-----Original Message-----
From:   Jonathan M. Backus [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, December 19, 2001 10:04 AM
To:     'John Pollard'; [log in to unmask]
Subject:        RE: [HP3000-L] The Real Story About HP's Announcement...


        I personally believe part of the marketing failure came from HP's decision
to only market HP3000 computers, and advancements, to the installed base.
If you have a closed audience of, say 60,000 customers (just a number out
of
the air), and you only target them with your limited marketing budget
(advertising in HP centric publications, etc.), then you are going to loose
ground.  No matter how happy and loyal your customs are there will be some
that fall away for a variety of reason (go out of business, merge, acquire
a
package only available on another platform, etc.) and if you do nothing to
bring new customers to the table, your install base WILL shrink.


1.)  I don't understand how this relates to the statements, by the previous
poster, that I was addressing.

2.)  I am not in a position to offer any evidence to counter what you say
here: in general or in HP's specific case.  My personal *guess* is that in
time, other events (including events relating to other companies) will show
that HP was not very far off base in their approach to "what" to market and
to "whom" - but I won't lose any sleep if my guess is proven wrong.
 Trouble is, this is moot; the horse is out of the barn.  As much as some
would like HP to have acted "with their hearts", businesses just don't
function that way in the long run; I believe that taking HP's decision
personally (not referring to *your* post here) is not going to help anyone.

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