and will be running an animation contest early 1990.
	2)Millimeter- Keith Nealy
	  Millimeter is a MAJOR film and video trade magazine
	3)Video Systems- Keith Nealy
	  Another trade mag.
	4)Electronic Learning- Dr. Bergman, Howard Diamond (2 pgs)
	  There is also a 16 page Special Supplement to EL that
	  is sponsored by CBM and focuses on multimedia. There are
	  3 case study ads and two articles that describe how the
	  Amiga is being used in the classroom. It is presented low
	  key without any hype. "Just the facts, mam ..."

>People want facts and not famous faces.  ...

See my first pararaph regarding the TV ads.
I don't know about you but neither Keith Nealy, or Dr. Bergman are
famous faces to me. And some of us may know who Howard Diamond is
(Director of edcuation at CBM) but his face is not famous either.

Looking at an apple ad and the Amiga ads in EL and there is a
distinctive difference. If you can find copys of both look at them
together. Then try to feel the difference between them. When going head
to head against someone with the reputation that apple now has in the
education market you can't just list resolution, speed, ease of use, the
fact that it has "color, sound and graphics." The Amiga ads look
different, they feel different. That is what is going to get the
consumers attention. "Wow, here is a guy that has based his entire
business on the Amiga (Keith Nealy). I've heard about that computer
somewhere before." or "Gee, this man is teaching his son with it."

It takes some slow moving to get out of quicksand, not a lot of
flailing around. It appears to me that Commodore is moving as fast as it
can given the fact that it has a limited budget. Building slow market
awareness makes more sense to me than trying to do to much at once.

If you can't support Commodore about what they are doing invest your
energies elsewhere. The amiga doesn't need "bad vibes" it needs support.

Steve Morris
sjm@udel.edu