Ubuntu NH Remix 9.04

[Arc Riley]

Retail folk also evaluate the value of products based on their cost.

If Vista costs $150 and Ubuntu $15, Vista is viewed by many as being 10x the
value.  If you want to play that game you need to price to the competition
including value-added components (ie, bundled customer support), flashy
clear hard-plastic packaging that's 4" thick and covered with hologram
decals, and a "free" 8gig USB stick containing a complete bootable image.

If you're going to do that and be successful, you need to build an entire
marketing routine around it; stickers for peripherals sold in the same store
("Works With Ubuntu!" for even products like USB cables), Ubuntu-specific
peripherals (ie, USB WiFi radios), and material for a staff person in the
store to read so they can answer customer questions (yes, both Microsoft and
Apple do this).

Of course to get into any of those stores the corporate hq would have to be
approached, I doubt the local managers of Staples (etc) have the freedom to
make this call.  Wal*Mart may, I've been told they're given a good deal of
room for selling "local" products.

Canonical may be able to do this in the future, as a local community (loco)
team within Ubuntu that is much bigger than where we're at right now.
According to Roosevelt's Law of Task Planning, "do what you can, where you
are, with what you have".


Libraries are a place where people are used to things being free.  If it's
cast as a community-based, non-profit activity it's easier to accept that
something received for free has a high monetary value.


On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 5:12 PM, Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com>wrote:

> Retail folk tend to not value free stuff.  If, on the other hand it's
> massively profitable (at $2.50 to manufacture and selling for $13 at Amazon
> ... say sell it to Staples for $5 to cover shipping and slapping on a 'NH
> Edition' sticker, and set the MSRP at $19.99, discounted to $14.99) then the
> stores will take care of promotion.
>
>
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