[Marketing] Marketing Costs/Budget in 2009

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

On 7-Dec-08, at 4:02 PM, Christopher Schmidt wrote:

>> Ari,
>> I think you have made an accurate assessment of OSGeo's need to
>> re-target our front-door web pages to be more commercially focused.
>
> For the record, almost all of the email Ari forwarded was written  
> by me:
> the original was sent to the board list.


Hi Chris and all,
It's great to see all the interest in Marketing lately!  It's likely  
a good time for a recap of the past year and some of the though  
processes this committee went through.  As you can imagine it's a  
challenging committee to be on but I think we are off to a good  
start.  Many of the questions/issues brought up recently have been on  
the radar for a while and we're making small steps toward improving  
on several fronts.

Last year there were a few questions we wanted answered, of which we  
knew the group could not answer on their own so we hired a firm to  
help review and guide us.  The main question was about brand and  
communicating with it.  A review of our goals, purpose, strategy,  
etc. was completed and a Marketing Communication Strategy was  
delivered.[1]  It's a tough read and salient points need to be pulled  
of the document for us to act on.  Thank you to those who reviewed it.

The follow up to this document was to be development of improved  
branding that could be used across mediums - web site & print  
materials.  As we went into the recent wave of Marketing work the  
committee decided to focus on meeting the needs of the volunteers who  
want to help market OSGeo and its projects - by providing material  
they could redistribute.  So far this is just in planning.  The  
Exhibition Package [2] includes the development of material to help  
in face-to-face meetings or conference scenarios.  It's important to  
note that the Package idea is a response to increased requests by  
members and local chapters for more options and we don't expect OSGeo  
to indiscriminately fund these packages 100%.

Obviously a key part of the Package is the branded print material.   
As part of getting this material designed, I expect we'll go through  
a process of cleaning up the website as well.  To date, as you noted,  
most website work has been done by members who have had the time,  
skills and interest in doing so.  Putting aside some of our budget to  
have address branding in general - website and print design  
specifically - is a good idea though somewhat buried in the Package  
idea.

To sum up, our Communication Strategy was to help find holes and  
opportunities in current branding and focus.  Well branded print and  
digital materials are critical to supporting our mission, the local  
chapters and our events around the world.  If we can get past the  
budget questions and aim to get the development started, I think  
we'll be in good shape.  The Marketing Budget 2009 page is not  
complete, but will be soon.

Thank you very much for all the feedback and comments.  I'll follow  
up shortly on more budget-related issues that I will be looking for  
even more feedback on.

Tyler

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Communication_Strategy_2008
[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Exhibition_Pack