#Open Letter to CEI
10 messages in this thread
You left perhaps the most important rule out: Spend, spend, spend on
ADVERTISING!! Lack of public awareness and an overt unwillness to take on big
blue and the mac in a public arena killed the Amiga market in the U.S. It
doesn't help to have a good product if no one knows about it. Multi- media
would've been old-hat by now if Commodore would've advertised. Instead, all the
clonies are amazed at the pc's ability to play music while displaying a 1/4
screen animation(if they have 18 meg on board). Advertising on a major scale is
an absolute must, or CEI will go the way of Commodore.
>> You left perhaps the most important rule out: Spend, spend, spend on
>> ADVERTISING!!
Dan, I had to double check to see if I did'nt write your message. I was
going to say the exact same thing. (no. . . really. <g>). I agree, they
need to advertise.
Of course I believe the most important thing they need to do
whenever/whoever gets it is to start producing h/w & s/w ASAP. Get the
orders filled for people who already know what an Amiga is and wants one
NOW!!! That way they start getting an income that will help fuel R&D and
Advertising.
I'm not saying they should'nt advertise at all right now but they need
to get their roots planted by supplying (or resupplying) the customers
they have now.
Kickin' back an enjoyin' the view
with AutoPilot engaged.
Again I recall the CEI interview in Oct'94 AC. Alex indicated that the
number ONE priority with CEI would be advertising the Amiga with R&D the
very next priority. With the Amiga community ready to back anyone who buys
the Amiga technology and wants to continue it, we have over five million
salespersons ready to go!!
Hank/Videology – Where you get all the P.O.M.P. under all
Circumstances
I love the new IBM OS/2 Warp commercials … an OS that does less now than
AmigaDOS did 8 years ago — and it will sell well because of those commercials.
-sja
EXACTLY!! You can make an inferior product the most popular with superior
advertising. Hell, you can practically sell products that don't exist with
superior advertising. I should know, I bought an Opalvision because I wanted
the video processor… The point is, it doesn't matter that the Amiga could be
the superior technology if no one cares or knows. Amd the only way anyone will
know is if/when CEI gets the nod they advertise effectively, massively and
often. You have to play to the lowest common denominator (ie clonies). They are
used to endless brainwashing from IBM and Microsoft, etc, so that is what they
will respond to. It's really quite simple to do. In their advertising, CEI
needs to challenge the PC on the Amiga's turf. Demonstrate multi-tasking and
multimedia as well as video capabilities and do it right next to a PC trying to
keep up. The Amiga will eventually sell itself (it will take awhile to
de-program the clonies). Look at history. The only reason the Mac still exists
is because of the advertising blitz that really took shape in 1983. Remember
the "1984" ad campaign? Of course you do. Most of us almost bought a Mac
because of it. We would all be Macsters if it weren't for the Amiga emerging at
about the same time (perhaps credit should go to the beloved C-64!). The point
is that the Mac was based on the same processor minus the custom chip set(and a
few other things). It was basically an inferior Amiga, but it took a large
chunk of the market share solely because of intensive and effective
advertising. If I were running CEI I would dump a majority chunk of my Amiga
budget into advertising and let the sales bonanza that would occur because of
it fund my R&D for new machines. The 4000 is a good platform for CEI to launch
its Amiga program from. Advertising is the key.
Of course all the advertizing in the world isn't going to make a bit of
difference if the average "Joe off the street" can't go into his local
Computers -r- Us and find one.
It would take an incredible amount of cash and hard work to get the Amiga
into the mainstream.
What does 30 seconds of Superbowl ad time cost?
-Marty
>> What does 30 seconds of Superbowl ad time cost?
$800K-$1.2M, last I checked. 😛
– Jim, on AP!
30 seconds of Superbowl ad time is cheaper than the price you pay for not
advertising properly.
True. They also need to get Amigas and Amiga software in the same big
software stores that carry thousands of PC and Mac products! If you knew
nothing about computers, and went to the store to get one, would you get
one that has NO (or very little) software and NO (or very little) adapter
cards in the store? Probably not. Definatly not if you knew that this
machine has been around for many years and STILL has no software available
in ANY major chains! Of course we know the Amiga has software, but to
them, they don't because there are none are very few titles on the racks.
Of course you could show them emulation. But why would they buy based on
emulation if they could get the real thing (and then some) for a whole lot
less $$$?
They need to load up a tower 4000/040 (or 030/882 with MMU and gigamem)
with 350 meg HD, CDROM, 8megs (or 4), monitor, speakers, a bunch of CD's,
and sell it for $2100.00 ($1899 with 030/882/4 megs). Then slap it right
between the Mac, Power PC and PC display 🙂 Drop the 1200, or sell it for
$300, it looks like a damn toy.
I *love* those OS/2 Warp commercials. You NEVER SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN!
David Copperfield should produce such magic.
—Clinton—
MSTie #873 (cruisin' on AutoPilot)