Conference ilbbak::us_sales_service

    RE. 0
    I had the chance to see all of the commercials that Digital payed ?????
    for. I was embarrassed to see the poor quality, lack of message, and
    a message that a person seeing these commecials would have said what
    was that, where is the message. 
    
    	If you are going to show these commercials, run three different
    ones, right after each other. This way you will get the message across
    to the audience watching. The way they are now, they are too cryptic.
    
    	If you want an example, look at the Xerox commercial that always
    plays near ours, this commercial is 5 times better, has a message,
    presents the message to the viewer in a better way.
    
    	My .2 c, we wasted a lot of hard earned Digital money on something
    that could have been better presented.
    
    David
    

    Perhaps so but I think we tend to be too critical of ourselves. 
    Feedback I have received from customers on these commercials is
    uniformly positive.

    re.  .2
    
    Was the INTENT of the commercials to play to or reinforce EXISTING
    customers or was it to spread the word to potential customers and
    expand the 'believers'?
    
    The audience, content, and techniques would be very different.
    
    Preaching to the choir and proselytizing converts are two very
    different and distinct businesses.
    
    	-Barry-
    

    I thought they were kind of cute.  Lots better than Charlie Chaplin! 
    Remember that most people in the world still don't even know we make
    computers.  So even a little name recogbnition is good.  Yoo gotta
    start somewhere - let's hope the ads continue this time.
    
    _ Greg

In my opinion, I like the Xerox commercials much better, especially the one
showing diverse people with varying job levels within a company working together
to solve a common business problem.  It also interjects humor to complete the
story rather than our commercials, which tend to be humorous attempts that
deliver a marketing message as an afterthought.

bl

    Well, I see it from a Digital perspective. What did your customer get
    from these commercials?

    re .2
    
    I didn't do alot of probing around the subject. I kind of enjoyed
    getting the positive feedback and didn't ask what specifically they
    liked about the commercial.  Sounds like a good idea though and one
    that I'll follow up.
    
    This notes file would be good place for EVERYONE to document specific
    feedback from customers on the commercials. That way, we can learn by 
    doing and, hopefully, someone is reading them who can affect the content 
    of the commercials.
    
    My point in .2 was simply that the commercials weren't meant for
    us...they're meant for customers. Looking to them for feedback is a
    good idea.
           

             The Digital commercials
    My Digital interpretation:
    
    The sauna	- What was this about ? 	Naked men talking about
    		a win in a competitive scanerio. The Digital computer is
    		treated like a man in sauna. Whats the message ??
    
    The board room
    		 - Multi-vendor computers sitting around board room
    		table; and here's the new guy . { VAX 4000 at head chair }
    		Only internal people/installed people know what that was.
    		This was a strange, confusing NAS message.
    
    I sat with three fellow technologists, non-DEC;
    
    		This was there RAW UN-biased review in no particular order;
    
    1) What the hell was that all about ?
    2) Who is Digital, and can you sell me an apple mac cheap.
    3) Is your company New ?
    4) Whats the OPEN ADVANTAGE, a golf tournament ?
    5) IBM at least has humor/stars in there ads, why dont you ?
    
    
    This is from several intelligent professional people. I made no mention
    of anything prior or did I try to decipher afterwards.
    
    My 2 cents::
    
    	Advertising should at the most make you remember 1 solid point.
    
    A product name {KLEENEX}, a cute phrase { UH-HUH },a simple message
    { What if.. }. We accomplished none of the above.
    
    Digital the name is the easiest - Tell them Who we are !
    35 years, 2nd largest { we try harder..}, 125K employees { 2nd biggest}
    Digital Products - Tell them Desktop to datacenter...
    OPEN SYSTEM SOLUTIONS provider
    
    Digital
    " The right choice for the right solution"
    
    Call 1-800-DIGITAL to learn more...
    
    
    SIMPLE messages make the most complex issues clear!
    Thats not even my cute,funny ideas..
    
    							
    
    Lets get some more customer/employee feedback and get the valu out of
    these important ads. I do agree that these are very important to are
    future with new customers, lets target them to the new customers only.
    The current customers know us, hopefully!
    
    							K.M.H.
    							dtn 345-2436
    							SME 
    
    

    Re. 0
    You hit it right on the head. There isn't any message in these
    commercials. For a message look at the Xerox commercials, they are
    outstanding. RE last message, Xerox shows you how it should be done.
    
    Dave
    

	I too saw the commercials ... but ... to be honest, I really
	enjoyed them.  As an employee, I enjoyed responding to the people
	in the room by telling them WHO Digital is, what we do, and why
	we're advertising.  I especially enjoyed telling them why this was
	one of the first times we have advertised and why it is important
	NOW more than ever in the past.  I enjoyed telling them about our
	rich legacy of engineering and why, in the past, we invested our
	money in products and not into PR.  etc, etc.

	So, my question to this conference is simple.  Could it be that
	the agency who created the ads intentionally left off the historical,
	informational, or message content .... with the idea that it would
	at various times, with various customers/prospects allow each and
	everyone of us a chance to describe Digital ?

	After all, as a company of engineers and computer professionals,
	what the heck makes us think we know anything about advertising !!

	-- gerry

    Re: .10
    
    Gerry, you have direct contact with customer and therefore are able to
    discuss the Digital commercials.  My view is that one of the goals of
    advertising is to introduce the public to new companies/products etc.
    In this the commercials failed; if we as company representatives have
    to explain our commercials we missed the boat.  Advertising should help
    us reduce our pre-sales expenses by getting messages out that are
    normally promoted by Digital reps, I do not believe that we achieved
    that in the current commercials.
    
    John "D Cowboys" R.

    I was very disappointed in our recent batch of commercials. They
    are as bad as the ones we ran back in the P.C. days. For some rea-
    son we assume that everyone knows who we are, what we make, and
    where it is used.  Maybe Charles Holleran, our new V.P. of Comm-
    unications can fix things. First on his list should be that awful
    message we put on the Nightly Business Report. 
    
    I find it hard to believe that we have systems all over the world;
    saving lives, planting crops, making cars, helping people walk,
    doing the census, teaching students, etc. And we can't seem to
    put some sort of message together using all that to let people
    know "This is who we are and what we do". Like G.E. does in theirs
    which I find excellent.

    
    RE: .10
    
    > I enjoyed responding to the people in the room
                                         ***********
    
    	What about the THOUSANDS of viewers who didn't have the advantage
    of having a Digit in the room to tell them what they _really_ meant?
    
    	Whoever approved these should have their salary continuation plan
    reviewed.  They're just wasting money on an agency who doesn't have the
    slightest idea what the public thinks of/about us (like WHO, etc.).
    
    IMHO

    I for one happen to think that the commercials were well done.  They
    delivered a single, clear message:  Digital is there to help customers
    turn their disjointed systems into a cohesive unit.  I didn't hear a
    single product mentioned and was glad of that.  Most Digital marketing
    ends up sounding like we sell seamlessintegrationofmultivendorcomputer
    environmentsusingteamcomputingsoftwareandharwareincorporatingOSF/Unix
    windowsgraphicaldisplayssupportinghierarchicalpeertopeernetworking
    platformsusingopenstandardslikeDOSOSFNFTPOSIXVMSUNIXCDAOSILMNOP...
    well, you get the picture.
    
    The best messages are simple and clear.  How much information can you
    really expect to convey in 30 or 60 seconds, especially in the context
    of a metaphor (what most effective TV advertising seems to look like
    these days)?  We're not selling toothpaste, for crying out loud!  If
    a customer makes a connection between their business problems and
    Digital's message, they're probably smart enough to pick up the phone
    and ask for more detail.
    
    Al
    

    I agree that the commercials were well produced, but I also agree that
    the average NCAA basketball viewer would have a hard time relating to
    the message.  I think that the #1 thing we need to accomplish with
    television (mass market) advertising is to get readers/viewers to
    recognize that Digital is really a major player in the computer market. 
    We're bigger than Apple, we're bigger than SUN, we're #28 on the new
    Fortune 500 rankings, but to a great number of people the name Digital
    Equipment Corporation draws a blank.  I work with customers an area of
    the country that is a very long ways from Greater Maynard, and not too
    close to Silicon Valley, and sometimes when I tell people I work for
    Digital, they look at me kind of funny, and then say, "Oh yeah, I have
    one of your watches!"
    
    We have a wonderful story to tell, but until people know enough about
    our credentials to listen to us, the message will fall on deaf ears.

    RE: 98:15
    
    I worked for DEC corporate for 3 years before coming to the field.
    
    Unless you are in New England , Digital stands for watches,clocks and
    radios.
    
    In New England everyone is either related to a DEC employee or is one.
    Digital does all its corporate advertising in its own backyard.
    { EX:WBZ and Weatherschool sponsored each night by Digital}, but
    try to have these marketing essentials in your city, NOT !
    
    Corporate only pays for HQ ads and these hokey un-informing ads on TV.
    
    Wake up a smell the roses, look outside and live in another region of
    the country and see who knows of Digital. Then you will see what we are
    talking about.
    
    "If you work in a pickle factory all day you dont notice the smell, but
    if you visit one, you'll say it smells."
    
    OPEN your eyes and ears to some people outside of the New England
    coast.
    
    							K.M.H.
    

    re .16
    
    Having never lived in New England, welcome to the rest of the world!
    
    We ran a tradeshow booth a couple years ago up in Duluth, Minnesota. 
    That's *North* of the Mississippi river for you guys from other parts
    of the USA.  You could call Duluth the middle of North America USA.
    
    What an experience.  This was a DPMA show, where people who work in our
    industry come and see what the vendors have to offer.  You would think
    at least the people in the computing industry would know who we are,
    right?  I lost count of how many people came to our booth and asked us,
    "Who are you guys and what do you sell?"
    
    So, for you guys who do advertising - if you can reach the people in
    Duluth, Minnesota then you've done a good job.  You should do some
    focus group work in Duluth for a sample of "the rest of the country".  
    
    If we get a chance to try a similar show again in Duluth, I'll report 
    the results here.
    
    - Greg

I agree the ads seem to have a regional focus. If you live in the GMA area and
know what DEC is they may play ok. The bottom line in advertising and marketing
is "does it sell?" If it does its good and if its doesn't you wasted your money.
Time will tell. Hope marketing is doing some marketing sureys to see if the
ads are working in all regions of the country or just GMA area.