Re: Marketing question about AS/400 name

[Trevor Perry <trevor@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Booth,

Talking to a bunch of people who have an AS/400 means you have to use the
term "AS/400". Talking to a bunch of people that THINK they have an AS/400
means you have to use the term "AS/400". As more and more AS/400s disappear,
this market is shrinking. While you want this constituency, you also want
the people who are buying the NEW stuff. Are you ever going to market to
them? Or are you going to stick to your guns and market to the smaller and
smaller "AS/400" world.

And, google does not a marketing campaign make. Just because you have i5/OS
or System i on your web page, does not preclude adding the terms iSeries,
AS/400 and OS/400 - which in turn, WILL be picked up by google.


And please, stop using false analogies. New Coke was a different recipe. It
was not the branding, but the product that failed. And Mercury Sable and
Ford Taurus ARE two different brands for two models of the (basically the
same car) - not two different names for the same car. Finding analogies for
System i and its predecessors is a little harder. Work harder!

Trevor







On 10/4/07 3:55 PM, "Booth Martin" <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> John has given the clearest demonstration of the problem, Trevor.  Go
> ahead, google for midrange information *without *using "AS400" in your
> search.  I challenge you.  Find what's available in our arena.
>
> This is a marketing blunder by IBM that is beyond all of their earlier
> world record marketing blunders.  All we are asking is a common way for
> all of us to recover from this screwup.  There's no religious argument
> here, just a desperate plea for some common way to communicate.
>
> Coca Cola recovered from their blunder by admitting their mistake and
> giving us "Coca Cola Classic."    IBM could do the same, to the benefit
> of *all* of us.  Its not complicated.  AS400 is the name plate, System i
> is the Model.  Bingo, everyone is happy.
>
> But its the the same hardware?   Sure.   And Mercury Sable is not a Ford
> Taurus?