From: grimkirk@amiganet.chi.il.us (Mike Schneider)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Response to CBM re:Poor Media coverage
Date: 15 Dec 92 02:31:29 CST
Organization: Amiga Network Information Systems

Command:Read 
 
In article <19858@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>,
  sue@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (Sue West - CATS) writes:
 
>December 3, 1992
>
>TO:    All Amiga Users
>FROM:  Commodore Business Machines, Inc., Marketing Department
>       1200 Wilson Drive
>       West Chester, PA 19380
>
>Commodore Business Machines, Inc. was recently surprised that the
>magazine NEW MEDIA 1993 Multimedia Tool Guide (November issue date)
>omitted covering any information on Amiga product. 
>
>Perhaps NEW MEDIA is not aware just how many Multimedia users own
>and respect Amiga product for their diverse uses?  And . . . perhaps it
>would be beneficial for NEW MEDIA to have our users tell them about
>Amiga and its Multimedia capabilities.
>
>For comments to NEW MEDIA, you can write to:
>
   etc....
 
Uh, scuse me Commodore.....
 
While it is quite appropriate for end users to let a publisher of an important
trade magazine know when it is missing coverage of an important and viable 
product like the Amiga, and it is appreciated that you let us know about this 
slight in this very important and useful medium (Internet),
I put this question to *you*.....
 
Just what are you, (the Marketing Dept.), going to do about it from your end?
 
Let me preface the rest of this by saying that I have been an Amiga user from 
practically the beginning, using it both personally as well as professionally,
and have even spent time selling Amigas into the business community.
 
But frankly, there is no great surprise to me (or probably the rest of my
fellow end users) as to why few major *professional* trade mags (AV Video being
most notable amongst them, [sorry AmigaWorld]) covers the Amiga much, if at
all. The reason, as I believe *we* see it, is that CBM does little to promote
professional sales. Even as an outbound sales representative for two of the
three Amiga dealers in a major market of Chicago, IL, I found it nearly
impossible to be taken seriously by members of the business community. CBM and
most of its product line is seen by business professionals from a number of
different perspectives.

        1st) "CBM? Isn't that the company that makes the C64?"
 
             You are STILL fighting an 8-bit game machine image.
             Releasing a "Home Entertainment System" like the CDTV
             didn't help fight that image either.
 
        2nd) "Amiga?  machine, but there is no `real' software or support
             for it."
 
             While I can argue till I'm blue in the face with this argument,
             demonstrating the professional virtues of software like ProPage  
             or PageStream vs. QuarkXpress or PageMaker, or SCALA vs.
             this-or-that package, etc.., I don't think the problem is really 
             a failure of software developers to produce quality software. The 
            problem seems to lie with CBM. The engineers at CBM usually do a   
           bang up job (Nice work so far on the 4000 guys, but why IDE?),      
          however we all know that name brand software houses won't develop    
         for a platform unless the platform holds a reasonable market          
        share. I know, I know, chicken or the egg syndrome. Well, no one       
       is going to take the Amiga seriously until YOU (CBM) do. It may         
      be your top line product, but you sure can't tell it from your           
     advertising and marketing programs.
 
        3rd) "It can't do what my <insert competitor product name here> does!"
 
             Obviously, an uneducated consumer. So educate him.....,
             keeping in mind that any box can do what any other box can do if 
             you sink enough money into it (Hint: Price vs. Performance).
 
        4th) "It's behind the times, it doesn't even have CD-ROM support!"
 
             Get with it guys.... You want to compete? Then compete. You've    
            got the technology, use it. AGA was a step in the right            
           direction, but don't make it difficult for the software             
          developers to keep up. That includes those doing CD-ROM stuff.       
         *Rumor* has it that you are *charging* developers royalties to        
        use your CD-ROM format for software that supports CDTV. Keep that      
       up and the there won't be any 3rd party developers. This is             
      supposed to be a symbiotic relationship. Remember? Without               
     titles, who needs the machine?
 
             On this topic, I can possibly understand why you may feel it     
             unnecessary to add CD-ROM to the Amiga line. If CD-ROM based      
            CDTV's aren't selling, then why invest $$$ adding a similar        
           product to the high-end Amiga? Royalties may be the stumbling       
          block for the CDTV, but the applications are already there for       
         the Amiga. And with cross platform compatibility (CrossDos and        
        Mac-2-Dos or AMaxII+, along with Novell compatibility) much of         
       what is already available on the market is just lying there             
      waiting to be accessed. Don't forget the Photo-CD format. From           
     what some of the trade magazines are saying about it, it portends         
    to be a highly useful and in-demand product. The possibilities             
   are astounding to anyone with one good eye and a spoon full of              
  brains. But that BRAIN has to have the COMMON SENSE to use the               
 one good eye to see the OPPORTUNITY. And the public who knows                 
what all this technology is worth have to SEE that YOU can offer              
it to them. 


Forgive me if I go on, but yes, I am passionate about the Amiga. I think it has
the capacity to become a leader in the marketplace, but only with the 
commitment of Commodore and serious marketing dollars behind it. I don't mean
TV ads with Little Johnny lifting the house with his A500/600, or magazine ads
with one of the Mario Bros. pushing it. If you want an ad that will sell
Amigas, go look at the promo tape for the A3000 roll-out. People using the
Amiga in a real-world environment. Or call Apple and have them send you one of
their recent product marketing tapes (I got one out of curiosity and because I
still try to sell Amigas [even under the guise of a Toaster] into the
marketplace and I want to know what I'm up against).

 NOTE: No, I am not an AUTHORIZED Amiga dealer and No, I don't greymarket      
      Amigas, but I proseletize and pontificate about them every chance I get  
     while trying to avoid the image of being a fanatic.

Look, we all know that the Mac isn't the wondrous machine that Apple would 
have you believe. It's nothing more than a box full of components very similar
in a LOT of ways to the Amiga. But what sets it apart is the available software
base and the marketing techniques used to get it in the consumers faces. Amiga
now has the software base. And it has always had the price point to compete
AGGRESSIVELY with both Macintoshes and PC (even clones, in some respects). So
what is left? *YOU*, not your user base, have to convince the buying public and
businesses that this is indeed a FACT. We don't have the money to do that for
you (you already got ours....) And they (the buying public) aren't going to
hunt you up to find it out, either. Expecting small Mom and Pop Storefront
operations to sell an underdog into a *seriously* competitive marketplace is
going to do nothing but disappoint you and leave CBM holding the game machine
trophy it won so prestigiously so many years ago. 
 
You are the ones with the Marketing degrees (I hope.) Prove it.

Sincerely -

Mike Schneider                  | Mac Quadra 900 -
UFP Computers                   |
Chicago, IL                     |       "Dammit Jim! I'm a Mac, not an Amiga!"
Amiga and Toaster Consultant    |
New and Used Equipment Broker   |