| From decwrl!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!jacobson Fri Sep 15 21:31:06 PDT 1989
Article 34465 of comp.sys.amiga:
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>From: jacobson@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: CBM's big push for the Amy is on!
Message-ID: <45600069@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 8 Sep 89 04:25:00 GMT
Lines: 166
Nf-ID: #N:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:45600069:000:8082
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!jacobson Sep 7 23:25:00 1989
I got this off a local BBS from one of our clubs former Presidents who is
now a dealer on the east coast for Commodore products. It tells what they
have now been told by Commodore about the fall ad campaign. I thought it
to be of enough interest to post here for you all
220
Msg # : 220 of 227 - Ref 9261
>From : STEVE ENDSLEY
To : ALL
Posted : 2036h on 05-Sep-89 * CUCUG
Subject: Commodore Owners Meeting
Base : General
Greetings Folks!
Just stopped to quickly go over the fall lineup on Commodore's Christmas sale
and publicity campaign.
Today Harry Copperman met with all store owners fron the East Coast area in
Newark, NJ at the Radison hotel conference room. He also brought along his
entire new staff to introduce to everyone, which did include your own Howard
Diamond. The basics went as follows:
- The A500 will be sold at its normal price, but will include
a. a software package of a paint prg, word processor, etc. (5 prgs)
none were stipulated by name
b. a coupon book of rebate certificates for software and 3rd party
peripheral hardware will be included. It is worth $500. in
redeemables at the local dealer
If you read, as I did, in INFO that there was a bundled 500/ram
expansion/monitor/software deal...........NOPE! That is it. BUT! I believe
this to be a terrific savings to the end user in as much as he must buy
software to get going, etc. So it really is worth more this way, and
Commodore doesn't have to shell out a group of bucks, and save it for the new
ad campaign.
THE AD CAMPAIGN!?!? Yes, it is true, and we saw the story board today, and
shooting starts next week. The commercials (3) are being produced through
Lucasfilms, and directed by the fella who did "Batteries Not Included". The
first commercial will include the Pointer Sisters, Tommy LaSorda, and the
Astronauts who wlaked on the moon. They will all visit little Stevies house
for advice from him and his Amiga..... Thesecond is about the power of the
Amiga, and little Stevie leveitates his house. That is where the Lucasfilm
part really helps out. The third commercial is......as they told
us........wait and see for yourself. An other words.....top secret. Rumor
has it that BB King will be in that one.
H. Copperman worked a deal since Lucasfilms is involved, and got Entertainment
Tonight to do a series of BEHIND THE SCENES captions as it is filmed. The
commercials are due to start airing the week of Oct 16, and ET will air a
portion of the making of the commercials each night that week. They are
scheduled to show 150 commercials/week from Oct 16-Nov 9; and then do 250/week
from Nov 9-Christmas.
On top of this! Time, Life, and Newsweek will start running ads in October as
well. It will consist of full page 'actual' success stories about Ami and the
user. They told us it will not be a small block on a page, but 7 full pages in
a row in each issue!
Then the emphasis turned to the new dealer plan, and Copperman made it clear
that NO AMIGA were to be magazine sold. Period. If any owneres are caught
selling to someone like Montgomery Grant, bye bye dealer. M. Grant is making
their sales possible at this time by purchasing liquidated machines at
bankruptcy sales. Any machine they sell, will not be considered warrantied!
Take notice!
Next, we spoke with Howard Diamond about the new plans to implement the Amiga
in the Universities. Yes, there will be a time soon when the AMIGA will be
sold to students and faculty for 40-50% off the 500, but no dates announced
yet. Plus, they will be handled through the local dealership, not Commodore
direct. New softwares are being written to beef up this program.
Then a brief plan was told on the new offices opening in Washington D.C. in
the next 2 weeks. If you heard of the largest computer contract ever landed
by a company a few years ago, it was Zenith who landed a GSA gvmt contract for
286 DOS machines. Well, the guy who engineered that plan and landed it, now
works for Harry. His goal is to land GSA contracts for Commodore in D.C. and
all gvmt agencies across the country.
Last for now, Harry Copperman told us, many mistakes were made in his office
by predecessors. He would have done things differently, and maybe AMIGA would
be known now. But now is our time, and we are pulling no holds. All the
stops have been pulled. They have already doubled the support staffs for
service, cleaned up the Quality control areas, and are now supporting the
dealers at all costs. He asks that we the dealers push the machine in the
U.S. because we need to sell over a million in the USA alone to make large
software companies take us seriously. He has already been in contact with the
major groups, and asked for Amiga supported software from folks like
Microsoft, Simaon and Schuster, etc. So a lot is in the works, and it appears
this Super Harry is for real. At the Q&A session, many skeptical dealers
asked questions, pretty much demeaning the "why should I believe this load
this time"? His response was simple. Becuae I wasn't the man at the top, and
someone else was. He said he is an engineer and knows what needs to happen,
and noone has ever been in his position with the qualifications he has. He
also said he has surrounded himself with the best in the industry, and iff
these guys can't do it, then all the computer industry is lost.
Anyway, that is the gist of the 4 hour meeting, and I came out feeling very
satisfied with this man. He is definitely in control, and demands his dealers
will help, or be fired. He has created some watch dog patrols to check out
dealerships to see if adequate sapport is being kept up to HIS standards. If
not.......so longs dealer.
Any questions, feel free to quiz me, there is a lot more, but these are the
basic highlights.
Cheers!
Steve Endsley
Owner/Pre.-Digital Connection Computers
Status : (A1)
End of Msg 220
Enter Msg to Read (1 - 227)
>221
Msg # : 221 of 227 - Ref 9264
>From : STEVE ENDSLEY
To : ALL (KEVIN HISEL)
Posted : 2232h on 05-Sep-89 * CUCUG
Subject: Nope
Base : General
Along the lines of a 14 mil ad budget....it did not happen! Commodore tried
to get the A500 into Sears and Montgomery Wards; showrooms, and that was where
the revenue of 7 million would come from. Since that did not happen, the
budget is now 7 million dollars, plus a loan for ads, based the fact that ALL
dealers MUST buy 20 A500 systems before Christmas. This is to help defray
what did not materialize.
Although, the A500 did come out in the Sears Christmas wish book, I personally
asked Harold Copperman at a meeting today if that was correct advertising. He
said he personally did NOT want it in the catalog, but in the showroom. But
the decision to put it in the book, and the fact that they were already being
printed happened before his time, so he had to just go with it for now. But
he did say, anyone buying it from Sears' book, and having a problem, would be
required to return it to Sears because they are responsible for having their
own repair department.
GOOD LUCK On THAT ONE!!!!
Steve Endsley
Status : (R)
End of Msg 221
Enter Msg to Read (1 - 227)
>
Well thats the messages I got. To bad about the $7 million from Sears and
Montgomery Ward, but it looks like Copperman is really trying to do what
we have wanted CBM to do all along----promote the Amiga. As others have
said it looks like the Amiga will no longer be an unknown. Now lets hope
the consumer gets hooked and lots of Amy's get sold!!!!
Russ Jacobson
Illinois Geological Survey
jacobson@uiucuxe
jacobson%uiucuxe@a.cs.uiuc.edu
jacobson%uiucuxe@uiuc.csnet
[ihnp4,pur-ee,convex]uiucdcs!uiucuxc!uiucuxe!jacobson
From decwrl!wuarchive!udel!udccvax1!don Fri Sep 15 21:41:53 PDT 1989
Article 34578 of comp.sys.amiga:
Path: rust!decwrl!wuarchive!udel!udccvax1!don
>From: don@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Donald R Lloyd)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: CBM's big advertising push
Message-ID: <4343@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU>
Date: 11 Sep 89 19:36:21 GMT
References: <17036@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: don@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Donald R Lloyd)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 53
In article <17036@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> c162-de@zooey.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (David Navas) writes:
>[Regarding commercials]
>I'm really confused now. Are we going to get commercials or not?
>Of what magnitude and where? (etc...)
We're gonna get commercials alright. Starting October 16th, five separate
commercials produced by George Lucas (an avid amiga fan!) and directed
by the guy who did "Batteries Not Included." They'll be running during
prime time hours from the 16 of October to the 24th of august. Look for 'em
during monday night football (well, maybe I'll just tape the game & fast
forward it to get to the commercials). CBM is also now an official sponsor
of Monday Night Football, as well as some college games, and a bunch of the
Christmas specials that apple usually buys into.
Then there's the 7-page ad in Time, Life, and Newsweek.
Why the sudden push? Mainly because CBM was recently approached by Lotus
and Microsoft about the possibility of porting their software to the amiga.
They reached an agreement that if CBM can sell 100,000 amigas in the US between
October and December, they'll port their stuff over to Ami, thus giving it a
tremendous boost in prestige (if I'm not mistaken, Lotus doesn't even write
its stuff for the Mac...). So CBM's thrown all the dollars (and then some)
that it can spare into a major ad campaign focusing on the 500 (the easiest
model to sell 100000 of), hoping to reach the 100000. If they don't, they won't
even break even from the ad costs, and they'll get quite a bit of negative press
from it, so the amiga may never take off. So basically, it's an all-or-
nothing kind of deal.
In addition to the ads, they'll also be shipping 500's with a word
processor, music program, and paint program, and when you send in your
registration they'll send you coupons for rebates on lots of CBM & third
party stuff.
The guy who tells me most of this is the sysop of a local amiga BBS.
He's also the product manager for a couple of local Computerland stores.
Sometime next month, his two stores will start carrying Amigas (they'll only
display the 500 at first, but will be able to order 2000's & peripherals)
He predicts that if these two stores can sell about 200 500's in the next
3 months, not only will they continue to carry it, but they'll probably
bring in a 2500.
He also mentioned that a year ago, his boss ( a district manager or some
such thing) was given a 500 by CBM and allowed to use it for a month or so.
After this time period, when CBM came back and asked his opinion of it, his
reply was something along the lines of, "I love it! But there's no way in hell
I'm gonna have it in my stores!" (it would take away too many sales of the more
expensive, less powerful Apple IIgs). He did buy one for himself, however.
Oh yeah, called CBM's customer service line lately? Count the rings.
Bet you won't hit two. (Unless of course you call at 1:00 am or some such
time).
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- Don Lloyd El Campeador don@vax1.acs.udel.edu |
| |Gibberish is | DISCLAIMER: don@pyr1.acs.udel.edu |
| |spoken here. | My employers are idiots. They wouldn't understand | | --------------- my babbling even if they WERE literate enough to read it. | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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