Mark provided some thoughtful comments:
> Early on, I was leaning toward a more confrontational ad, but
> a couple of postings has me thinking twice.
Thinking twice or even three times before forking over $150K
to do the Madison Avenue thing is probably not out of order...
:-)
> ... I was moved by Winston's posting. Call it wishful thinking,
> but I detected frustration in his words that seems as deep as
> ours.
Oh; I agree: It might even be said that it was actually pretty
brave of Winston to in effect come out and say that the senior
managers that he reports to screwed up; I thought his post was
great !!...
> ...... I also think that Chris Bartram, among others, has
> injected a dose of professionalism to the quest.
Chris usually does that... :-)
> .... So here are some quick thoughts:
>
> I would not want to make Winston's or CSY's job harder than
> it is.
Nobody wants to do that; there job is hard enough as it is...
> ..... For the time being, divide and conquer may not give us
> what we want.
While I suppose it's possible some might see it that way, I don't
think the type of WSJ ad we have been talking about is really a
"divide and conquer" thing; it's more (like Cortlandt said):
"telling HP as a Corporate entity want we want; saying what we
mean"....
> If we take the confrontational/emotion approach, we really
> must be honest with ourselves and make sure it doesn't come
> off as a bunch of whining losers.
I agree; that would be a mistake...
> If we try to set the fight up as MPE vs. them (the other
> OS's), we'll lose, IMHO.
We certain don't want to present it as "MPE versus HP-UX"....
but the cold, hard truth is that "MPE vs. the other OS" is exactly
what it comes down to.... HP will never itself present "MPE is
so much better than HP-UX" (nor should we expect them to)..
But there is nothing that stops we the users from saying that
MPE is better than generic "others".
> ..... The HPe3000 is the computer that plays well with
> others and it should be marketed that way. "Worried about
> choosing the wrong computer system? The HPe3000 works
> with all of the current fads...and beyond." (This would appeal
> to the lemming managers who read the WSJ and have a
> difficult job making decisions).
Last above is excellent material for the home page of
http://www.mpe4ever.org , IMO... :-)
> What is our real goal? Call HP stupid in public .....
Certainly not.... :-)
> ..... or make those wimpy managers comfortable with adding
> a e3K to the computer room?
That is one of the main "second-step" goals... But don't lose
sight of the *primary* catalyst for all this email energy lately:
HP *as a Corporation* clearly and explicitly said it had three
(and by clear extension ONLY three) strategic OS. Until that
fundamental disconnect is corrected *by HP*, no matter what
we say in any ad, those wimpy managers will never reach the
required comfort level. Putting the 3000 in front of the WSJ
readership is by itself a good and desirable thing, but IMO the
*primary* initial objective is to in a professional but direct way
"encourage" Carly & Co. to change their ways WRT the 3000.
> Whatever we choose, we should consider giving HP
> management a path to "save face"
We already have: They can acknowledge the correctness of
Wirt's suggestion, and start bragging a little about the HP 3000
above the level of CSY.... To be perfectly honest, if nobody in
HP above CSY is willing to do that at all, I'm not *inclined* to
leave them a way to save face, because I know that somewhere
down the road we will have an unhappy outcome....
> ..... and use this as an opportunity to get some positive
> notoriety for the e3000 in the press. I think including the
> examples of the air-lines, e-commerce, Samba, Apache, etc.
> like Birket posted would go a long way to this end.
Absolutely: More great material for the home and other pages
at www.mpe4ever.org . :-)
> Finally, while I agree with the web-site idea, ilovempe or
> welovempe or even mpe4ever is a little too emotional to end
> a well-reasoned ad.
I find myself agreeing with Mark about "ilovempe" and
"welovempe"... In fact now that I look at those again, I "vote"
(FWIW) pretty strongly against either of those.... Just my
personal take, I don't see "mpe4ever" as being nearly as
"emotional" as the other two.... but if even "mpe4ever" is
considered too "risky", remember: www.e3000.org is
"owned" by a friendly usual suspect; who is willing to make
that available... Either mpe4ever or e3000.org are O.K. by
me.... but if time is of the essence, remember that e3000.org
is already registered and ready to go.....
> OK, I have to send my check in. I will go with the majority
> - whatever that may be.
:-) me too....
Rivers "did the credit card thing today" Ken
P.S.: If anyone still has the thread energy to look at it,
attached find plain text version of my considerably revised
latest beta ad; that I formatted up and sent to a few members;
hoping that one of them might take pity on those of us
constrained by non-negotiable firewall requirements and throw
it up for me on the web somewhere, so y'all could have another
example to look at... Original credits to Wirt for the majority
of the words. I think this looks good in either "full-page" or
"half-page" proportions (YOMV).... and IMO this is about
as "minimalist confrontational" as we can get without losing
focus on the core objectives.....:
===========================================
{< start of left-hand column >}
Hey, Carly !!
The MPE Operating System and Image/SQL DBMS that
Hewlett-Packard invented 25 years ago are STILL the
best in the world.... and they just keep getting better.
Vendors who want computers that will survive tomorrow's
competition will have to make them simple, reliable, and
easy to use. The HP e3000 already meets that future
need better than any other commercial database platform
in existence.
Don't be modest: Now is the time for HP to brag about the
strategic advantages enjoyed by customers who run their
businesses on the HP e3000, while users of other platforms
spend time running their computers....
{< end of left-hand column >}
{< start of right-hand column (Yes: At the *TOP*); >}
{< on the same line as the large font "Hey, Carly". >}
http://www.mpe4ever.org
<<
A
Really
Nice
Picture
of
a
Big
Mature
Snowy
Owl
>>
Who Knew ??
This advertisement was paid for by over XXXX individual
end-users of the HP 3000.
{< end of right-hand column >}
==================================== END
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