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Borland Hopes Kylix Is Right Answer for E-Business

Borland is not asking, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”

But the e-business platform provider is hoping that its most recent direct mail piece — which uses the theme of the popular ABC game show — announcing the release of its newest product, Kylix, will help generate millions in revenue.

“When doing a direct mail piece, it's always good to use some kind of hook,” said Genelle Chetcuti, corporate marketing manager at Borland, Scotts Valley, CA. “Since the show is still very popular, we thought it would be a great way to get people to notice it and then open the piece up.”

The front of the piece — 185,000 of which were dropped during a two-week period starting Jan. 15 — displays a question with four possible answers, Kylix being the correct one. The presentation mimics the graphics used by the game show. The image of a man contemplating an answer appears above the question. The piece looks to convey that Kylix is the right answer for a company's needs.

Chetcuti said the cost of the campaign was more than $100,000, which is average for a Borland direct mail campaign.

The mailing notifies recipients that they can register for Kylix seminars that get under way this week in New York. The seminars will take place in 11 other cities across North America through March 8. The piece lists topics that the seminars will cover and promises that attendees will “become an expert in one day.”

Early bird pricing of $399 for the seminar, as well as the regular price of $449, is listed along with the promise that seminar attendees will receive a $50 coupon good toward the purchase of any Kylix product. They will also have the chance to win the Server Developer edition of Kylix.

While response numbers were not available, Chetcuti said the company hopes to get between 50 and 75 individuals per city to attend the seminars.

Kylix, which became available Jan. 31, is a rapid application tool for Linux, according to Chetcuti.

“We have been talking to the Linux community about Kylix for the past year or two while it was in the development stage,” Chetcuti said. “If they are interested in Linux, they should know the answer to the question on the front of the piece.

“The piece is pushing the seminars. We want to give people the ability to get a head start on learning this technical piece of software.”

Two demographics were targeted, including approximately 55,000 people in Borland's database, representing current Delphi developers; and another 130,000 prospects who are primarily Linux developers. The prospect names came from trade publication subscription lists.

Also receiving the piece were IS managers, Web developers and visual basic developers. New respondents will be added to the company's database.

The bottom half of the piece is a registration form. Aside from basic questions such as name and e-mail address, it also asks what industry respondents work in, the company's annual sales, its number of employees, whether they use Borland technology and whether they are involved in a Linux project.

Recipients can register by calling a toll-free number, mailing the registration form, faxing the form or visiting the company's Web site.

Respondents will receive e-mail reminders. Those who do not respond will receive an e-mail containing information similar to what was contained in the direct mail piece.

Borland worked with ad agency Simon Design, Santa Cruz, CA.

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