Re: Fwd: "State of the Midrange" by Don Rima

No, I am saying that your organization would be a lot more powerful if
they treated their group like a small business.  
Only spend their funds in places where it is unavoidable.  Mr. Madden
has made the offer to host an ad, but even he said that it would do much
more good if it were in one of the business publications that
shareholders and upper management are likely to read.  

So, if you can't afford to take out an ad in each of those magazines
then your best shot is to make some noise that they want to report on. 
And make it loud!

booth@martinvt.com wrote:
> 
> So, you are saying that if this ragged band of guerillas would go to
> COMMON and burn Lou in effigy in the parking lot it'd do more good than a
> one-page ad in the WSJ, but only if they alerted the press first?
> 
> If so, then maybe we should hire the Belgian pie men to do for Lou what
> they did for Bill?
> 
> _______________________
> Booth Martin
> Booth@MartinVT.com
> http://www.MartinVT.com
> _______________________
> 
> "L. S. Russell" <leslier@datrek.com>
> Sent by: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
> 08/23/2000 11:47 AM
> Please respond to MIDRANGE-L
> 
> 
>         To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>         cc:
>         Subject:        Re: Fwd: "State of the Midrange" by Don Rima
> 
> You know, no matter how many actually contribute, the very fact that it
> is being done is probably news worthy especially to InfoWorld's Maggie
> Biggs who has been very sympathetic to the AS/400 lately.
> 
> There is a book called 'Guerilla Marketing' by Jay Levinson, and in that
> book Levinson says that when you are an upstart you have to do whatever
> you can to get FREE press.  Just about all the books I have read on the
> subject agree on this fact, that for an upstart company blowing your
> entire budget on one ad in USA Today is futile because there is no story
> behind the ad and you give them (reporters) no reason to help.
> 
> I am not at all against doing something to get the attention of IBM and
> the rest of the industry but I think that an ad alone (or even several
> ads) is not the way.  There needs to be some reason for the reporters to
> get on our side, or even against us for that matter.  I think that a
> snail mail campaign is a great way to do this.  You fill their inboxes
> with the same comments with different signatures and that will wake them
> up.  If you make news then their jobs will be in jeopardy if they don't
> egt the scoop, thats how you get their attention.
> 
> 
> 
> nina jones wrote:
> >
> > I was thinking about usa today.  it's not as financial or business
> > oriented, but it does have a big reading.  i read it all the time when
> > out of town.
> >
> > i've had no experience in keeping contributions for something like this,
> > but i would imagine some kind of record of contributors and amounts done
> > in a spreadsheet would work.  If you really wanted to do it special, a
> > bank account could be set up specifically.  and before money is sent,
> > would a pledging type system be in order to see if we have a prayer of
> > meeting the goal?  we could volunteer to handle the financial end if
> > you're taking names.
> >
> > for ideas on gathering contributors, there are several other as/400
> > related newsgroups.  would places like news/400, midrange, and
> > source/400 be willing to put up a blurb to go to, say a website to
> > solicite funds for this?
> >
> > we need to look at this as our one bullet to get:
> >
> > - the attention of ibm as to the opportunity they are missing to capture
> > market share on a great system
> >
> > - the attention of the business community that the as/400 is a great
> > system, and they too are missing out.
> >
> > for example, last week i was visiting my dad and his wife, (who live in
> > tennessee) and they have a company that writes and markets a p/c
> > application for job contractors.  they started in commercial basic for
> > dos, and rewrote it for windows in visual basic.  they were moaning
> > about the support nightmares they have and most of them are p/c related
> > (specifically windows), and how hard it is to draw the line on what you
> > can and can't do.
> >
> > i told them we almost never have these kinds of problems, and they were
> > surprised.  they've known i'm true blue ibm midrange, and in fact,
> > katherine (dad's wife) worked long ago on 34's.  but they have been with
> > p/c's so long, they now accept general protection faults, files
> > trashing, etc, as a normal part of doing business.
> >
> > nj
> >
> > DAsmussen@aol.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Folks,
> > >
> > > I found Don's article to be quite insightful, and the "eunuchs"
> reference to
> > > be rather funny to us AS/400 folk rather than an affront to other
> system
> > > proponents.  Considering the fact that most UNIX professionals, even
> on AIX,
> > > earn an average of 20% less than do AS/400 professionals, this should
> be
> > > _YOUR_ concern as well.  AS/400 professionals earn more, obviously
> _NOT_
> > > because the system is harder to use, but because we generally
> understand
> > > business processes that most computer professionals of other ilk do
> not.
> > >
> > > I somehow doubt that those of us that participate frequently in these
> lists
> > > be able to come up with the cash necessary to run a full page ad in
> "The Wall
> > > Street Journal"; however, we probably _COULD_ come up with the funds
> for
> > > publication in a similar national forum.  Frankly, if we had WSJ
> money, I'd
> > > be more than peeved that David has to beg for donations every year for
> the
> > > maintenance of these lists.  If you'd like, I'd solicit "the trades",
> as
> > > including publications such as "USA Today", to see what they'd charge
> for a
> > > full page ad.  IMO, less than a full page ad would be ineffective.
> > >
> > > We could solicit "open letters", vote on the results (if David were
> amicable
> > > toward such an arrangement), and vote on the publication in which to
> post
> > > based upon advertising rates.  What we _NEED_ is someone to research,
> or who
> > > already knows,  how to place donations for group advertising in an
> account
> > > for which contributors would be reimbursed if we didn't meet the
> advertising
> > > dollar target.  We'd also need a method by which to offer amendments
> to the
> > > "open letter".  But, finally, we'd need a method by which to solicit
> > > donations from persons and enterprises other than those that are
> members of
> > > midrange.com lists in order to receive the necessary financing.
> > >
> > > I'm game, is anyone else?  Any alternative plans or ideas that would
> enhance
> > > this one?
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