From: olson@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov (Paul Olson)
Subject: Re: C= Marketing Internals (was HD ad infinitum)
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Mission Operations and Data Systems
Date: 21 Nov 1992 10:53 EST  

In article <10100@cbmger.de.so.commodore.com>, peterk@cbmger.de.so.commodore.com (Dr Peter Kittel Germany) writes...
>In article <17NOV199208503289@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov> olson@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov (Paul Olson) writes:
> >In article <37083@cbmvax.commodore.com>, lassa@cbmvax.commodore.com (Paul Lassa) writes...
> >>[stuff deleted]
> >>would be a useful product for those with LD-equipped amigas.  And yes, it
> >>is technically feasible.  That's all a C= engineer can tell you.  Maybe
> >>you should make your request known to your dealer, as I'm sure (s)he's in
> >>contact with C= Sales/Marketing.
> 
>Good advice.
> 
> >Not to slam the C= hardware department (I love the machines), but it seems to
> >me that a responsible company wouldn't refer a customer back to a dealer when
> >they've just contacted a person within the company.  Are you hardware guys cut
> >off from the rest of the company?  
> 
>Yes, they are, sort of. Look, Commodore is in first line a *sales* company,
>lead by sales people. They hear to those people who they are trying to sell
>their products, and this are the dealers. It has extremely more impact on
>management when a dealer says "Give me a machine with this one extra
>feature, and I will buy ten times more devices from you!", than when some
>of the engineers makes the same proposal. "Free Market"
> 
>-- 
>Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to \\  Only my personal opinions...
>Commodore Frankfurt, Germany  \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk
>Wer's nicht kann, soll's bleiben klopfen oder Steine lassen!

Dr. Kittel,

When I worked for a company which produced fire extinguishers, the product
development effort worked in two directions: 1) The company would listen to the
customers and their stated needs; 2) The company would develop prototype
equipment based on the ideas of the R&D staff, introduce it to a number of
customers to gauge their reaction and, based on it, would either produce the
equipment or shelve it.  From what you and Paul Lassa are saying, C= doesn't
even try to do #1.  I've used an Amiga for the last four years.  I've
definitely gotten the impression that C= operates in a vacuum.  Case in point:
one of the heads of C= marketing recently said there is no market for an Amiga
laptop.  Well, I'm here to tell you that I'd take a second job to make enough
money to buy an Amiga I could take with me on the road.

This also leaves "the market", i.e. people like me and everyone else who buys
and uses Amigas, with the impression that C= is offloading responsibility which
they should be taking themselves.  C= shouldn't listen to feedback which comes
only from "official channels".  This leaves C= at the mercy of the
distributors.  Not a good place to be in, especially if the distributors get
pissed, as they did when C= wanted the list of all the Federal customers from
the D.C. area dealers when C= was trying to start the now-failed Federal
Systems Division.

Perhaps the problem lies with your statement that C= is a sales company. 
Perhaps C= should change its attitude to that of, "We are a service company. 
We serve the customers."  Let's face it, hardware and software have become
commodity items.  The companies which really make it today are those that are
service oriented.  Just look at which companies started small and became giants
in the PClone domain.  You'll find it's the companies which placed customer
service above all others.  That means being responsive to the needs and desires
of the actual users, not the middle man who sold the equipment.  Your dollar
doesn't come from the distributors.  It comes from people like me.  If I don't
buy your equipment, the distributor starts selling PC's and Mac's, and you go
out of business.

If DEC ran things the way you and Mr. Lassa describe, they would never have
come out with the Alpha.  C=, as you describe it, turns a deaf ear to the
people actually buying your equipment.  You have an excellent resource in
the Internet and Usenet.  You should be taking new product ideas from here as
well as from the distributor network, as well as from your own R&D people.  We
are the folks out here using the equipment, not the dealers.  We are the ones
who twist, bend, and stretch our machines to the limit.  We know what we want. 
C='s relationship with it's dealers is just too tenuous for any of us in "the
market" to trust that _anything_ we say to a disgruntled dealer will make it
back to C=.

It sounds to me like C= management needs to go back to Business 101 class. 
Then they need to do some internal reorganization on a GLOBAL scale.  You guys
really have to start opening up your internal lines of communications, start
taking ideas from EVERYWHERE, and communicating.  I've never seen a product
survey from you folks out here on the net.  I've never seen C= include one in
AmigaWorld or Amazing Computing, I've never seen one show up in my mailbox.  As
var as I'm concerned, you guys get an "A" for great hardware, but a "D" in
customer responsiveness.  It's the warning I give everyone when I recommend an
Amiga.

       __  Paul J. Olson - VAX Systems Manager & Resident Amiga Addict 
  C=  ///  Voice -     301/286-4246, 301725-5501                       
 __  ///   DECnet-    DSTL86::OLSON                                    
 \\\///    Internet - olson@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov                       
  \XX/     Disclaimer: Statements in my messages are wholely my own.   
  AMIGA    "[the universe originated] as a quantum fluctuation         
            of absolutely nothing." - Guth & Steinhardt