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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: why is there so little KDE PR ?
From:       Andreas Pour <pour () mieterra ! com>
Date:       2001-01-19 2:15:02
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Scott Manson wrote:
> 
> On Thursday 18 January 2001 07:05 pm, Andreas Pour wrote:
> > [ ... stuff about feel-good GNOME press omitted ... ]
> >
> > I hate to say it, but this attitude is the biggest hurdle for KDE being
> > very successful.  If you do not understand marketing, then please just let
> > others concentrate on it instead of reacting negatively.  If you do
> > understand marketing, please explain, using marketing principles, why each
> > of these news items is not good for GNOME.
> 
> So what you are saying is that the number of press releases is directly
> related to how the public perceives a product.  Ok then tell me how Firestone
> feels about now?  I would venture 1 negative PR release will destroy any good
> will that the previous 10 positive PR released have built up. 

Are you kidding?  First, Firestone did not put out the negative articles. 
Second, I'm not talking about negative press.

> I don't have
> any "scientific" evidence that this is true but how look at the way the media
> (who are the masters of PR) treats "good/positive" news events.  The headlines
> for the most part always read Plane Crash Kills 100  people ... you don't see
> headlines saying out of 1,000,000 people flying 999,900 arived at their
> destination safely.

Right, and b/c of this many people actually believe that more people die of car
accidents than heart attacks -- b/c they hear more of car accidents they get
misperceptions.

But I don't think this is the forum to debate marketing principles or social
psychology.  Either you have studied the fields and have a good idea, or you
haven't and you don't.  Just like you wouldn't want a marketing person to
commit changes to your C++ code, computer scientists should not be making the
marketing decisions.  At least not if you care about KDE's success. (Obviously
I don't mean developers should not be involved at all; what I suggest is a
healthy dose of deference by those developers who do not
understand/like/believe in marketing to those who care about marketing and
think it is a critical aspect of KDE's success).

> 
> > Yes, technically none of the news items you lambast are good.  In fact, as
> > you point out, in many cases it's bad news being trumpeted as good news.
> > But that's what marketing is -- hype, spin, promotion.  And in the end
> > marketing is as, if not more, important than technical success in
> > determining determines market success.
> IHMO a product that's good will get their market success just because it's
> good or better than the alternative and WOM (Word of Mouth) advertising will
> get you a whole lot further than in your words -- hype,spin,promotion after
> all who do we trust more some suit saying use this or the neighbor down the
> street that says hey gotta try KDE I love it.

Sorry to say you are completely wrong and that this attitude is precisely why
GNOME, though not as good as KDE, is getting better mindshare.  If you don't
care about marketing, I suggest you not get involved with it, but please don't
oppose it either.

> > OK, some of you will say you don't care about marketing success.  Fine, you
> > don't have to.  But does that mean you have to oppose those that do care,
> > does it?
> 
> < Some SNIPage>
> 
> > Human perception is more influenced by quantity than quality.  It is a fact
> > of human social psychology that the more you hear of something, the more
> > positive you evaluate it.  You can make one press release announcing 100
> > really great features of KDE -- but nobody will read the 100 great
> > features, and soon they will have forgotten about the press release.  But
> > if you have 100 press releases and people hear a new one every-day, they
> > start to think, Wow, this KDE stuff is really active and getting a lot of
> > really cool stuff done.
> And all it takes is 1 negative Press Report to make the average Joe forget
> about all the positives features you had built up.  Take a look at Windows,

OK, the day I recommend releasing negative press reports about KDE this might
be relevant.  In the meantime, can you explain to me your point? because I'm
missing it (not to mention that it's exaggerated, people know for example that
fast food is not healthy but still eat it -- in fact in the US I just heard its
a $110 billion per year industry, despite the fact that it is the leading cause
of preventable death in the US behind smoking).

[ ... ]

Ciao,

Andreas Pour

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