Re: Limited ;) marketing idea

From: Alan Garny (someone_at_somewhere.com)
Date: 12/02/03 

Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 21:48:31 -0000

"Thomas J. Theobald" <ttheobald2003@nospamplease.msn.com> wrote in message
news:3fccd759$1@newsgroups.borland.com...
> > Well, this has more or less been suggested for years. Borland has (for
> > reasons that have never been clear to me) never thought it was worth it,
> so
> > I wouldn't expect anything different now. Pretty sad really.
>
> First answer: Personal edition. Free. Download it today. What part of
> that picture don't you get?

Whatever.

You should know that if you want to learn the ins and outs of Delphi (or any
other programming environment for that matter), then the Personal edition is
completely useless. Have another look at the features matrix and you will
see that you are completely out of line:
http://www.borland.com/delphi/pdf/del7_feamatrix.pdf.

> Second answer:
> Let's say you work for a company that produces shrink-wrapped software,
and
> your P&L statement is tabulated annually.
>
> Now let's say you decide to give up a certain amount of revenue (i.e.,
every
> penny you make in educational sales). Just to give it away, in the hopes
> that a few years from now you'll have kids fresh out of college asking
their
> IT managers to buy your product.
>
> Are you willing to take the hit in your P&L right now for something that
in
> this industry is an unlikely return?

Haven't you read what I have said in my message? My old engineering school
has agreements with Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, etc. Now tell me which are the
leading companies? Borland??

> I know very few managers who'd be willing to listen to some pimply kid
right
> out of school who wants some silver bullet technology to make everything
> easier. Even if the kid was right, IT has been burned enough by
> inexperienced engineering staff that they just aren't going to listen.
> There needs to be much more than "I used this in school, and it was soooo
> coool!" to convince them to drop several grand per seat, plus expenses
> incurred during ramp-up.

Again, out of line. You don't get the trust that Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco,
etc. have in a matter of months. Let's be realistic. You have to gain that
trust from your customers. Surely, the way Borland treats academia is not
the way forward!

> The testimony of some students is not compelling enough to generate a lot
of
> sales.

Your views are too short sighted. Don't just look at the short term
situation, think ahead. That's what big companies do and if you look at
Microsoft, they seem to be doing a very good job at it! Don't get me wrong,
I am not endorsing them at all. As a matter of fact, I have been using
Borland products for about 15 years and I have no intention of changing. I
just wish that they had been more pro-active in the academic world, as
Microsoft & co. have been.

> The reason companies like MS and Oracle do this stuff is (a) they can
afford
> to sell it on the cheap to these institutions, and (b) it creates a
> malleable workforce that can be hired, and their salespeople can point to
> that as a selling point.

Sure, they can afford. No doubt about it. Yet, they started like Borland,
i.e. small. They just happened to be willing to take risks and whether you
like it or not, that has paid off.

> While (b) would be useful for Borland, (a) is probably not applicable.

(a) is not applicable, because Borland doesn't have the guts. Their
marketing strategy has always been crap in my opinion, and I don't see it
changing in the near future.

    Alan.

Relevant Pages

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