RE: MAKEMONEY cmd

Nina, You should have heard Dr. Soltis talk about Magic Box.  He also talked
about the new AS/400 campaigns.  Whether the campaign is good or bad it sure
is AS/400 specific.  He says it is "battleship marketing" but it sounded
good to me.  Did you know they just gave away a Corvette?

-----Original Message-----
From: nina jones [mailto:ddi@datadesigninc.com]
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 9:02 AM
To: boothm@goddard.edu
Subject: Re: MAKEMONEY cmd


> It still comes down to a lack of advertising. I remember in Summer 98', on
a
> AS/400 project, there were 3 consultants getting the JD EDwards data to
the
> Access database, after a couple of weeks, the Access fellow asked if he
> should learn RPG, because he saw how important this was. None of us knew
> what to tell him, or where to steer him. I personally am not optimistic
> about hte AS/400 future, but am gratified to read optimistic predictions,
by
> people on this list, such as Al Barsa, Jr., and others, because I (still)
> share their view of the AS/400.


not just a lack of advertising but a lack of smart advertising.

what people want are reliable computers that are easy to use.  there are
several ways ibm can get the word out, but a vague magic box ad campain
is not one of them.

i still think a series of ads, with one harried exec with a network and
another with an as/400, comparing budgets, down time, etc would get
these peoples attention.  companies are switching to networks because
they have been lead to believe it's cheaper and easier.  the 'total cost
of ownership' message is not getting through.

last week we had a user's meeting for our software, and one of the execs
asked me about the future of the as/400.  he had heard it was dying. 
and he was an avid 'move to p/c's' type as recently as 2 years ago. 
well, they have 3 different systems now, and he was saying that the
as/400 is by far the most reliable.

so how you even respond to a question like that!   (i told him that
those rumors had been going for years, and i didn't see any immediate
end to the as/400)  

nj
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