New 6.0 Features - Sell what you got fellas

[Bill Vermillion]

Nancy Palmquist, the prominent pundit, on Mon, Oct 25 14:54  while half 
mumbling half-witicized: 

> Bill Vermillion wrote:
> 
> >>I wanted to post this clearly so Bud and Friends can see this.

> >>I don't think any features are as important as a clear
> >>marketing strategy.

> >>Get some big clients to do a spread on the way they use filePro.

> >Good.

> >>Get a big celebrity to endorse it. Bill Gates says "I love
> >>filePro".

> >Endorsements are a dime a dozen IMO.  In this day an age most/many
> >endorsers don't even use the product they endorse.

> It may not be everything, but if a IT departement head or
> CEO of a big company discussed the tool as a way to solve a
> difficult problem, it might turn heads.

You said celebrity originally.  So - what IT department heads
ot CEOs of a big company are using FP.  I'd actually think
and endorsement from a CTO would be more appropriate however.

But how many big companies are using FP.  I'm talking big in 
terms of the normal perception - as there are some very big
companies using FP - but their names aren't household names.

....

> >>Get a partnership with some company that will get our name in
> >>the market.

> >Good

> >>Get a spot on the Superbowl.

> >That would probably be more than the yearly FP payroll.

> I can dream, can't I.

A complete waste of money with the amount of dollars spent
vs the target audience reached.  Superbowl advertising is for consumer
product - mass market.  Apple launched the MAC in a Superbowl
in 1984 - capitalzing on the 1984 image inspried by the novel a
few years earlier - but they were hoping to get millions of
impressions.

FP needs to be advertised in places where though the number of
impressions may only be in the 100-200K range - the people it would
reach are those who would buy the product.  1% of 100K is
1000 more users.

> >>Get the software in the Radio Shack stores.

> >Have you been in a Radio Shack store recently?

> Not looking for software - How about BEST BUY?  Amazon.com

And in BEST BUY you get a LOT of home user software.  The few items
over $100 will be the MS things - plus the home video/music
programs.   You will see 1 or 2 Linux versions at most.  Virus
utilities.  You don't sell database software off the shelf in
stores that target consumers without an advertising campaign
to drive the users there.

> >>Get books in the book stores.

> >What books?

> filePro for DUMMIES -

The first thing a person using any database application needs to do
is understand the nature of databases. In the past I've seen so
many truly awful implementation of filePro as it is deceptively
simple.   But it doesn't have the safeguards built in like
some of those targeted to end-user to keep them from screwing up
royall.

And my personal bias is that I hate anything that has DUMMIES 
in the title.

> >>Get people to haunt forums of DB developer people for
> >>Windows/Unix/Linux and post heres what I do with filePro. With
> >>emphasis on speed and easy of use - stability of data storage -
> >>cross-platform development.

> >Too often I've seen people confuse filePro with FileMakerPro.

> I agree.

> >>Have Ken figure out a way to automate these postings and let
> >>them rip.

> >Automated postings bring the warth of the readers down upon your
> >neck.  It could be quite counter-productive.

> Not 20 a day, but once a week or month. Just to keep a message
> in the queue.

What postings then?  Do you mean from this group.
Most people [at least the ones I communicate with] find that
email lists are far more producting than newsgroups.  Those get
filled with all sorts of distracting items and windup not being
very helpful - except those targeted so specifically they are
self-limiting.

...

> >Just my impressions from wandering the 'net for years.

> >I even attempted to start a filePro newsgroup on the 'net back
> >in the late 1980s.  The newly self-appointed 'net-police' decided
> >that alt groups should follow the same rules as the big six [ which
> >is why alt was created ] and it failed.

> There has got to be a more general forum or newsgroup that
> would accept discussion of a great data-base product. It would
> be better not to be a filePro only forum such as, A Unix forum,
> DB managers forum, DB developers forum, Web page applications,
> ODBC developers, etc.

I started one once.  But I got resistance from those who  used
Compuserve - and not wanting to have data/information in more than
one place.   The problem being was that Compuserve had two
strikes against it.  It cost money each month, but the second one
was that it was almost exclusively used by people in the USofA.

The internet - even back in the mid-80s - had a global reach.

There are a lot of database forums, but there are few
generalist forums as most people are concerned with the database
they use themselves and not general database discussions.

As of this moment the generally propagated Usenet groups that 
relate to databases are:

comp.databases  - the overall group and the following subgroups:
comp.databases.adabas
comp.databases.berkely-db
comp.databases.btrieve
comp.databases.filemaker
comp.databases.gupta
comp.databases.ibm-db2
comp.databases.informix
comp.databases.ingress
comp.databases.ms-access
comp.databases.ms-sqlserver
comp.databases.object
comp.databases.olap
comp.databases.oracle [4 subgroups]
comp.databases.paradox
comp.databases.pick
comp.databases.postgresql [12 subgroups!!!]
comp.databases.progress
comp.databases.progress
comp.databases.rdb
comp.databases.sybase
comp.databases.theory
comp.databases.visual-dbase
comp.databases.xbase [3 subgroups]

What I find interesting and just noticed is there is no
comp.databases.mysql - and I keep see that spreading in many
places.

Bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com