The trouble with being a marketer is that you get advice from everyone. We all think we know how to do it. But (with humility) here's a thought that might be relevant: I've just done a stint at a big corporate. They use Vignette, BroadVision, ASP, ColdFusion. Not Zope. Corporate strategy dictates that they take what they perceive as the least risky choice for their main e-commerce infrastructure - can't risk the public face of the company. Apache is in there. But it is going to be a long time before Zope is seen as less risky than, say, Vignette. Technically better, more productive, sure. But a perception of less risky? No. Uncomfortable but true, I believe. So the major infrastucture for e-commerce in big corporates is not a market that Zope can make a big impression on directly. Need to slide round the side. This company had a host of smaller intranet projects often on shoestrings and often staffed by interns. These projects have different criteria. Risk is less important on many intranet sites. Cost is important. Nimbleness is important. Zope could win here. We would have to be careful with the messages so as not to get cornered in a niche but it could lead to the big platform implementations, too. I managed several of this sort of projects. I'd never heard of Zope or I would have used it. I expect there are lots like me still choosing Vignette (as I did) even though it was expensive and when Zope would have been a more appropriate choice. So how about concentrating some marketing effort on small-medium intranet projects in big companies? And the people who commission and manage them. Finally, on buzzwords, I'd say go easy on Python. It scares people. Say Perl, say XML, say any other ML. Who cares what BroadVision is written in? Why should we care with Zope? (someone is going to hate that). ....Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris McDonough" <chrism@digicool.com> To: "Peter Bengtsson" <mail@peterbe.com> Cc: "Chris Withers" <chrisw@nipltd.com>; <liao@sandiego.edu>; <zope@zope.org> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 2:56 AM Subject: Re: [Zope] A Tale from IBM land... : Peter Bengtsson wrote: : > : > > hoped. But it's still a fact that people don't like to buy something : > > they haven't seen on TV... : > : > Well said! : > ...OSS failure in a nutshell. : > : > When is Digital Creations going to apply the marketing campaign it needs to : > gain the "same" status? : : The marketing folks are gearing up, but it's a tough thing... there's : plenty of ways to waste money doing marketing, and they need to spend : wisely. They're smart folks, however, so I have faith that they'll : choose the right venues. : : > I'd love to see Digital Creations at Mobile Business : > Solution exhibitions just like Vignette for example. : : Well, we did exhibit at Internet World(?), and recieved a Best of Show : award if that means anything. : : There's a list of shows that DC is planning to go to here: : http://www.digicool.com/news/tradeshows/view : : > Or just say "we're into e-this and e-that and we store everything in : > XML-this and XML-that". : > : > The more "e" words and "XML" words the better the product! (sure) : : Well, I think that's part of it (unforunately), but the bigger part of : it is having an audience consisting of people with money to spend, : regardless of the buzzwords du jour. : : - C : : _______________________________________________ : Zope maillist - Zope@zope.org : http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope : ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** : (Related lists - : http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce : http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ) :