Ann: I also have a small company and Portugal is a small target for any
software.

What I have used when starting to deploy the software is a A4-size folder,
nice glossy cardboard, that when we open it we have the places to put the
CD's inside. Argh, my english is to poor to explain something like this.
Anyway, there is no printed manuals inside, but I split the CD's in two: one
with the software and another with the manuals in PDF format.

I get that in Portugal, for quantities as small as 200 for about $1 USD each
one (without the Cd's of course).

This will be a start, before we can move to the boxes, the toy, and so all.
A nice cheaper start. We are talking about something to the end-user so what
we need is something 'nice'. They are not going to read the tech manuals!
And if they do, it's because they have some 'tech person' there and that
tech person know for certainly how to access a cd and read a manual in pdf
format.

Also, we are talking about that must be cheaper: something I can bought from
you and give free to my clients.

... and Ann:

Am I explaining myself? I don't want to create another roll of messages
about the logo, and tanks and war, and other things like that. What I want
is just helping "you" - the Firebird & IBPhoenix Team - to have some
marketing material who will allow us - developers who use Firebird for
commercial applications - have something nice to give to our clients, that
they will see something as a 'product'.

Also, it's a start for the Teams to get some profit: no project will be
successful without incomes. I don't think you can get this kind of profits
just for selling one Tech CD, that is target just for developers. Developers
will buy one of these, but they will buy much more of the end user
'Package'.

Artur

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ann W. Harrison"
To: <IBDI@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: [IBDI] Re: Just a marketing suggestion for FB1.0 CD


> At 03:59 PM 2/24/2002 +0000, Artur Anjos wrote:
>
> >But I would like to have Boxes, with CD's, and Manuals....
>
> Here's the problem, briefly. At a previous small company, we
> produced manuals, boxes, & CD's with silk-screened logos. Of
> course, we also needed a shipping box to hold the inner box.
>
> The books, if we ordered 100, cost about $75 / set (three books,
> total about 7cm thickness, spiral bound, black & white, not
> counting covers). The covers (3000 ordered) cost $5 for
> three pair (front and back of each book). The boxes (3000
> ordered, cost $12 each. The shipping boxes were another
> $2 each and the CD's were another couple of dollars. We could
> reduce the cost of the sets of books by ordering more at a
> time. In short, it cost about $50.000 before we shipped the
> first set. No doubt it could have been done for less - we
> were going for a high-class look and the person involved was
> spending Other People's Money ... still it's a lot to spend.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ann