[penguicon-general] where was MDLUG?

Tue May 1 14:20:17 CDT 2007

On Tuesday 01 May 2007 1:50 pm, Jer Lance wrote:

> > 1) Just because they know you and like you doesn't mean you don't have to
> > remind them that you exist, especially if something has a specific time.
> >
> 
> Well, that is generally true, although, I'd suggest that it would be a
> waste of effort to market ourselves to the individuals that were cited
> above.  Marketing yourself to the LUG that is offering to do LUG
> wrangling?  To the LUG that attended pretty much in force?  That's
> what we like to call, in marketing circles, a bloody waste of time and
> money.

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/04/my_new_favorite.html

If you look at the message from Dan DeSloover (not you) which I was replying 
to, you might notice the following:

> This year I pretty much gave up, and figured that anyone that wanted to 
> be at the con, already knew about the con and for the most part every 
> LUG has someone that pushes the con within their own ranks.

Which is what point 1 of my response was specifically in reply to.

That said, if they're on our side handing 'em a stack of flyers with the date 
of the con on it serves both to remind individual members "yeah, it's _this_ 
weekend" and to give 'em an opportunity to put said flyers to good use if the 
opportunity presents itself.

> > 2) The "rule of seven" is that people are so good at filtering out 
extraneous
> > noise that until they've encountered a mention of your thing seven times 
they
> > won't remember having seen it, let alone make any decision about it.  This 
is
> > true even for things they'd really like; they'll put off thinking about it 
or
> > not necessarily consider it real/credible.
> >
> > So assuming "they already know" is counterproductive.
> >
> 
> See above...

Why did I take you out of my spam filter again?  I forget...

> > Go to one of the meetings and make liquid nitrogen ice cream.  Consider it 
a
> > convention room party that's not taking place at a convention.
> >
> > (The ability to get ~30 liter quantities from a local university would be
> > really nice for this sort of thing, by the way...)
> >
> 
> I would question the wisdom of going to a LUG that is negative toward
> Penguicon as a representative of Penguicon to make ice cream.

And I should care what you think why, exactly?

I realize that your fondness for straw man arguments makes you assume we'd do 
this without contacting them and trying to get on their agenda.  Just show up 
and interrupt whatever they were doing instead of offering to present "why 
Penguicon is cool" with a built-in sufficient bribe to get them to at least 
listen to us, if not necessarily change their minds right off.  And for that 
reason, I clarify the suggestion.  However, it's really tiring trying to 
converse with someone who deliberately misinterperets everything I say.

Frustrates the heck out of me...

> I would even go one step further, and suggest that, instead, we investigate
> the source of this ill-will and see what can be done about that.

Then do it.  Nobody's stopping you.

> I would say that our LUG Wrangler (or, from all appearances,
> Wranglers) should probably spend their time in that direction...
> Marketing 101:

I mentioned marketing since I ran all the marketing for this con the first 
year and did the national marketing two more years (and still get spam 
through nationalmarketing at penguicon.org even though I haven't done it for a 
while now).

I learned about marketing while covering Coca-Cola for The Motley Fool from 
1998-2000 (even attended a board meeting and interviewed one of their vice 
presidents, along with talking to a number of the company's employees and 
discussing its strategies with various people)

http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulemaker/1999/rulemaker991229.htm
http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulemaker/1999/rulemaker990521.htm
http://google.fool.com/portfolios/rulemaker/2002/rulemaker020102.htm

I also put this into practice at Penguicon and Linucon and a few other places.  
Between the two conventions and some other things, I'd estimate I have about 
three years of practical marketing experience.  This is why I suggested that 
maybe I should do a panel on it, since most geeks don't even know the 
difference beween marketing and sales and have a massive aversion to both.

If you feel you have more to say, then YOU do a panel on it.  (Just don't try 
to put me on the same panel.)

> Research THEN Initiative.

Any why not to do that is here:

http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2000/foth000731.htm
http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2000/foth000913.htm
http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2000/foth000905.htm
http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2000/foth000918.htm
http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2000/foth000925.htm
http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulemaker/2000/rulemaker000928.htm
http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2000/foth001002.htm

And some third party analysis of that:
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_3/doheny/

We are a first wave organization.  Big time.

> The other way ends up creating such fabled 
> misfires as the Intrigue launch campaign (greatest domestic automotive
> marketing faux paux in history).

I don't live in detroit, and thus don't really focus on the US automotive 
industry.  However, I point out that the Edsel is remembered 50 years later 
as a famous flop.  People who hadn't been born yet when the Edsel happened 
have heard of it, remember it _as_ a flop, and write fresh articles about its 
flopness:

http://www.mondaymemo.net/030414feature.htm

Be careful throwing around terms like "greatest XXX in history".

Rob