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From: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Subject: Re: YOU PEOPLE HAD BETTER GET WIT THE PROGRAM!! (Was: Re: Commodore Business Machines)
Message-ID: <1991Jun24.030715.511@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
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Reply-To: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Organization: Columbia University
References: <1991Jun23.230738.28319@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <17308@chopin.udel.edu> <4193@ux.acs.umn.edu>
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1991 03:07:15 GMT

In article <4193@ux.acs.umn.edu> mmoore@ux.acs.umn.edu (Malcolm Diallo Moore) writes:
>Time out!
>
	This is ADVOCACY! No calling Time-Outs here! 8-)

>I'm sorry, but Commodore simply is not doing enough for me.  People say they
>don't have enough money.  Well then what are they doing in the business?  If

	They are trying to survive. If they aren't doing enough
for you, then don't buy an Amiga. But they can't make money
appear out of thin air. I'm sure they've got 100 things they
could list that they would do with money if they had it. But they
don't.

>you can't advertise and get your product out in the open AND NOT IN THE CORNER
>so John Q Enduser can see it and say "Well, there's three different computers
>I can choose from" then you shouldn't try to even bullshit yourself.  I'm sure
>that C= has some money set aside for advertising.  Use that money to the ful-
>lest, get some good ideas flowing, get something that's catchy, something that
>will sell the computer, so you can make mo money, mo money, mo money!(tm) And
>the mo money you make, the mo money you have to advertise, John Q Enduser sees

	It is a nice theory. First, Commodore doesn't make
advertisements. They hire advertising agencies to make them. You
can't always control what comes back. And no advertisement will
make everyone happy, ESPECIALLY not in this group! 8)

	I argued this in CI$, and I'll try to make the point
here. Commodore has a TERRIBLE reputation in the U.S. Most people
think that Commodore is on the edge of bankruptcy and that the
Amiga (assuming they even know what an Amiga is) is a failure and
has no potential except for games. This is slowly starting to
change, in large part cause of the Toaster. But admittedly the
Toaster's publicity alone won't be enough.
	My point is that, for Commodore to turn around the U.S.
market, they would have to put SO MUCH MONEY into the advertising
that they wouldn't be able to afford it. Think about it: we know
about the Amiga. How much advertising would it take to make a
large segment of America even CONSIDER the Amiga? It has
specialized niches, but it would take more advertising than
Commodore could handle to make things turn around.
	I take as my evidence the "Stevie" campaign. That cost
Commodore $14 million dollars. What did it do? It helped, but it
wasn't nearly enough. It lasted 2.5-3 months and had a reasonable
amount of coverage, without being overwhelming. It would seem
that $50 million would barely be enough for a year-round BIG
campaign. Commodore would go bankrupt doing that.
	Besides, the U.S. division is either unprofitable or
barely profitable, at least officially (the books can be played
with for tax purposes). How can Commodore justify spending even
$30 million on U.S. advertising (TV) campaigns when they might
not even work at all.

	Commodore IS advertising, despite what most people here
seem to think. The only TV ads are A500 (CDTV?) ads come
Christmas time. BUT, there are ads in Music, Video and Unix
magazines on a regular, monthly basis. That will get Commodore
far more bang-for-the-buck than TV ads. Of the total people
watching TV, how many do you think care at all about computers?
	-- Ethan

"...Know-Nothing-Bozo the Non-Wonder Dog, an animal so stupid that it
had been sacked from one of Will's own commercials for being incapable
of knowing which dog food it was supposed to prefer, despite the fact
that the meat in all the other bowls had engine oil poured all over it."