Conference 7.286::digital

Article 164599 of comp.os.vms:


[email protected] (More time, less trouble.) wrote:
 >I still say that if they started a campaign, targeted at management HPA's,
 >showing some performance stats and saying "Are /you/ important enough to
 >warrant an Alpha?" they'd sell like hot cakes. Get the management used to them
 >and they'll start buying them for the people who do the real work.
 >
 >Yes, I know I'm a cynical bastard, but can anyone honestly say they don't know 
 >several management types and assorted yuppie throwbacks this would work on?
 >Notice how many of them control budgets?

Nawww.  Performance stats don't seem to mean anything.  What DEC needs is:

   1) A cute little four note trademarked anthem...perhaps the reverse of
      the Intel cute little four note trademarked anthem which seems to get
      played in every computer ad on radio and TV.

   2) Purchase the rights to a big (in the 70's) rock group song and play
      it in all commercials while blasting hundreds of images at the viewer
      in 30 seconds.  BTW the images don't necessarily have to have anything
      to do with the product...preferably some sort of fighter/rocket simulation
      thingy with lots of kewl sound effects, dude.

   3) For goodness sakes, don't advertise during the news.  Try advertising
      during Married With Children, or E.R., or that silly show with that
      Urkel (sp?) guy.

   3a) Get TV or movie characters to use the product.  Give Jerry Seinfeld a
      big honkin' VAX or Alpha system that takes up half of his apartment.
      Think of the witty dialog:
            George: "Jerry, can you drive my parents down to Florida next week?"
            Jerry: "Sorry George, I'm upgrading my cluster to VMS v7.1"
             (audience laughter and applause)
      Make sure Mulder and Scully (The X-Files) use an Alpha running UCX to
      solve some alien murder or person-melting-on-the-highway mystery.
      I'm not sure how, but I'm sure we can get Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman to
      use an old VAX 11/780 to show how Digital had the technology to do the
      job *right*, even back in the 1800's.  Show how VMS clusters can actually
      save lives on Chicago Hope.

   4) Imply that the ONLY way to get full use out of "The Internet" is to have
      a Digital AXP system. (don't forget the cute four-note ditty).

   5) Hire a tiger team to produce videos with DEC equipment in the
      background for shows like "Real TV" or "America's Funniest Home
      Videos"...eg: kitty cat accidentally tips over a RAID tower, but
      data is intact.  Dog pees on AXP pedestal system, but system keeps
      working.  Baby accidentally types @SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN while smiling
      into the camera...family is logged off, but can successfully log back
      in after Mom reboots.

   6) Perhaps some scandal involving Madonna or a British Member of Parliament
      caught with an Intel computer.  Have an outraged tabloid press scream
      for legislation requiring public personalities to use only Digital.
      (Hmmmm...notice that MOP can be Maintenance Operations Protocol *OR*
       Member Of Parliament - do I smell conspiracy?)

:-)

(yeah, I know...a mostly North-American-centric post...sorry)

Thomas Dzubin, 
Member: PDP-11s anonymous (I'm hooked and I admit it)
Vancouver BC CANADA
non-spam e-mail to: dzubint "AT" vcn dot bc dot ca

    Hey - if it would help we (the UCX group) could even provide the
    company with an ape picture server.

    
    The next round of TV and Radio is starting to air next week in The
    U.S., shortly followed by International broadcasts and print.  Full
    details are on LIVEWIRE.
    
    Bill

AVI or QT versions available internally?

			Steve

    
    .AVI files I have been up on the Internal Web/IR since December. The
    reside at  http://homepage.das.dec.com/mmedia/ads.html.
    
    They are for both TV and Radio.
    
    
    

Oh - thought you had new ads - my misunderstanding.

			Steve

    
    No - we are using same ads - our research indicates both strong
    understanding of the messages and high importance of the messages -
    with both Business people and IT managers.
    
    What we are doing is spreading the spending into 3 waves, rather than
    a big burst and then disappearing.  This is Wave 2 in U.S.
    
    BT

Are there any plans for new ads?

I like the ones we have now, but I'd like to see more.
Don't we have testimonials we are using in the print ads?  Could we make
them into commercials?  How about putting something together using Dilbert?

USRobotics has some great testimonial ads with Steve Wozniak and Steven 
Hawking.  I wonder who else would be available for us to use...

-D

    
    Hmmm.  Yeah.  Ratbert selling DIGITAL etch-a-sketches, running NT
    (well, a reasonable facimile, just shake to reboot ;-)
    
    

    
    	And maybe tie them together with lengths of phone line.
    

    SBU print ads are running usually featuring 3 or so mini-customer
    stories on the business value customers have derived from using
    AlphaServer systems.  As these ads start to run, they are added to the
    www.ads.digital.com page. For example the current "overacheiving at a
    company near you" ad features: Sunoco, NY Mercantile Exchange and
    Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer (pharmaceutical company).
    
    More ads are in final development stages for SBU.
    
    Bill
    

Given:

o  DIGITAL has a lot of cash in the bank
o  Sales are really bad
o  Current ads are really good

Why is the spending on advertising still so small?  

No, this is not a rhetorical question.  I know from nothing about
corporate finance; I'm hoping somebody can enlighten me as to
who benefits from a big cash balance, and why.


Pilar.

>> I'm hoping somebody can enlighten me as to who benefits from a big
>> cash balance, and why.

Our bankers

    >> Why is the spending on advertising still so small?  

       No, this is not a rhetorical question.  I know from nothing about
       corporate finance; I'm hoping somebody can enlighten me as to
       who benefits from a big cash balance, and why.
    >>
    
    Perhaps if you wanted to go out and buy another company, you would
    need to put together a bunch of cash ? mmmmm... lets see now, who
    could we (or want to) buy ?
    
    :-)
    
    Regards,
    
    / Kerry
    

           My guess is that upper management needs the $$$ in the bank to pay
        for parachute drops coming in the next few months.  When they let BP
        go, there will be a BIG ONE!!!!
        
        And naturally, when Chet's time is up, here's a check for 3000 Chet,
        thanks for the 24 years of 'dedicated' service. You were appreciated
        and well thought of by your peers, but management thinks you're not
        political enough.  You can't say the king has no clothes when
        we all KNOW the king has no clothes.  It would solve too many
        problems!
        
        Toung placed firmly bewteen the teeth....now BITE DOWN! HARD!
        
        chet
    

    The Ford Edson advertising campaign was one of the finest ever seen. 
    
    A jounalist was given one free to drive away, and as he arrived back at
    his office after a hairy trip, the car exploded and caught fire. 
    He went inside and wrote up the story. 
    
    We should stop all advertising for two months, in particular the
    monkeys, until we have restored our credibility in the marketplace. We
    should concentrate on the quality of what we do for our customers. 
    
    ..Kevin..
     

    >The Ford Edson advertising campaign was one of the finest ever seen.
              ^^^^^
    I believe that it was Edsel, don't know what an Edson was. :-)
    
    Bob

    re .130 
    
    okay, it is over 20 years ago since I studied the case, but there are
    other examples. The point is that the selling of your product is not
    just done through the advertising, and if your product does not fit
    the image of the advert the expenditure is wasted, because you attract
    some customers who will be dissappointed when they check out the product.
    
    That is my big problem with the monkeys. Digital has been through 5
    years of downsizing. Dependability and predictability are not what we
    have to offer, honestly. What we should be concentrating on is the
    power of 64 bit computing and its importance for the future. Our
    biggest marketing success has been the AltaVista Internet Search. It
    works, we can deliver on it, and it is an amazing story. That is what
    we should be advertising to a mass audience, not monkeys. The white
    Zepplin is great. And we should show the world the back end and the
    engineers who put it together, and explain the meaning of 64-bit alpha.
    That will get them tossing their 32-bit slow boxes out of the window.  
    
    Corporate customers thinking about when to migrate to NT will not be
    impressed by the monkeys. They want to know about Digital's committment 
    and service ability. There we have to get the product right before we
    start advertising. We will win their hearts on-site, providing quality
    delivery and support. That is how we got such a big customer base in
    the first place, not by putting monkeys with ugly maroon borders all over
    the place.
    
    ..Kevin..

    Re -1
    
    > The white Zepplin is great.
    
    A few months back now I saw a White Zepplin (airship) flying above the
    M4 motorway in England. This Airship had Altavista plastered all over
    it, at the time I put this down to a) My drugs were wearing off :) or
    b) someone else must be using the name Altavista.
    
    Does this mean I can stop hitting the medication? Does Digital really
    own such a beast (or at least rent space on it?)
    
    Alen.

re: .130

>    >The Ford Edson advertising campaign was one of the finest ever seen.
>              ^^^^^
>    I believe that it was Edsel, don't know what an Edson was. :-)
>    

He was one of them Data General guys, wasn't he?  :)

Wes

    A few months back now I saw a White Zepplin (airship) flying above the
    M4 motorway in England. This Airship had Altavista plastered all over
    it, at the time I put this down to a) My drugs were wearing off :) or
    b) someone else must be using the name Altavista.

	A few weeks back the Alta-Vista blimp did a fly past over DECPark.
Before heading off to London following the M4. Apparently the Blimp was
supposed to have made a quest appearance on Channel Four Racing the following 
Saturday, and on one of Sky Sports Footy Programs that Sunday as well.

Wonders will never cease, Digital advertising. Though as is typical of Digital
the logo did not appear anywhere on the Blimp at all....

	Grant.

    re the AV Blimp
    
    There is a miniature toy  model hanging from the ceiling of this
    office. It looks good, but my point is, the product behind it is a
    winner, and that is what makes the advertising tick. If it were one of
    those sites which hangs and takes an eternity to come back, all the
    monkeys in the jungle wouldn't sell it. 
    
    ..Kevin..

re .131, .135:

Kevin,

The ads I'm talking about are the new TV ads with customer testimonials
like Amazon.com, NOT the print ads with the chimp.


Pilar.

>Wonders will never cease, Digital advertising. Though as is typical of Digital
>the logo did not appear anywhere on the Blimp at all....

Digital logo? Ain't that AltaVista thing an IBM product? Yeah, remember that
big "IBM Internet Solutions" ad atop the AV page all those weeks? Probably the
same guy set up the blimp. Bring up the blimp in your favorite lighter-than-air
editor and drag and drop in a digital logo. No problem.

    >> He was one of them Data General guys, wasn't he?  :)
    
    Yeah, I remember him. They used to call him "Blinky" because he 
    blinked his eye's so much. :-)
    
    Bob

    re: .125
    
    I have been traveling - sorry for delayed reponse.
    
    I am hopeful we will increasing our spending in advertising shortly. 
    We think our first testimonials are working well in market and will be
    doing more in both broadcast and print. Candidates are being evaluated
    right now - if you in the field have candidates for big stories I 
    am more than glad to listen.  These need to be actual customers who
    have derived a real benefit from our systems, hopefully combining 
    products and services from DIGITAL to a great solution; Send mail. 
    We are already reviewing all the success stories that are on the
    Intranet.
    
    From a financial perspective - having the cash is one thing - if you
    spend it it becomes an expense item that impacts your profit margin. 
    DIGITAL is carefully managing its P&L, hence its advertising spending.
    
    BT 
    

I thought for sure there was a Digital computer on the Titanic show on the
Discovery Channel last night.  The mousepad and the keyboard feet gave it away.
I assumed it was a workstation running Unix, but the application didn't give a
clue.

Paul

                           
    Tv and Radio programming for May-June Advertising in U.S. 
    
    
         ABC TV  Indianapolis 500             May 25 
         CBS-TV  Ameritech Senior Open        May 31 - June 1
         CBS-TV  Kemper Open                  June 7-8 
         NBC-TV  U.S. Open golf               June 14       
         CBS-TV  Buick Classic                June 21-22
         NBC-TV  U.S. Senior Open             June 28.
    
    
        Discovery Channel:  "Wild Discovery"  June 7
                            "Battleship"      June 8, June 15, June 27.    
       
        TBS "National Geographic Explorer"  throughout the month of June.  
    
        Rounding out the cable  schedule are ads running on Sundays on CNN, 
        CNN Headline News, and The Weather Channel.
            
        On network radio:  news/talk and sports  programs, including NBA and
                           NHL playoff games, as well as broadcasts of 
                           Major League Baseball games.