|
Jessica. very interesting that you have identified a couple of underlying issues here.
You mentioned the following, "I really feel that for growth you need to focus on the competition itself". I think growth has been at pretty darn good clip if you ask me - in fact I'm pretty sure most companies would love to see growth rates that FIRST has had over the past 10 years! My other concern is that although growth is important, I wonder if market share, is really at issue here. When you are the only game in town, growth is considerably easier than if you are in competition for the same resources ($$$, human, time) As far as the "competition" being the "hook" to continue growth or increase/maintain market share - I just don't think so, but I reserve the right to change my opinion until after this years kickoff - thats when we will see if FIRST is going after market share, growth or both. I believe that if this years game is "TV friendly" and "marketable" (that means commercially viable to show on the television and can sustain the audience in such a way that it creates half, no a quarter of the hype that segway has) it indicates the intention to take the competition "head on" (competition includes ALL other TV robot shows). If it is another, wonderfully thought out, very difficult to solve, but impossible to explain to the casual passer by in 1 minute or less, and doesn't require special math skills or calculators to know who is winning at any time - that indicates that FIRST is happy with the status quo and really has no intentions of "fighting for market share". Because of the GREAT disdain for what some of the other robotic programs attempt to sell, including a gladiator mentality - I believe FIRST would rather "find a way to distance themselves from their competitors" and in marketing that's called segmentation or target marketing - the problem is that the competition (robot wars, robotica, etc)doesn't really care and probably feels that there is plenty of room in the pool for everyone. In fact they probably feel that FIRST is less of a threat to them, than FIRST thinks of them. As stated by many folks involved in both FIRST and the competition - Can't we all just get along? Evidence to me that no matter how you try and differentiate this - its NOT a marketing issue. Especially, since FIRST is giving up market share, due to philosophical differences. Tough decision, but probably the correct one. It's been proven time and again, once a product starts to "take off", competition changes everything - everything from "How the product is defined" to "How its packaged".
You go on to say,
"I guess I'm saying that inspiration needs to come second in the presentation of the product; even though I know thats not the way we really want to do it, it makes it easier to swallow to the general public." My take on that is this - "Sugar coating makes alot of stuff more palateable, but it doesn't necessarily provide nutriments that sustain growth and build strong bones (a strong structure or foundation).
Sorry this is such a long response - hope it make sense.
|