Graham Lauder a écrit :
On Friday 01 Oct 2010 20:37:52 Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
2010/10/1 Graham Lauder<yori...@openoffice.org>:
The families: if the kid wants a computer then either Dad buys a new
one and the kids get the old, or they buy a new one but mom has no
say, it's either Dad or the kids because the parents don't know
anything about computers.
Nonsense, It's interesting I know quite a few German families here in NZ,
perhaps that's why they migrated, so the wife could make the majority of
the purchasing decisions. ;) I'm afraid that your impressions fly in
the face of all the real marketing intelligence. Dad or kids buy the
computers because Mum has been left out of the demographic, typical
given the number of women in the industry, but target that demographic
and Mum becomes decision maker.
You are partly right, but you miss an important point. It is probably
true, in families in liberal western societies, that the mother decides
most of the purchases, including what specific item is purchased. And
it may well be that the mother decides whether or not to buy a
computer. However, at least here in Canada (where women do indeed make
most of the purchasing decisions), women have a strong tendancy to defer
to a male opinion in deciding what computer to purchase, or operating
system or software to use. This even occurs in professional settings,
in contexts where a woman obviously has the greatest understanding of
the company's needs. I've seen this numerous times in consulting, where
I had to encourage their input in order to lead to a rational decision
for the company, which was prepared to follow the opinion of someone who
obviously did not understand the situation.
However, I do agree that the mother will have an important influence in
the type of software selected, even if she allows the man to make the
final decision.
Note that in my mind, using this frame of mind as the primary criteria
in selecting the logo is misleading.
What is needed is a logo that is distinctive, and attractive. And not
out of place for the technology in question. These factors are
culturally dependant as well.
Note that most successful computer companies use blue/green colours. A
notable exception being Ubuntu - which like Microsoft, uses their
bottomless pockets to promote their distro. As well as having excellent
documentation. So they succeed despite their ugly brown colours. Which
may be considered attractive in certain markets, like South Africa.
I don't know about marketing, I've just been living here for decades
and been helping in the computer field for more than 15 years. I hold
computer courses entry level, I give advice with computer purchases in
families, etc. All my practical experience tells me what I've written
here.
OK then let me put it another way, you have taught IT for 15 years. Probably
in the same geographic area. It's a pretty good guess that you have probably
no more than three degrees of separation to maybe 90% of the people you
interact with. 90+% of the people that you interact with speak the same
native tongue as you, so already your view of the world is extremely limited.
So lets talk hypothetically: If you have taught for 15 years and you had an
average class size of say 20. 5 periods a day that's a hundred faces a day
and you saw these people once a week and assuming a 40 week school year.
That's 20,000 a year.... hang on not enough, OK you change completely 4 times
a year, so that's 80.000 a year... wow that's a lot, over 15 years that's
1.2million people you could have hypothetically interacted with each for about
ten hours total. However in marketing terms on a global scale that is a
pinprick sample. Marketers get information for instance, just from rewards
programmes that do that sort of sample in many countries in any one hour of
any one day across many demographics, ages, income streams, locations and so
on and what this tells us is that apart from some minor local differences,
people in western democratic, first world countries behave in a very similar
fashion.
Obviously you don't understand how surveys work. It makes me wonder if
you have ever done one. (btw, I have.)
Surveys depend on a very limited sample, and extrapolate that to presume
a global result. Like election polls, they can be -- and often are --
dead wrong.
The experiences of wobo -- and similar experiences myself -- are just as
valid.
I'm not trying to say that you do not have good insights -- but rather
that in is too easy to get carried away, and other's input is important.
Every place is unique, but not as unique as we'd all like to believe, one
thing that marketing tells you. A good example is Micky Ds, the same
everywhere, with slight local variations.
Nonsense (to use the same language as you do). You can't apply some
junkfood chain success story to computers and software.
LOL, in fact you can, at the end of the day it is a consumer item. It is a
luxury good that only a small proportion of the worlds population can afford.
In capitalist consumer model societies the market has little variation apart
from local fashion. So for instance, like McDs, Ipods and Iphones are sold
the same way world wide and that is matched with other global brands.
You can -- but ignoring the difference between the contexts introduces
bias -- which can lead to totally wrong conclusions.
e.g., if you are marketing automotive tools, you would probably focus on
men you like to work on cars. If you included women who didn't, you
could end up with colours preferred by women as an important factor.
Obviously ridiculous if you carefully consider the context.
btw, a computer and computer software is not necessarily a luxery item.
If it is used for educational purposes, managing the budget, and
communication, it is no more a luxury item than a car.
Also note that, depending on the type of computer, today most of the
world's population CAN afford a computer. (In the sense of one per family.)
As I said, I disagree with your points not because I am another
marketing guy but because of experience.
wobo
As I pointed out above your experience is in fact limited, that's not a bad
thing, it means you can target those variations that the global brands ignore
in a local market. However our need is to be a global brand and so we target
demographics that we know exist every where. So for instance: Parents
everywhere, no matter what country or society, want the best for their Kids...
simple really.
What isn't simple is how one accommodates this desire. Which will
differ by culture and personal experiences. There is no
one-size-fits-all, without an enormous advertising budget.
One thing that is certain to me, the logo is not the answer. A logo
that says "young family" will alienate other types of users, who are
necessarily much more numerous.
These other users include, potentially, most of the current Mandriva users.
However easy selection of packages to accommodate the various niche
markets can indeed lead to an expanding user base.
And assuredly, you play an important role in identifying these various
niche markets.
- André (andre999)
Cheers
GL
