[Marketing] Marketing Plan

[Cameron Shorter]

Daniele,
This marketing plan is a great idea, and has many similarities to the 
equivalent plan for a company like Lisasoft who is looking to provide 
commercial support for Open Source.

If you like, there is quite a bit of content I could cut and paste into 
this page.
(I'm asking first because I want to make sure you are happy with a lot 
of extra content being added).

Dave McIlhagga wrote:
> Hi Daniele,
>
> Thank you for the info -- the article you referenced is quite 
> interesting .. for anyone who'd like to give it a read:
>
> http://www.conservationimpact.com/marketing.pdf
>
> Dave
>
>
>
> On 27-Nov-07, at 3:53 AM, Daniele wrote:
>
>> Dear Dave,
>>
>> I would like to thank you very much for your valuable comments. The 
>> Marketing _Outline_ is a way to start *organizing* our marketing 
>> thoughts in a *structured* way and it will be fantastic if everyone 
>> could contribute to make it better. So if you have ideas, please feel 
>> free *modify it, improve it*. As a Wiki, that is the “modus 
>> operandi”. Anyway, I have a good reading suggestion that might also 
>> help, Shelli Bischoff has great small, straight to the point article 
>> called “Nonprofit Marketing with a Purpose: Developing a Strategic 
>> Marketing Plan to Engage New Audiences” it summarizes the steps a non 
>> profit can take to make a marketing plan. If you have the chance to 
>> read it, you will see that the outline on the wiki covers most of the 
>> topics she talks about... great reading, really!
>>
>>
>> And about the commercial enterprises, YES!!! OSGeo is *not* one of 
>> those and it is _*extremely*_ important to point that out. But is it 
>> possible that a user that *PAYS* for a service wouldn't like to 
>> _*save up*_ using a compatible (and sometimes better) *FREE* version? 
>> Maybe... _*If they knew about it*_ (here come the marketing and 
>> promotion again). So why not compete with companies that offer 
>> commercial products as well? Well that is something to be discussed.
>>
>> And as for another important thing you pointed out, using the term 
>> “customers” (as it was on the wiki) is not the best term to describe 
>> people who use OSGeo's services, what would an appropriate term be: 
>> Clients, Users, Targets? Great... the discussion is heating up... 
>> let's get OSGeo in peoples heads and mouths!!!
>>
>> kind regards,
>>
>> Daniele.
>>
>>
>>
>> Dave McIlhagga wrote:
>>> One question that pops to mind .. obviously OSGeo is not a 
>>> commercial enterprise delivering software/services etc.. to 
>>> customers, and in fact has to be particularly sensitive to not 
>>> compete with companies/individuals who are providing commercials 
>>> products/services with OSGeo software. However, the marketing plan 
>>> outline that is shown below is very much along the lines of a 
>>> typical commercial services/software company.
>>>
>>> Is there a better template out there specific to non-profit 
>>> organizations / foundations for marketing purposes? This would seem 
>>> like a much more useful starting point.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 25-Nov-07, at 11:19 PM, Daniele wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear Marketing Committee,
>>>>
>>>> I have sketched an outline of a possible marketing plan 
>>>> (http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Marketing_Plan). The reason for it 
>>>> is so that every one in the committee has a clear idea of the 
>>>> components of such a plan. I think the part about *promotion 
>>>> *(http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Marketing_Plan#Selected_Marketing_Strategy) 
>>>> is also quite important at the moment as I felt that many of you 
>>>> need print material to promote OSGeo in events... so we can create 
>>>> a wiki for that). If you have time, please input your Ideas on it. 
>>>> Note that it is an outline so the final Plan may look quite different.
>>>>
>>>> Warmest regards,
>>>>
>>>> Daniele.
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Marketing mailing list
>>>> Marketing at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Marketing at lists.osgeo.org>
>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
>>>
>>
>
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> Marketing at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
>

-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html