One sad characteristic of the relationship between Amiga User and Amiga Owner has been the sad tendency of the latter to undervalue the former. The legendary loyalty, skill, and advocacy of Amigans has been taken for granted. The Jay Miner Society's aim is to provide users (and user-groups) a vigorous and meaningful role in the Amiga's future, especially as respects innovative marketing and PR activities.
The text below is based on an article entitled 'M-PLAN' published some time ago in Amiga Report.
Contents:
Credibility is essential to marketing. Enormous sums are regularly spent in vain attempts to achieve it. There can be no better endorsement than 'the voice of the happy customer.' User loyalty cannot be bought; once achieeved it is a priceless resource! The importance of 'Reward and Maintenance of Current Customers' is prime Marketing 101.
Permitting - no, insisting! - on user participation in the new venture invests user with two things: a structured and productive outlet for their pent-up energies, and a vested interest in the success of the platform. You might call this an organic marketing strategy. Users who feel they are more than pawns in the corporate strategy become the foundation for growth.
Despite erosion, the Amiga has an enormous advantage over a 'startup' - its extant loyal user base. Amigans frequently own more then one machine, often spending above average sums to upgrade and outfit them. Perfect customers, wouldn't you say?
More that this, they are an effective subculture. Passionate in the pursuit of computing solutions, they have produced countless high quality PD utilities and programs to satiate their needs. Disproportionate numbers expend their energies as developers, volunteer writers, magazine publishers (online and print), proselytizers, artists, musicians, multi-media authors, videomakers, and animators. They inhabit a vast realm of activity, and are often immensely talented and resourceful. To squander their zeal would be (and has been) prodigal in the extreme.
"Think globally, act locally."
Create a worldwide correspondent/feed-back network allowing the collection of regular reports from groups/individuals around the world; group-meetings, concerns, opinions, information about dealers, local press/media access, other computer events, etc., etc.,
Set up a "regional" promotional support system (in conjunction with authorized local dealers?), with a pool of machines and applications that groups and individuals could borrow for events, demonstrations, competitions, etc.
Support and sponsor Ami-Expos, uniting nearby regional groups in a central location. (Example would be combining New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania user-groups to collectively put on a show.) Could be in different location every year. In connection with these shows, set up "open devcons" where everyone can particpate free.
Sponsor an ongoing multimedia Amiga Festival with a yearly competition and awards event (at one of the expos, e.g) with serious prizes, in kind/cash. (An offshoot of this could be a source of ideas for logos, adverts, commercials and promotions).
In conjunction with distributors/dealers and groups, set up Amiga Resource dept.in stores - pay young people "cab-fare" to organize demonstrations for different levels of students from various schools, and local associations (senior citizens, professionals etc.) with perhaps special attention to arts/graphics/music; eventually even visit schools for on the spot demos, which could include online connections/visits to famous Amiga users and websites. When ready with new machines do the same as above but aimed at professional users, like Manny's in NY does regularly for musicians.
Support production of a monthly Amiga TV show for syndication, public-access or website distribution. (Here in NYC we already are on the air on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, bi-monthly with AMUSE-TV) Eventually tape and collect interviews with users which could be used in bigger campaigns.
Design an ad campaign based on ideas and work submitted by real users. For instance: With the exception of the AMIGA logo, buy totally empty pages or even tiny parts thereof in magazines and say:
WE ARE AMIGA - WATCH US GROW
and during the next few months begin to fill the space/page with designs, views and news, lists of stores new users, developers, applications, website infos, anecdotes, quotes from newsgroups, digests, etc, cleverly laid out, of course.
Sponsor a competition for and pay for the printing of stickers and other merchandizing materials, tee-shirts, etc., When ready, and if appropriate work towards a shameless "battle of the platforms..." a la MCI/ATT, Hertz/Avis style (!!??)
Sponsor a travelling event, like a combination demonstration bus (C-SPAN) and "cyber-rave-party" (not unlike the launching of the A3000 at the NY Palladium) to tour the country and appear in clubs, colleges at computer fairs and in big and small stores. (This could work as follows: In the afternoon appear at some store near a college, like in Harvard, Mass. at the Learning Smith store and in the evening throw a party at a local club). Such a "circuit" could be based on info gathered from local groups/users and would sponsor Amiga musicians/artists etc., as well as demonstrate machines and software. An occasion also to invite local press and media.
This kind of "guerilla" advertising would be much cheaper than the traditional model (and a heck of a lot more engaging!) Apart from the precise feedback delivered, there is terrific potential for broad press-coverage (free!) of such a symbiotic collaboration of users and manufacturer. All the other items, with the exception of the TV show (which could be co-sponsored by third party developers, software companies, dealers and distributors) would cost very little and yield high coverage. A "soft-sell" campaign as outlined above would make the Amiga and its manufacturers very visible at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
What we all suffered from under C=/ESCOM/etc was exclusion. "New Owners" should agressively (and visibly!) go the opposite way. Ben&Jerry, The Body Shop, and others have attained a lot of exposure by 'breaking out of the mold' - participating in local socio-cultural events, creating scholarships, donating a percentage of their profits to worthwhile causes.
This effort will require shrewd and imaginative corporate thinking, innovative and original enterpreneurship. Difficult times demand bold and dynamic leadership. The Amiga community is crying out for such a lead. There is a wonderful pool of leadership, ability and talent in our community. It is waiting for the starter's pistol!
For your information:
The Next Step: Extranets
Jim Barksdale, President and CEO, Netscape Communications Corporation
"Companies are becoming extremely aware of how important this type of communication is, both in increasing revenue and sales and in reducing costs."
December 3, 1996 - It seems that almost every CIO or IS professional I talk to in America today is working on building their company's intranet - which is probably why we're all seeing the intranet market grow at a mind-boggling rate. I've written a lot in these columns about the business benefits of intranets, and lately I've been thinking about where we're heading with this technology.
Before we take a look at where we're going, though, let's quickly review where we've been.
Companies used to create systems with the idea that they were building them for inside the business, for whatever use the application had - improving employee productivity, sharing data, or updating human resources information, for example. Then they would build other applications for use outside the business - either products for their customers or products to let the company communicate better with their vendors.
Open Internet software changes that whole communications paradigm. When companies can develop applications that work across multiple communications platforms, as is the case with open Internet software, it's not terribly relevant whether the application is going to be available inside the firewall or outside the firewall. Companies can't be sure anymore about who they might want to access these applications five years from now, so they might as well build them for the broadest possible connectivity - namely the Internet. It makes sense to build a system on an open platform that allows the broadest possible expansion.
Why limit it? Why limit your thinking?
So in addition to internal company networks, or intranets, that are behind the firewall, companies are building external networks called "extranets" that reach out to people who may physically work outside the firewall but who are an important part of the business strategy, product-delivery system, or customer-support apparatus.
Look at the systems you're building and ask "What if partners, customers, or prospects outside the firewall could tap into this?" or "What if employees outside the original department that built this system had access to this?" I think you'll find that a surprising number of applications have much broader uses than what they were originally designed for. You might also find that people want to get more information and buy more of your products. I'm seeing these kinds of discoveries in every industry: from software to financial services, from transportation to insurance to pharmaceuticals.
Take Netscape's pioneering use of this technology, for example. We put our software up on the Internet and allow customers to download it and give us feedback. Because we're in the software business, we're able to market, sell, distribute, and collect for our products all in the same medium. In addition to that, we're able to debug and improve our products by allowing people to participate in the beta tests of our applications. That's probably the fullest us of an extranet on the planet. Of course, not every company is in the business we're in, so the uses I just mentioned won't always apply, but they do demonstrate the robustness and scalability of the Internet for extranet applications. What we're talking about here is the beginning of a whole new attitude within businesses about how to communicate - within the business, among employees and managers, as well as between the business and its external constituents: partners, customers, and vendors. There's almost a rush toward this now.
It seems to me that companies are becoming extremely aware of how important this type of communication is, both in growing the top line of the business by increasing revenue and sales, and in improving the bottom line by reducing costs, either within the business or between the business and its partners or distributors.
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