Re: Print advertising - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Very good observation !

Oleg
On Sun, 20 Nov 2005, nhrcommu@rochester.rr.com wrote:

> May have misunderstood me a bit, though Gavin's idea
> is a good one and needed.
>
> I would never suggest advertising.  In my mind it is
> contra to "the movement".  I'm suggesting a press
> release that is really a - What it is & Why you need
> it, letter.  Small village (<50,000 people) papers
> are hungry for news.  Most have 2 or 3 part-time
> reporters that write about the local football team's
> performance and assorted local tidbits.
> I think they would run an article as a press
> release. Not email --- just a regular old piece of
> paper with a stamp.  Hand addressed with a real
> signature.  The release should be non-tech; write a
> bit about "us vs them" (small vs big)  AND make a
> call for the local PC fixer + the school admin and
> even the local government to come to the site.....
> this is where Gavin's idea would fit in nicely.
>
> Personalized printing is a large part of my
> business.  I don't have a problem sending out 10 K
> of these over the course of a year on my nickel,
> including postage.
>
> Just need a good letter and content Gavin mentioned
> --- kind of a STARTER'S KIT.
>
> But I agree --- no advertising.  Waste of money.
>
> After all, the release would be from one community
> to another.
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gavin Sherry <swm@linuxworld.com.au>
> Date: Sunday, November 20, 2005 6:59 pm
> Subject: Re: [pgsql-advocacy] Print advertising
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> On Sun, 20 Nov 2005, Josh Berkus wrote:
>>
>>> Mike,
>>>
>>> I'm taking this back on-list because I think
> it's a critical
>> discussion.>
>>>> I have a fuzzy feeling that there are a few people
>>>> in the world that do not sit around reading
>>>> Information Week as part of their daily
> routine.  A
>>>> CEO of a 20 person company in Oneonta, NY may not
>>>> even know that there IS such a thing as
> PG..... but
>>>> he sure knows that he has needs and 1 of them is
>>>> saving money.  He probably DOES read the local
>>>> paper... because he may be in it.  And if he reads
>>>> some plain talk about PG, he may grab his
> "computer
>>>> guy" by the stacking swivel and say... "Why
> wasn't I
>>>> told about this?"
>>>
>>> I think you're absolutely right.  However, I'm
> personally at a
>> loss on how to
>>> reach these people without spending a fortune on
> print
>> advertising.   The
>>> problem is that small businesses simply don't
> read any national
>> publications> consistently.  There are some key
> ones we could take
>> on -- ComputerWorld,
>>> Philanthropy Journal -- but on the whole it
> would be hit-or-miss.
>> And for
>>> small local papers, there are probably 25,000 of
> them in the US.
>>
>> I second your scepticism here. I've had some
> experience of IT
>> marketingand marketing/advertising in general.
> Effective
>> advertising, especially to
>> small business, requires a broad and long running
> campaign -- read:
>> expensive. In my opinion, the ad placed by the
> mozilla guys in a
>> major US
>> daily was good for morale bit not an effective way
> of marketing the
>> project.
>>
>> The thing that we're good at is attracting people
> to the project
>> for its
>> technical features. This is our strength. One of
> the things that
>> companiessurrounding PostgreSQL -- particularly
> the big ones -- are
>> good at is
>> sales and marketing. I think most of the work
> involved in
>> attracting small
>> businesses not looking specifically for an open
> source database can be
>> left to them.
>>
>> That being said, I think there are some key areas
> we need to take
>> care of:
>> case studies on the web site, testimonials on the
> web site and a
>> kind of
>> 'Why PostgreSQL' check list, which blends
> testimonials with a list of
>> features. I'm currently sitting on a bunch of case
> studies for the Web
>> site. Unfortunately, I have very little time to
> work on them. The
>> first of
>> these should come through very soon.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Gavin
>>
>> ---------------------------(end of
> broadcast)-----------------------
>> ----
>> TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend
>>
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to
>       choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not
>       match
>

     Regards,
         Oleg
_____________________________________________________________
Oleg Bartunov, sci.researcher, hostmaster of AstroNet,
Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow University (Russia)
Internet: oleg@sai.msu.su, http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/
phone: +007(095)939-16-83, +007(095)939-23-83