Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!agate!shelby!portia.stanford.edu!portia!amigaman
From: amigaman@portiaStanford.EDU (Colin Gould)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Advertising the Amiga at Universities: Getting Involved
Message-ID: <1990May30.055657.22526@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 30 May 90 05:56:57 GMT
References: <1018@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu>
Sender: news@portia.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System)
Reply-To: amigaman@portiaStanford.EDU (Colin Gould)
Distribution: na
Organization: Stanford University - AIR
Lines: 52

I think Scott's idea is a good one in that computer "shows" seem fairly popular
and a logical place to introduce the AMi. I'll share some of my info &
experience
w/ that.
C= hasn't seemed to do much directly, but some local stores (HT electronics,
I think they're in SUnnyvale) does put on an AMiga computer fair. At 
Stanford we usually have several 'fairs' (of varying size, depending`
on whether it's Apple or not!); there's a NeXT fair, AMiga fair, PS/2 fair,
and of course Macs. HT Electronics had about 6 Amis, of which a few were
500s running games and sound prgs, others were 2000s running animations/demos
or serious stuff. They also had a TV camera and FramGrabber hooked up, with
a Xerox4020, anbd were digitizing couples and people and makinjg complimentary 
printouts. That went over well; I would suggest that anyone doing such a fair
remember the video power of the AMi, which we take for granted, but my IBM
friends still can't get over the idea of a genlock (or even the idea of my
monitor displaying TV...sheesh.) People love video since it is so direct and
live, and fun, especially if youcan take home a printout. DPaintIII also
wows people (just from my experience in training people on it here at XTV,
Stanford's student-run TV station)- it's quick & easy to generate a flying
animated logo of someone's name spinning in space in a nice ColorFont(tm)
, then gnelock it over their face. That can be much more impressive than
just another WP prg.
BE SURE to show people the price. SHow them the RETAIL. They won't believe you.
Tell them they don't have to pay $100 for a decent keyboard, or $400 for
`an external floppy drive (without an eject button.) THEN show them 
educational discounts and they will flip. People just plain don't believe me
when I tell them- but you have to show them the power of the Ami first,
otherwise
they ignore it. I would suggest having a spokesperson running some sort of
main demoshowing multitasking especially and the integration of all this
power, then have him tell the price. Especially since C= never puts the actual
price on the ads (I hate 'And all this at a price that's easy to swallow.')
  I also agree that we are the AMiga's best resource. I keep showing it off
any chance I get, and I've sold around 4-6 machines to friends etc. that way.
(PS C=/Amiga, hey what about some commissions, ok? I do it out of love and
loyalty, but I'd at least like some support, if only verbal...)
  Sell it hard. The Ami deserves it. Talk to your local campus bookstore/
computer center also, if only to remind them of alternatives, although
Stanford's didn't want to do it since the profit margin was too low compared to
Apple ;)
  Someone else wrote in about Campus Reps- I know C= has them, my friend is
applying to be one, but he said he was having a hard time- anyone else have
info on that? EMail me..I'd like to be one when I get back from Berlin.
Heck, the local Apple rep (one of many) put on a study break with 20 pizzas as
a lure (and it WORKED) recently at one dorm. How about some of that, Commodore?
You can't expect local dealers and loyal but time-pressed students to compete
with that.
Signing off
Colin Gould
amigaman@portia.stanford.edu
(yeah, corny username, but hey it's caught some people's attention...& they
remember the amiga's name!)