[Kde-events] Merchandising

[Wendy Van Craen]

On 13-mrt-07, at 13:49, Sebastian Kügler wrote:

> We have some possible merchandising partners, for example  
> Kernelconcepts (a
> German company we've worked together with in the past). I talked  
> with Wendy
> (who did a great job at FOSDEM, thanks Wendy!) a bit about this,  
> and she has
> great ideas how to improve KDE's merchandising. Wendy, maybe you  
> could give
> an overview of how you think what can and should be improved?

I certainly am a bit a creative thinker, so I'll do my best to do  
some creative brainstorming on the merchandising issue.  Maybé not  
all the items I will mention below will be realisable, but before  
saying "no" to something, perhaps it's better to think further on the  
subject.

I would also like to say that all below are just idea's and my opions  
and views on KDE, so comment are welcome.

The best concepts are often grown out of the worst ideas.

Before I start there are some other issues I would love to write:
Merchandising is a powerfull tool if you know how to use it.  It is  
even more powerfull if there's a great and strong concept behind it.   
And it's obvious that KDE has this tools.  Now only remains the  
question how are we gonna use them?

On the Fosdem event I saw some really nice KDE merchandising stuff,  
but they were merely used to sell and not really used as a strong  
marketing-item.

KDE has two very strong signs: the KDE-sign and the masquotte Konqi.  
Both are very different and none of both should be underestimated.   
I'll explain:
At FOSDEM I discovered there's a large difference in target groups.   
There are developpers, switchers, potential switchers, merchandising  
collectors, kids, company or businespeople, teachers and schools,  
parents, lovers, ... are these are potential merchandising buyers and  
ask a different approach.

How?  Each logo attracks other people
KDE-logo = developpers, business, collectors, guys and men in  
general, switchers, schools (higher education)
Konqi = kids, parents, lovers, girls, teenagers, lower-schools

So I'll try to use this knowledge and translate it into merchandising.

Here are some of my crazy idea's:

We should seperate us more from the other open source-merchandising.   
This by selling more got-to-have-goodies which are strongly attached  
to our target groups.  If we have cooler merchandising, people would  
love to buy it, if they come to the booth to buy it, we can give them  
information about KDE, a free KDE-cd and this creates very powerfull  
mouth-to-mouth advertising.

MORE KID-MERCHANDISING
KDE has a lot of kids-project, but not really kiddi-merchandising  
(only stuffed konqi)  a lot of daddies asked about it.  And I really  
believe there's a market for it.  You know what they say:  the  
younger the better!

I don't know if someone knows the merchandising-hit Diddle?  Konqi  
absolutely has thesame power.  I'm certainly not saying we should go  
the Diddle-way, but there's a lot of unused power in Konqi we could  
bring into practice.

- stuffed Konqi should stay and maybé we should try to sell  a little  
more of them, though not to much, it has to keep his rare-object- 
abilities
    I really like it  like it is, but there is a baby-proof stuf in  
the market which is very very soft and makes teddybears look even  
sweeter.  Maybé we could inform about the possibilities to make Konqi  
even softer?  (If you don't know what I mean, I'll bring my most  
favorite stuffed teddybear to aKademy)

- baby t-shirts with konqi on it
    a lot of questions from daddies was a t-shirt from the nice  
dragon Konqi. What would seem nice is a white baby t-shirt with a  
large smiling konqi on it.  The green part of konqi is stuffed (very  
short hairy  and soft substance on t-shirt)
maybe for the most little ones whe could at little wings on the back  
of the shirt
maybe it could look as if Konqi is jumping out of the t-shirt,
and at the back of the t-shirt you'll see Konqi-tail, the tail curls  
towards the front of t-shirt

- large Konqi stickers with relief and/or without

- Konqi mug with/without relief

- Professor Konqi education animation theme on computer (= more for  
educational developpers)

- Konqi piggy-bank (all money you save with using KDE free software  
you can put in the piggy bank and use for something better)

- stuffed Konqi bagpack
- stuffe Konqi hand doll


MORE GIRLY MERCHANDISING

Girls love Konqi and boys love to buy Konqi for their girlfriend.

- stuffed Konqi, mug and sticker are also here important

- the keyring with Konqi also was popular

- what I'm missing is girly t-shirts, centered in the waist, nice V-nek
   Ideas: black shirt with a roughly sketch of Konqi on it in white,  
style: punk - rock, maybé at the back smalle sketch of wings and  
beneath  it a slogan like "Konqi is cool" or "Konqi rocks"  The rough  
drawing could also be a Konqi with a guitar or whatever.

Also girl t-shirts with KDE logo are welcome of course.  The logo  
shouldn't be to big.


MORE CREATIVE ART ON T-SHIRT

- I hate to tell, but in my opinion the KDE t-shirts are rather  
boring.  We should think of some really originall concepts and  
drawings to make nice shirts.  Best way to do this is to go looking  
in shops like We, Zara, Shopping halls, ...  and see what's in the  
market.  Then think of some nice idea's.

What  could be nice is a large KDE logo roughly stitched on the  
shirt.  (back or front)
If we go further We could even say: cut out the letters KDE, stitch  
blue stuf behing it and paint under the KDE-letters "Desktop  
Environment"

- black t-shirt with on front chest in smalle letters "KDE desktop  
environment" or a cool slogan and on back below the neck centered a  
small KDE-logo

- a nice sweater from KDE - black or dark blue with on back large KDE  
logo or Konqi  on front a slogan in small letters

- black or dark blue skarf (this idea came to me when I was almost  
freezing in the hallway on Fosdem because I was just wearing a thin  
sweater)

OTHER IDEAS

http://www.multigift.be
http://www.harogifts.be/
this site gives some nice ideas we could consider:

- anti-stress Konqi or KDE
- KDE longdrink glass
- large sticker for on laptop (my boyfriend Bart once printed a large  
KDE-logo sticker and stuck it on his laptop, seems that people love it)
- laptop protection sleeve
- larger stickers
- "I use KDE " removable sticker for car-window
- screan cleaning cloth with logo
- usb sensor lock with logo (computer automatic locks when your not  
near it)
- cool/hot pack (its a gelly substance in a plastick bag with a coin  
in it, if you break the coin the substance gets hot, if you boil the  
bag all returns to normal and you can start over again - very cheap  
and original gadget) -->  "warming up for KDE"
- Konqi stuffed keyring and maybé also one to hand up in your car




GREAT MERCHANDISING

- stuffed Konqi
- Keyrings
- mugs of glass
- Keramiq mugs
- small KDE stickers - although the smalle Konqi sticker also had  
some attracktions for kids, most people thought the sticker was to  
small for Konqi
- cotton bags

If you want to improve merchandising sell, I made some combinations  
on Fosdem and they sold very good.  People could chose to buy a  
solely item or buy one item and a cotton bag (to put the item in) and  
this would be more advantageous.  stuffed Konqi could only be sold  
with a bag.
t-shirts and mugs were mostly sold with bag.  Ofcourse this inquires  
some selling skills.





>
> We are in the position that we could have our self-designed stuff  
> created, but
> we weren't able to take advantage of this opportunity yet. Definitely
> something exciting to work on, especially for new contributors.  
> (There *must*
> be people out there who love Freedom and are good at designing t- 
> shirts and
> other stuff, so let's find them.)
>
> To give you an impression of how for example the KDE t-shirts that  
> I was able
> to collect look like, here's a link: http://vizzzion.org/kde/t-shirts/
> -- 
> sebas
>
>  http://www.kde.org | http://vizZzion.org |  GPG Key ID: 9119 0EF9
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