5 ms·

um, did anyone else notice that Mozilla has 100 people in their marketing department? What do they all do?

by rswail 7y ago

Dolores12 7y ago
Spending Google's money.
- shantly 7y ago
  Justify some exec's paycheck. "I run a 100-person department!"
zulln 7y ago
How many would you have guessed they were? The number does not stand out for me.
- sodosopa 7y ago
  Honestly they can afford a staff with a smaller window of experience. They wouldn’t be able to afford a competent agency of 20 or more people.
sp332 7y ago
That's one marketing person per 3 million active users.
- catalogia 7y ago
  How many of those active users can reasonably be claimed to have initiated their relationship with Firefox as consequence of that 100 person marketing team, rather than, say, word of mouth in the tech community? I don't think I've ever seen an ad for firefox.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - jekrb 7y ago
    There have been a few Firefox commercials on cable television that aired during season 3 of Mr. Robot.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      Maybe I'm just out of touch, but what target demo is still watching cable television instead of watching TV shows online? The last time I saw people sitting around a television (with a television station on it), I was visiting a nursing home.
      - luckylion 7y ago
        They have/had campaigns run on YouTube, you can watch them on their channel.
        catalogia 7y ago
        I'm sure the ads exist. I'm questioning their value. If nobody sees the ads unless they go looking for the ads, then what value are they?
      - bduerst 7y ago
        Their target market is internet users who can install a browser. This include markets outside of yourself and nursing homes, and includes the audience of Mr Robot.
tomcooks 7y ago
Pick which teddybear drawing is more suitable as an illustration for the "WOOPSIE BIG COMPUTER DID A POOPIE :angryemoji:" chldish error messages. Ah, also how to break their promises of privacy to promote a TV show. /rant
bduerst 7y ago
No idea about Mozilla but it's a large enough organization and user base that those 100 people could be working on: - Acquisition: Managing channels like search and social ads to grow the user base, upsell browser usage across devices, etc. - Branding: Working on display and out of home media that reinforces values like privacy and security with how people think of Mozilla - Partnerships: Working with other tech companies to co-promote or integrate directly (like Ubuntu, etc.) - Product: Writing release copy, blogposts, etc for new feature launches, announcements, etc. and ensuring they highlight what users want - Events: Having a presence at major tech events to showcase new product features, reinforcing the brand, making users happy, etc. - PR: Working with media companies to share assets, messaging, and updates on releases, announcements, etc. to make sure referral moments (like this very article) are favorable
uitiosders 7y ago
I was also shocked to read they spend between $20-100 million in advertising! Which that much money, couldn’t they just use the majority of advertisement budget to pay a team of great developers for decades?
- kelnos 7y ago
  Sure, but what's the point, if no one uses your browser? Marketing is a necessary evil.
  - cf141q5325 7y ago
    In this case, with Mozilla Corporation as well as the budget mainly coming from google instead of user donations, you have a point. They have a financial interest in higher user numbers. Your statement is however not universally true. If you have a large enough userbase to finance development, or are an open source project, as a non-profit growth is not something you need to spend money on. That really only matters if you have a profit interest. Differently put, you dont need everyone to use your software, it is enough that its available for people who need it. With more growth you get a litany of new problem with having to do something with the incoming money as a non profit. That often means feature bloat, while, "keep it simple stupid" would have led to a better solution. Not to mention adding features the new userbase requests. In the worst case you end up with a completely different product which for many of the old userbase and volunteers is just as bad as if the project was canceled altogether. All of this not to mention that, while it makes sense for Firefox, the thought that my donation to develop Firefox ended up in some marketing budget irks me deep down.
- roca 7y ago
  They've already been paying a team of great developers for decades. OK, they could pay some more great developers, but as a developer myself, even I agree that 100% development 0% marketing is not the ideal resource allocation.
pier25 7y ago
Whatever they do it’s not working. FF market share has been going down for years.

um, did anyone else notice that Mozilla has 100 people in their marketing department? What do they all do?

by rswail 7y ago

um, did anyone else notice that Mozilla has 100 people in their marketing department? What do they all do?

Dolores12 7y ago

Spending Google's money.

shantly 7y ago
Justify some exec's paycheck. "I run a 100-person department!"

zulln 7y ago

How many would you have guessed they were? The number does not stand out for me.

sodosopa 7y ago
Honestly they can afford a staff with a smaller window of experience. They wouldn’t be able to afford a competent agency of 20 or more people.

sp332 7y ago

That's one marketing person per 3 million active users.

catalogia 7y ago
How many of those active users can reasonably be claimed to have initiated their relationship with Firefox as consequence of that 100 person marketing team, rather than, say, word of mouth in the tech community? I don't think I've ever seen an ad for firefox.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- jekrb 7y ago
  There have been a few Firefox commercials on cable television that aired during season 3 of Mr. Robot.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    Maybe I'm just out of touch, but what target demo is still watching cable television instead of watching TV shows online? The last time I saw people sitting around a television (with a television station on it), I was visiting a nursing home.
    - luckylion 7y ago
      They have/had campaigns run on YouTube, you can watch them on their channel.
      - catalogia 7y ago
        I'm sure the ads exist. I'm questioning their value. If nobody sees the ads unless they go looking for the ads, then what value are they?
    - bduerst 7y ago
      Their target market is internet users who can install a browser. This include markets outside of yourself and nursing homes, and includes the audience of Mr Robot.

tomcooks 7y ago

Pick which teddybear drawing is more suitable as an illustration for the "WOOPSIE BIG COMPUTER DID A POOPIE :angryemoji:" chldish error messages. Ah, also how to break their promises of privacy to promote a TV show. /rant

bduerst 7y ago

No idea about Mozilla but it's a large enough organization and user base that those 100 people could be working on: - Acquisition: Managing channels like search and social ads to grow the user base, upsell browser usage across devices, etc. - Branding: Working on display and out of home media that reinforces values like privacy and security with how people think of Mozilla - Partnerships: Working with other tech companies to co-promote or integrate directly (like Ubuntu, etc.) - Product: Writing release copy, blogposts, etc for new feature launches, announcements, etc. and ensuring they highlight what users want - Events: Having a presence at major tech events to showcase new product features, reinforcing the brand, making users happy, etc. - PR: Working with media companies to share assets, messaging, and updates on releases, announcements, etc. to make sure referral moments (like this very article) are favorable

uitiosders 7y ago

I was also shocked to read they spend between $20-100 million in advertising! Which that much money, couldn’t they just use the majority of advertisement budget to pay a team of great developers for decades?

kelnos 7y ago
Sure, but what's the point, if no one uses your browser? Marketing is a necessary evil.
- cf141q5325 7y ago
  In this case, with Mozilla Corporation as well as the budget mainly coming from google instead of user donations, you have a point. They have a financial interest in higher user numbers. Your statement is however not universally true. If you have a large enough userbase to finance development, or are an open source project, as a non-profit growth is not something you need to spend money on. That really only matters if you have a profit interest. Differently put, you dont need everyone to use your software, it is enough that its available for people who need it. With more growth you get a litany of new problem with having to do something with the incoming money as a non profit. That often means feature bloat, while, "keep it simple stupid" would have led to a better solution. Not to mention adding features the new userbase requests. In the worst case you end up with a completely different product which for many of the old userbase and volunteers is just as bad as if the project was canceled altogether. All of this not to mention that, while it makes sense for Firefox, the thought that my donation to develop Firefox ended up in some marketing budget irks me deep down.
roca 7y ago
They've already been paying a team of great developers for decades. OK, they could pay some more great developers, but as a developer myself, even I agree that 100% development 0% marketing is not the ideal resource allocation.

pier25 7y ago

Whatever they do it’s not working. FF market share has been going down for years.