thinking about the Fedora brand (WARNING: this is for you)

[John Babich]

Karsten:

First of all, sorry if I'm posting to the wrong list. As part of our
preparation for GITEX, I have
had to think about two things recently:

1. Fedora's branding, and
2. Fedora's identity

I viewed the excellent presentation (yes, I pressed F5). Here are some
conclusions I drew from the slideshow:

ONE: BRANDING

Here is the crux of the matter:

In a commercial context, this is the definition of BRANDING:

 The main purpose of branding is to get
MORE people to buy MORE stuff
      for MORE years at a HIGHER price.

This definition doesn't make sense for a FLOSS community distribution.
This definition makes more sense in the Fedora Project context:

 The main purpose of branding is to get
MORE people to produce AND consume MORE FLOSS
     for MORE years at a HIGHER rate.

To further clarify, a strong Fedora brand will communicate the "Trust
= Reliability and Delight" formula:

Fedora: the Linux distro you can depend on (and more fun, too!)

Reliability = Quality and dependability
Delight = Cool technology with great design and the enjoyable gut
feeling of "scratching the user's itch"

TWO: IDENTITY

As pointed out in the presentation, "Identity is not a logo". At the
same time, we don't want to confuse people by mixing the Fedora and
Red Hat logos together. I'm glad Fedora is sponsored by Red Hat. I
also appreciate the need for Fedora to have its own identity. This
goes beyond legal issues like trademarks to providing quality and
reliability.

I say the Fedora identity is the experience of being part of the
Fedora Project community. The Fedora Project, warts and all, is a
quality open source community that produces a quality distro. That's
the differentiator.

CONCLUSION

The purpose of the Fedora Project is to produce and sustain a
leading-edge linux distribution with excellent developer and user
community support.

That's what Fedora offers and sets Fedora apart.

>From a 10-year linux user and 1-year Fedora Project member,

John Babich
Volunteer, Fedora Project