True, so long as the energy is directed in useful ways. That’s the purpose o working out a strategy first: audience targets, goals, approach etc, including as @al_kafir points out, timing.
@goindeep’s short story illustrates everything I’ve been trying to say: even as a good salesman he couldn’t convey anything useful to this guy, a consumer, because a) there isn’t a consumer product yet, and b) all the messages he had available are not consumer focused.
So, who are our audiences, what do we want to offer them, what do we want them to do, and what can we say to elicit those responses? And when in each case? What needs doing first etc? @goindeep recognised he needs a product his guy can use before there’s anything useful can be said to him. For developers, we need a stable test network and API, examples and tutorials, all of which will be falling into place with alpha2. Etc etc.
From this, it would be great if we can also refine or develop the overall SAFEnetwork brand, @BigBtc’s central message, but we may find that isn’t appropriate for all our audiences. My point is we don’t know yet because we need to develop a strategy that covers the various aspects of SAFEnetwork and the different markets it addresses, and how to market for each first.
I believe its important to start this campaign with a message to all that will use it. The “consumers” of it, they are the single users, companies, etc.
Spending any more time than is currently spent on attracting developers is a waste. That developer outreach needs lots of work and focus but not as part of the marketing plan. I’m not saying ignore developers, I’m saying they should not be the target. Fix developer outreach.
I believe a campaign can reach all interested parties - the consumers of the safenet - at the same time with the same message. That message can be a Dyson style message whereby it is simple and all encompassing. Does it say everything it needs to say about the many aspects of the safenet? No. But it starts the conversation/thinking with the intended target and takes them, as they explore, to where the safenet solves their particular problem or enhances their particular experience.
I’m thinking off the top of my head and asking others to do the same to start shape process as a pyramid.
Here are some conversation starters
The Internet Called, They Want Their Privacy Back
The Internet Wants To Hire You
How SAFE Is The Internet? Not SAFE enough.
The Internet Owns You, Let’s Change That.
The Internet Has Never Been So Good, For So Many, Thieves, Government, Trolls. That’s Changing.
Add what you can here but this idea just starts the conversation. Taking it line by line to each industry, consumers etc.
Unless you first identify who these people, companies, organisations, etc are, their wants, needs and use cases, and what the SAFEnetwork can do for them, it will not be possible to judge whether your messages can do the job you want. It isn’t clear to me what you expect to achieve by identifying a message without first deciding what it is intended to achieve in some detail and why you believe it can, also in detail. It’s not that I can’t follow your thinking, you are not explaining any thinking beyond we need one message for all consumers and trust me because I say so. What I’ve discerned is that while you won’t explain yourself, you seem to want to treat this campaign like an ICO because your focus is investors and coin price. I want Safecoin to rise too, but I’m primarily interested in doing that by ensuring the best chance of project success.
IMO that requires a more intelligent, strategic approach to marketing that does not blandly dismiss developers or any other group, but allocates appropriate method and resources to each after a process of looking at them both individually and collectively. Some may at that point be discarded, left for later, grouped together for same treatment, prioritised etc, because then you can make those judgements.
Developer outreach is marketing and by suggesting it be fixed you are apparently advocating my different messages and approaches for different audiences strategy. Maybe you just take a much narrower definition of ‘marketing’ as only applying to a certain kind of actor, a ‘consumer’? But even then, there are very different kinds of consumer of SAFEnetwork. So please define your ‘consumer’ so we can understand who you are talking about.
I rather take marketing to be the main function of a business in all its respects, something strategic and analytical which directs or at least feeds into every area of a business, rather than just what appears on the brochures and T-shirts. So I start from the whole and divide it up, then decide what to do with the different pieces, if anything.
Running a Meetup for developers is not marketing and if you want to call it marketing go ahead. Running a Meetup is just that, a Meetup. Giving out t-shirts is not marketing, it’s giving out t-shirts.
Edit
While on the topic of dev outreach Maidsafe would do well to spend money sponsoring Meetups for Rust developers and other developer style meetups. And for Maidsafe specific meetups have a quality message that centers on development, nothing else.
@BIGbtc, we have to evaluate what promoting (marketing) to future developers of APPs is needed. Of necessity this promoting/marketing has to be tailored to them and needs to have some tech details that you would not include in consumer marketing.
While you reduce what others say to a single ,misleading sound byte it will be difficult to have a proper discussion.
Meetups are only a method of delivering the promotion/marketing. It isn’t the content/substance of the promoting/marketing.
Why is my succinct response the enemy. Why is it not a guy who needs too many words to say one simple thing.
YOU characterize my posts as difficult because I choose to address things a certain way. I don’t believe any more was said than meetups are marketing. That was his message , that was my response. Is this a tag team here?
You don’t get my point because you keep telling me I have a focus on consumers. I have a focus on Consumption. CONSUMPTION OF THE SAFENET AND ITS PIECES
No thats not what’s happening at meetups. I’ve seen the content/ substance of meetups and have made a point of suggesting improvements that dont include things like 125$ projections for safecoin , safecoin is better than the US dollar, and other not so professional claims.
Nope sorry I don’t. But also wondering why when people take time to explain things you treat it as nothing and trivalise it.
Not really, just its hard to discuss when so much time is taken to explain things and then have it trivialised and told we don’t get your point. But seriously we do and are responding but you disagree and feel we don’t get your point.
Good. We now know what your focus is. But there is a much wider market out there to “sell” MAID to. Developers of APPs are needed in their thousands/more and they don’t consume SAFE but rather add to SAFE and build rather than consume.
Knowing this will help to have discussions on developers with those who see this as needed rather than try and explain this when you don’t want to discuss this aspect.
Well I see a number of views and a number of understanding, so saying this is rather down putting when its obviously not true to me and I’m sure others by what they say.
Well developer of APPs will be promoted to by a lot more methods than meetups, so I am sure there are good ways to promote to APP developers.
G’nite and I hope you have fruitful discussions tonight.
Most of your posts are thoughtfull and thorough. But I don’t agree that a long post is a good post and I believe that some people need to use too many words to say just few things. That applies here. I don’t write in sentences and most of the time I’m taking the meat out of a conversation and chewing on it and spitting it back. I’m on a mission, im not here to make friends or get upvotes. I offer constructive criticism because no one else will. My style is my style. It’s not wrong, it’s the way it is. Ignore me.
I don’t see how you believe this is a “much wider” market. The users of the safenet number in the billions.
Well I see it different and a great deal of people have a Misunderstanding and it could be the other 2,000 members here that dont post. But you won’t know and neither will I. But one thing is clear. It’s not clear.
But you have no comment on how it’s currently being promoted on meetup.com? Just that there are more ways?
Nice catch. Elegant. Simple and the video demo works nice. We know IPFS serves many layers and we see how slickly they move from simplicity to tech. This is a very good example and should be considered as part of any modeling for marketing.
Are there any thoughts about rebranding the safenet when it is closer to launch? Haven’t thought through all the pros and cons, but it could start a new buzz out there…
Holy crap. I cannot believe you mentioned this. Smart ! I was thinking the same thing not just a few days ago but figured Id get banned. Of course its not a good idea, it is a great idea. And its a good idea for this company because of the length of time they have been around. Companies rebrand all the time. Its costly and in some cases not successful. It wont surprise me if it hasnt been tabled inside between David and Nick. I agree with you it would start a new buzz and reinvigorate the audience. This is a long process but worth it. Good point @Dwieluns2
Honestly I think many of us have thought this at some time or another. When I first heard of Maidsafe I thought Maid? What the H. At the time I didn’t know it was a play on the RAID acronym. And we see what rebranding can do for projects like pivx or antshares (now neo). These days it doesn’t bug me because maidsafe is just the company and I think The Safe Network is exactly that. The SAFE acronym has its purpose at its core, it stands for something and it’s a big promise. It has balls imo. But I have had the same thought a few times.
Yes this has been a though since I joined 2+ years ago. While SAFE is good, I have thought that at some stage it may (or may not) end up with a more consumer focused name. But then I also think of “Apple”, the word “Apple” has nothing to do with computers yet almost everyone who knows about computers know of Apple. SAFE maybe just like that, in that people don’t take notice of the actual name but associate it with the network and don’t even realise the significance of the name.
As someone who has planned media and brand strategies for multiple Fortune 100 companies, I must respectfully disagree. To see how distinct marketing to consumers vs investors (for example) can be, peak around coke’s (or any public company that addresses multiple audiences) website, and see how distinct the investor relations pages are compared to the home page or your usual tv, OOH, print, digital, etc. spot. Marketing targeted towards investors will heavily focus on fiscal performance, operational efficiency, and corporate governance, whereas consumer-oriented messaging speaks to more subjective platitudes like “happiness” and “refreshment.” I guess you could say each audience thirsts for something different.
