Re: Java and the AS/400

Chris,

In a message dated 97-11-22 18:04:06 EST, you write:

<<BIG Ol' Snip>>
> > The only thing I "bitch" about when it comes to IBM is their advertising,
and
>  > _THAT's_ only because of what I'm about to say.  IBM, IMHO, has the 
>  > ABSOLUTE
>  > BEST technology from both a hardware _AND_ software standpoint than any 
>  > other
>  > vendor in the market when it comes to the AS/400.  "The industry" was
>  > predicting the demise of the AS/400 after eight years, and now here
comes the
>  > RISC box, HTML DDS, and JAVA.  The AS/400 is the absolute _BEST_ 
>  > technology,
>  > dollar for dollar, that can be had today -- that nobody has ever heard
of.
>  >  IBM is doing a _FANTASTIC_ job of developing new technology...if only
they'd
>  > do as well promoting it.
>  
>  Well, first I'd like to say that we should both be careful to separate the
>  two similar concepts. Advertise and promote. 
>  
>  I don't know what makes a commercial good. For gosh sakes I wouldn't think
>  those Intel commercials would have any value at all. I am not sure why
>  having people dancing in clean suits would make me want MMX technology. Is
>  that supposed to make me believe this is the "party chip"? Is that the
>  marketing connection? 

Well, again, I cannot argue with you here.  I cannot name a single product
that I rushed out to buy as the result of an advertisement.  Others, some of
my customers included, seem to do so on a quite regular basis.  From a
personal standpoint, perhaps the Intel commercials were meant to invoke my
unbidden vision of John Sears dancing in a purple suit to advertise the
AS/400 ;-)...

>  So maybe IBM's ads are lousy, maybe they are great. I think the only way
to
>  judge that is to find out what kind of response IBM is getting off of
them.
>  Any idea how that might be accomplished?

I don't really know.  IBM kept their ineffective Warp ads on far longer than
was necessary, and I view the Dennis Leary "e-business" ads in the same vein.
 Where the _HECK_ is the product?  What does it do?  Under the old journalism
edit "Who, What, When, Where, and Why?", the "what" is always missing, the
"when" is etherial, and the "why" is often missing or so shortly represented
that everyone misses it.  The ads seem to promote only IBM's services -- are
they going to drop hardware entirely in favor of this new "revenue stream"?

>  But I do think that advertising to the consumer market is different from
>  advertising to the Fortune 100 market. Probably the small
>  business/departmental market is some cross of the other two.

Agreed.

>  I know I have asked operators who were using 5250 emulation if they
>  happened to know what the business package was they were using and gotten
>  responses like, "Oh, we use Windows!" or "I don't know, but it's
>  Microsoft." I'm not sure what advertising to them would do. 

But the users are irrelevant from an advertising perspective, except in small
companies.  The only way to prove reliability to a user is to install an
AS/400, and only management can dictate _THAT_!

>  Promoting, marketing? Those things need to be done with greater
efficiency!
>  More more! But what? I'm not buying the story that ads are going to sell a
>  lot more AS/400s. Now, if a zillion companies were running Java software
>  and they all had a need for better horsepower behind the scenes, then I
>  think that advertising the brand against it's competition should go hot
and
>  heavy. But I'm not sure the market is fully there yet. 

I think that ads in the right places _will_ sell more AS/400's.  I also think
that if the major AS/400 software vendors move to JAVA, _THAT_ will sell more
AS/400's.  Like you, I'm not sure that the market (or the AS/400, for that
matter) is "there" yet.  We can only watch and wait (which you don't want to
do).

>  If ads aren't the answer (humor me), then what things should IBM be doing
>  to further the AS/400 in the market?

I've spoken to this on _numerous_ occasions.  They should be seeing that
local community colleges and universities have an AS/400 curriculum.  IBM
should assure that said curriculums are valid for the current hardware and
software.  IBM should encourage local businesses to get involved with these
curriculums.  Where possible, IBM should drop down to the high school level
with their education programs.  Nike and Adidas do it for sports, why not IBM
for the intelligencia?  Heck, I learned the S/3 Model 10 in High School!

Regards,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up." -- Tom
Lehrer (or perhaps, the CA/400 support office at IBM?)
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