[Marketing] OSGeo Marketing Strategy part 2

[Cameron Shorter]

Jeroen,
Lots of good ideas in here. I suggest that it would help to focus 
implementation if it is rolled into an OSGeo Marketing Plan.
This is a good template:
http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/plan/
In particular, I'm thinking about the 4 Ps under Marketing Strategy:
Product, Price (ok that is free), Place, Promotion


Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
> Forwarding to new list for archives
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Jeroen Ticheler <Jeroen at Ticheler.net>
>> Date: October 9, 2007 12:58:49 PM PDT (CA)
>> To: viscom-dev at lists.osgeo.org
>> Subject: [Marketing] OSGeo Marketing Strategy part 2
>> Reply-To: Marketing Discussion List <viscom-dev at lists.osgeo.org>
>>
>> Hi all,
>> Thanks for the supporting messages! I really want this thing to be a 
>> successful process with a lot of consensus, so if at any time you 
>> feel I am missing the boat or ignoring relevant issues, please let me 
>> know immediately!
>>
>> I had a lunch meeting on the topic again with the marketing/design 
>> people I work(ed) with. I tried to explain what I thought were some 
>> of the key objectives OSGeo should achieve in the coming year. I'll 
>> list those here for comments and further discussion/refinement. We 
>> agreed we'll get a first proposal together to assess what is 
>> reasonably achievable considering the available budget. I have 
>> indicated that in this whole process I need the community support and 
>> as such the implementation of the work will be different then when 
>> they deal with just me and a small GN community.
>>
>> Here's what I put up as goals (as I see them, considering what we 
>> discussed in Victoria etc...)
>>
>> - In rough terms we have two groups OSGeo serves. (1) the developer 
>> communities of the different projects, and (2) the user broader 
>> community of geospatial applications. Both have a business component 
>> to them; the first is to have a healthy community and thus product, 
>> the second is a good, professional image that helps drive business.
>> - We take fairly good care of ourselves for what the developer 
>> community concerns
>>     I suggested we do not forget this part of the community, but not 
>> focus on it at this stage from the Marketing point of view.
>> - We have to transfer a message of trust and professionalism to the 
>> user community (the people, businesses and governments that buy the 
>> services/ use the tools)
>>     Ingredients:
>>     - Healthy, well established projects that work in a professional 
>> manner (PSC, workplans, release strategy, bug reporting and fixing, 
>> etc..)
>>     - Intellectual Property issues are closely monitored and have 
>> been evaluated for all core projects
>>     - High quality software, use of standards etc...
>>     - Coherence and collaboration between projects
>>     - Support and training from professional companies
>>     - Free and Open Source Software is not just source code, it is 
>> about participation and true open collaboration. Hell with fake open 
>> source ;-) , OSGeo is about real Free and Open Source Software. Users 
>> have to be made aware of this in clear terms.
>>
>>     I may have forgotten some things now...
>>
>> - We have to improve the visual identity that is reflected in the web 
>> site, OSGeo journal, articles, flyers and conferences. This goes 
>> beyond the OSGeo logo I think. (just to be clear, I will not try to 
>> touch the logo because it is very good already!).
>>
>> Goals:
>>     - Have a message we can deliver to users that is convincing and 
>> clear. They have to directly understand the benefits of using OSGeo 
>> software over other solutions :-)
>>     - Be able to use the marketing materials to convince potential 
>> sponsors of the benefits of joining OSGeo as a sponsor. "This is what 
>> you get when you support in OSGeo", "Professionalism and quality that 
>> benefits your business".
>>     - Be able to add at least 5 (!?) new, substantial OSGeo and/or 
>> project sponsors to the list in the coming year.
>>     - Have a common visual identity (see above) with at least a 
>> folded A3 size flyer that gives the key messages/ overview.
>>     - The materials will have to be available for translation by the 
>> different local chapters. We have to be able to maintain / update 
>> these materials.
>>
>> OK, I talked for an hour on this, so I for sure miss things in this 
>> email, but I think I got the main components.
>>
>> I have suggested that when we get started, they (Birgit and Ines) 
>> join the mailing list to participate in some of the discussion.
>>
>> Once I have an initial proposal from them, I'll get this back to the 
>> list.
>> Ciao,
>> Jeroen
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Viscom-dev at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/viscom-dev
>
> Tyler Mitchell
> Executive Director
> Open Source Geospatial Foundation
> tmitchell at osgeo.org
> P: +1-250-277-1621
> M: +1-250-303-1831
>
>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Systems Architect, http://lisasoft.com.au
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254