Re: WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO BRING NEW CUSTOMERS TO THE ISERIES

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Booth Martin wrote:

> I absolutely agree Hans, with these added comments.
>  
> "Quality" in itself makes no value judgement. There is high quality and low
> quality. Both the Mercedes and the Dodge can be of high or low quality. The
> doors can fall off either vehicle.
>  
> "Value" is the right choice of course. However it isn't facts that matter.
> Perceived value rules.  Advertising is so important because it creates
> perception, and in my opinion Microsoft appears to understand that fact
> better than IBM.
>  
> That's the way business really runs.
>  

I think we just have to disagree on the effectiveness of advertising. 
This may be a facet of some basic cultural differences across the 49th 
parallel: I can't find a reference on-line, but I read some blurb a few 
months ago about an opinion survey taken of Canadians and Americans. It 
turns out that more than half of Americans surveyed believed that if a 
product is advertised more it must be better. Fewer than 30% of 
Canadians agreed with that.

Sure, advertising is important. But where do you place the ads, and what 
exactly are you trying to sell? The latter question gets back to the 
basic issue that Unix customers buy boxes and iSeries customers buy 
applications. That, in a nutshell, is why you have two different brands 
(iSeries and pSeries) even though under the covers the hardware is 
practically identical. And so two different advertising strategies.

Cheers! Hans