How did Commodore go to market in your locale?

[fxgogo]

In South Africa, a company called Tedelex had the license to import the machines. They must of done some marketing, but I never saw anything. Probably business to business stuff. but like other markets, were not sure how to sell this thing. The price did not help either.

The Amiga was not big in SA for home users. It had a big use in the professional TV and animation markets. We were lucky that we got both U.S.A and U.K. magazines in the shops, so had a good place to get our Amiga fix.

For most of us, we had to import our software and hardware ourselves. I remember doing that with Imagine, Deluxe Paint and Imagemaster. Fun with fax machines and bank transfers.

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by giantclam

Thanks for replies so far.... interesting there's no 'common theme'...yet another C= thang I guess =)

Not sure where you get this from.

Obviously there were regional differences, and you might expect C64 ads to be a bit different from Amiga ads, but most of the Amiga ads at least appear to have a similar theme.

Or were you expecting identical ads dubbed over with different voices and prices?


1984 IBM PC adverts:-

USA
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Germany
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[Jope]

It is very much another C= thang, since all countries where these were for sale officially had their own local companies doing local marketing.

[aeberbach]

I don't recall ever seeing a TV ad in Australia, but I didn't watch a lot of TV. That tool John Laws was on display in the computer shops, not sure how anyone thought that was money well spent.

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by Jope

It is very much another C= thang, since all countries where these were for sale officially had their own local companies doing local marketing.

And other companies didn't?

[fxgogo]

Given the time period of the 80's and 90's, globalization was not a business process that was common place. It really only found popularity in the mid to late 90's. Most companies and brands did give a large amount of freedom to regional and local markets.

So I would say that Commodore was doing what most other companies were doing.

[TCD]

https://archive.org/details/commodor...ge/n1/mode/2up
1987 German ad. 'MS-DOS combatible'... huh.

[Megalomaniac]

I assume the A1000 did have a Bridgeboard PC emulator or similar available by then? Even if so, it seems like vague advertising (at best) not to clarify that you need extra hardware - especially as an Amiga couldn't even read PC disks at that time, whereas I think STs and Macs could.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

I assume the A1000 did have a Bridgeboard PC emulator or similar available by then? Even if so, it seems like vague advertising (at best) not to clarify that you need extra hardware - especially as an Amiga couldn't even read PC disks at that time, whereas I think STs and Macs could.

Transformer came out in 1985 alongside the Amiga 1000, and ran PC software - I ran Jacaranda Jim on it

It emulated a roughly half-mhz 286.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

And other companies didn't?

Tell us how it is then.

[CCCP alert]

Earliest C= ad I saw on TV was for the computer compendium bundle, narrated by Stephen Fry. Sadly nobody has it, I trawled through 100+ hours of advert compilations on youtube

[giantclam]

..just stumbled across this UK teevee ad...

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[TCD]

TV ads for the A600 in 1992 You can't make that up.

[giantclam]

..this one is no holds barred... out of the US at a guess....(would've cost some $$$)

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[Photon]

In Sweden, ads were all in the magazines, and since quite early! - I'd say 1978 on? In the mid 80s we started getting foreign computer magazines, but they were more of a complement.

We didn't get TV ads until the 1990s, when "cable" rights were being sold. I recognize toothpaste ads and LOL cos how do you "have" something selling another brand of toothpaste. Yay, we convinced someone to buy another $1 tube of paste, instead of that other $1 tube of paste. It is extremely weird.

In 1984 there was no need to tell anyone there were home computers. Everyone knew all the brands and specs and games cos mag reviews and postal order ads with game lists. Our webshop of the time

There were also other ads, private ads. Because even home computers with peripherals cost a bit and we were constantly on the look for an upgrade, and you had to sell your old and put money in between to afford the new. (Hint: Only school bought monochrome computers, ever. Not a single monochrome computer was ever bought by a private person. Because we knew those from the 70s, they were no good and didn't work with home TV sets.)

We didn't quite have the computer ed program of (from what I understand) the UK did, but we did get some information computer programs on TV.

In 1990 and on there were some games and demos featured on TV programs, famously Phenomena, Team 17 and later the phone-in Hugo game. But I would say this was very late, everyone would have had and used at least 2-3 home computers by then.

Hope this helps.

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by TCD

TV ads for the A600 in 1992 You can't make that up.

According to the Amiga History Guide, Commodore sold 200,000 A600s in 1992. That's the same as the number of A500s sold in the 12 months from July 1989 to June 1990. Not too shabby for a machine that was supposedly a flop, at a time when the Amiga was supposed to be outdated.

[TCD]

If you compare that to the over 1 million A500 sold the year before I'd call it a flop. A at least 80% decline in sales? That's a huge flop.