What does Linux want to be? Features and benefits for each customer segment?

26 May 2006 Category: Free software and Open source 1 Comment

Ubuntupeople.com requested assistance from the community to “brainstorm” marketing. Ubuntupeople is not associated with Ubuntu, the Linux distribution. Linux is a new interest for me and far from being my core competence.
Marketing is defined by Wikipedia as “an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders”.

Linux was always considered a generic and broad based tool, but was not considered to excel at any one thing. The Ubuntu distribution aims to be the “Linux for human beings”. It was the most likely Linux distribution to excel on the desktop. I thought that (1) customer segments beyond a narrow technical niche were not being targeted, and (2) the key marketing messages for each of these customer groups needed to be defined. I decided I would make a contribution. Ubuntu was about to recuit a new web master and one of his roles was to upgrade Ubuntu’s web site. It may be timely to initiate a conversation about “marketing” and “key messages”.

A copy of the online discussion is available below. I learnt a lot about participating in online discussions and also the language of the Linux community. The discussion was long, occasionally confused but we moved toward some “commercial” outcomes. I have extracted some of the key paragraphs to give you an insight into the thread discussion (and corrected a few typos).

Features and benefits

“Features

fits on a single CD

access more than 16,000 software applications

supports Intel, 64-bit and Apple PC’s

New versions every six months, updates available immediately

able to read and write Microsoft Office documents

complies with international standards

Each version is supported for three years and you can upgrade at any time

Free … to change, modify and pass on

Benefits

can operate on older hardware, may not need to buy new hardware

Less viruses, more secure

Free … no financial cost … forever

freedom from proprietary software

save money on software licenses and compliance costs

eliminate the risk of being fined for inadvertant piracy

upgrades and updates available immediately

access to the innovation of a large global community

“

““It must be assumed that a person will only look at the home page of a web site. Could the home page be used to convey the key marketing messages? I mocked up an Ubuntu home page as an example . The screenshots may be viewed at http://www.marcuscake.com/ubuntuhomepage.gif . ““

““The above are a generic set of marketing messages. The effectiveness of each in influencing decisions of each market segment would need to be addressed. The market segments on the mock home page include home, business and power users on the front page. This may be consistent with recent media reports which suggest Ubuntu should be used on the desktop, and Suse should be used as the server. These segments could, ofcourse, be extended to the enterprise, institutional and reseller/channel.”“

““I was also wondering whether “pirate” users of software are a market segment. One in three pieces of installed software globally are pirated. This includes a significant proportion of non-compliance by business. Non-complying businesses or users in major economies have a compelling reason to pay for the software, or use free software.”“

Any organisation, including open source communities like Linux, can only become what they want to become. Linux, or one of its distributions, would have to truly want to adopt marketing as a business function and understand other customer segments to move beyond its narrow technology person niche. The following discussion points were intended to ask the community what Linux, Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution wanted to be. In the next five years, every desktop user will consider replacing their desktop software with “free software” from Linux. If they don’t understand Linux can satisfy the needs of a many users, they will stay with what they know. It would seem a waste of community resources and opportunity for every Linux distribution to want to be everything to everybody, or to not pursue an effective marketing strategy.

What does Linux want to be?

“Key points for further discussion:-

(1) I am keen to understand the product positioning of Ubuntu and how it may evolve over time. Is it a Kernel (or screwdriver) which needs six weeks of training? Is it a product where people can build their own desktop? Is it a platform for people to create their own distribution (with five years of experience) to solve specific problems? Is it a conduit for open source solutions that allows users in multiple market segments to solve their problems with a minimum of time and at no cost. The problems would need to be defined and a few scripts would be required to solutions from software packages and from repositories? The incremental effort may be minimal, but the outcomes significant.

(2) What role does Ubuntu want to play in the impact that Linux may have on economic development? Ubuntu/Linux would need to move beyond their current market segment and satisfy a broader range of needs. Competing with Microsoft is an incremental step in the marketing strategy, but not the end game. The potential solution set of Linux/Ubuntu is enormous. The Microsoft solution set will be limited because of its business model. Given the dominance of Microsoft, additional users could only be acquired from their userbase and they need to be considered from a marketing perspective. The potential of Linux to provide “solutions on demand” is enormous. In contrast, Microsoft will always be limited in its ability to deliver solutions. Ubuntu could be a conduit for open source solutions.

(3) How is success defined? Is it the number of installed users, a quality desktop, the number of applications available, problems solved or market segments addressed. Could success be enough revenue which delivers self-sustainability and allows the redeployment of capital to kick start other global initiatives? [Mark Shuttleworth provide funding for Ubuntu. He made an initial donation of US$10m to Ubuntu. He also makes large donations to charity.]

“

EDIT (23 March 2007): The Ubuntu people web site appears to be no longer operating. A copy of the forum discussion is provided in the following PDF documents.

Ubuntu people forum discussion May 2006 page 1 (PDF)

Ubuntu people forum discussion May 2006 page 2 (PDF)