Re: CompUSA's Apple Users Open House
Re: CompUSA's Apple Users Open House
- Subject: Re: CompUSA's Apple Users Open House
- From: Barbara Passman <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 14:02:08 -0600
The Rest of Us , in Chicago, is annoyed with our local CompUSA. After
nearly two years of graciously allowing us to hold a monthly SIG in
the store's classroom area, the manager informed us, this month.
that we would have to pay $99 each meeting to use a room .
And this is to sit in a classroom, not using their PC equipment, in
the evening when none of the classrooms are in use!
WE learned that our sister MUG has had not luck for over two years in
working with the CompUSA servicing their communities and that the
Midwest COMPUSA management has not been responsive to overtures.
Naturally, my opinion is biased but it seems that corporate CompUSA
may be giving out double messages. Creating these events but
rebuffing organized Mac groups. OF course there are exceptions, as
described by the Syracuse MUG but on the whole the impression is of
disorganized and only halfhearted interest in appealing to Mac users.
WiWe are quick to blame Apple (and I am neither defending or accusing
Apple ) but ComPUSA, with respect to the poor publicity of the
event, could have done more to advertise to Mac users than it did
Barbara Passman
At 6:41 AM -0500 2/25/05, Douglas Small wrote:
I would tend to agree with Paul that this event was aimed at User
Groups alone. We had four members attend the event in Brandon (east
Tampa), FL. It was an hour drive for two of us, and almost a two
hour drive for another couple. The business unit there seemed
totally unprepared. There were no refreshments or give-aways as
found on their circular. The spot for the Mac Mini was an empty
hole.
We did spend some time with the Apple Solutions Specialist, Donnie
Fluty. He gave us some Apple logo'd items for meetings, and we hope
to have him in as a presenter soon. If there was any kind of pitch,
it was for .Mac.
I came away feeling somewhat flat. We bought a few small things,
and got a 10 % discount. We were told that two other MUGs had come
earlier in the evening. Inasmuch as we are midway between Orlando
and Tampa, it is a real effort to get to either market. I am not
sure I saw any point in having the Open House.
On Feb 25, 2005, at 6:01 AM, Paul Richards wrote:
I would like to compare notes with others regarding CompUSA's Apple
Users Open House held on February 24th. Did you attend? Was it well
attended at your local store? Was your users group actively
involved in any fashion? Do you have any other comments about it?
I am very grateful to the Apple Solutions Specialist and the
general manager of my local CompUSA for allowing the Syracuse
Macintosh Users Group to set up a table and rotate nine of our
senior volunteers at a prominent spot on the edge of the Apple
product area. We had people on hand throughout the event to promote
our group and to help answer customer questions about the products
there. We had quite a few of our members stop by to check out the
offerings in response to the event announcements I forwarded to
them. We also helped some people who are not members, who just
happened to come by and had not heard about the open house, and got
a couple of possible membership nibbles in the process.
On the other hand, I was very dissapointed to learn that there was
little or no promotion of this event outside the users group
circles. Although there were ads for the iMac, iBook and iPod
product lines in CompUSA's current sales circular, I saw no mention
of this "Open House" anywhere within its pages. No mention anywhere
else outside of those that came to me over the Internet in one way
or another either. No radio, no TV, no print media anywhere that I
could learn of.
I feel that Apple has again used users groups as a targeted
marketing channel and is badly missing on the bigger picture. The
members of my group already own Apple products. We are not going to
gain them any market share. If Apple and CompUSA had instead worked
hand in hand with users groups starting at the national level, and
put a little more money into promoting this in outside media, we
could have helped them broaden there target audience considerably.
At the same time, the users groups could also benefit from the
outside exposure, making it a potential growth opportunity for all
involved. Why is it that they don't seem to see that?
What do others think?
Doug Small
Lakeland Area Mac User Group
Ambassador
http://homepage.mac.com/flmug/
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Augd mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Augd mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden