I don't think that Marketing is about what works and what does'nt work in a software.

What I think is that a part of marketing is about letting known to others that a product exists. And that this products is backed-up by the company that makes it.

Marketing should'nt be based only on an already established community.

Marketing should be there to compare it to other products in the same category and show what it can do that others can't.

I never had formal marketing training but what I'm saying is based on what I see regularly when other products are marketed.

And I'm sure I forgot a lot of things that could be done from a marketing department.


>To be honest, I hate to say anything derogatory about MSFT's VFP marketing efforts right now (give me some time), because I just started using VFP8 and I'm really happy with the product's improvements. However, I am still looking for the gui use of the new tools like cursoradapter and the xml stuff (like Delphi has) instead of only pure code examples...for instance, in Delphi you can drop this stuff on a form and gui properties pop up (or by right-clicking on it and selecting properties) to be configured.
>
>Tracy
>
>>Perhaps you did'nt notice the grin <g>. Then again perhaps I should've used LOL. I should probably use LOL from now on when speaking of the marketing for VFP because to me that's all it deserves.
>>
>>When was it the last time you saw something worth mentioning from a VFP marketing standpoint?
>>
>>Will we see some serious VFP marketing happen one day? I seriously doubt it based on the answers I received.
>>
>>
>>>Hi Denis,
>>>
>>>I disagree. I've run into many VB and C developers that have bad-talked VFP from their knowledge of VFP3. After enlightening them on the advantages of VFP a demo would have been great. A demo, IMHO, also does a LOT of marketing on its own as many developers would download and try it out from curiousity alone and some would stay with it once they saw its capabilities. From there, the more VFP8 users, the more money and manhours MSFT will invest in product updates and marketing.
>>>
>>>Tracy
>>>
>>>>You forgot to tell that putting energies on a demo version would take time away from the all the marketing efforts <g>. And we really don't want that to happen.
>>>>
>>>>>While it may seem easy to you, in reality, it isn't that simple:
>>>>>
>>>>>- How would you cripple the demo? Limit the number of records? Disable some functionality? Time bomb it?
>>>>>- Developers currently working on Europa would need to divert time and attention to the demo.
>>>>>- Testers would need to fully test the demo, again taking away from Europa.
>>>>>- Some users would prefer the resources be placed on a demo version, others would rather see them fixing actual bugs in VFP8 so they don't appear in Europa.
>>>>>
>>>>>>Does anybody knows why there is no evaluation version of VFP8 ?
>>>>>>I need to test VFP8 without paying. I do not want to work with BETA .
>>>>>>Why something that is quite common in software industry (see VS.NET see DELPHI etc etc etc) can't be done in case of VFP. It seem SO EASY. I do not understand. I do not understand. Such things make me feel more and more like stupid staying with VFP ?