Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!wuarchive!udel!mmdf
From: BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: **MARKETING QUESTION**
Message-ID: <18302@snow-white.udel.EDU>
Date: 2 May 90 14:57:28 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 48


   After all the exitement over the Amiga 3000, and all of the other 
products that have been introduced recently, it is sad to be brought 
back to reality by the fact that Commodore still has bad marketing
problems.  Here we have this very good machine, with a really great 
price, and it is likely that bad marketing will hurt any chances it
has of really doing a dent in the competition, especially in the 
universities.

   Apple products are fairly popular here, but mostly through brute
force.  This university is not all that big -- 25,000 students -- in
an equally small city of 50,000.  But there are three Apple dealers
here in town.  The nearest Commodore dealer is 35 miles south of
here, in Des Moines.  All three of the Apple dealers advertize 
continuously; it is impossible to look at any issue of the school
newspaper without seeing at least two or three ads for the 
Macintosh.  

   The university itself runs a small non-profit "dealer" the 
computation center.  This dealer sells computers and products for
nearly all of the big computer makers, except Commodore.  They
sell Apple, IBM, Compaq, and H-P systems.  I would like to get
them to sell Commodore stuff -- and set up an Amiga 3000 demo
system -- but they vehemently refuse.  

   My question concerns this small university-run dealer.  If
Commodore has a chance of getting any of the dealers here in Ames
to carry their stuff, it is this one.  But I do not know how to
go about pursuading them to do so.  This isn't really the kind
of dealer Commodore would normally want to work with (they
don't stock anything -- they place orders and you get your order
several weeks later) but their student prices are great, and
they have demo systems set-up in a place that is VERY convenient
for students to just stop in a see them.  To get this place to 
support Commodore equipment -- even for the purpose of just getting
them to set up an Amiga 3000 demo system -- would significantly
boost the popularity of the Amiga here.  People would no longer
have to drive 40 miles to see the newest machines.

   So, how should I go about pursuading this place to support
Commodore?  What technical or dealer information should I obtain
to help me do it, and how do I obtain that information?  And how
can I prove to this place that their are a LOT of current and 
potential Amiga users here who would be highly interested in
them supporting Commodore products?


                                   -MB-