Selling Logos 4 in Bookstores?
Comments
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About 100 years ago (just kidding) I went into a Christian bookstore and saw a product called CDWORD from Dallas Theological Seninary. It was the first time I saw real Greek text on a computer, and Greek lexicons, and it parsed. That was the day I decided to buy a computer, and within a few months CDWORD. When Logos started, they bought the rights to CDWORD (if my memory is correct.) When Logos came out, I was there waiting eagerly.
So I do trace my knowledge of Logos directly to that day in a Christian bookstore.
But I am an old guy, and things have changed. I realize that. Bob knows a lot more than I do about running his company.
However, I do care deeply about the future of Logos. I can't believe that an inexpensive package of resources in Logos 4 could not dominate the market for the lay persons Bible software dollar. There is no comparison in the quality of the Logos engine to anything else.
A visit to a bookstore gave me a new idea relating to Logos last week. A national Christian bookstore has a $9.99 sale on an entry level Logos 3 package on clearance now. I am considering buying a dozen of these and having a "Study the Bible on Your Computer" course in my Church. I would just give the packages to the class. Then I would recommend a few additional resources that could be bought from Logos.com. I think that would really benefit my members and would also benefit Logos. I think the interest would be high, and the members of the class might be Logos customers for life.
"In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church," John Wesley0 -
News flash. Christian retailing is dead. No one buys music from them anymore. Books have been swallowed up by Kindle, iPhone, soon iPad and more. Software never did sell very well in stores. And, you can only sell so many trivets with Jesus Loves you on them. In short -- you can't make money with a brick and mortar store and Logos knows their product would collect dust.
Elder/Pastor, Hope Now Bible Church, Fresno CA
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Michael Childs said:
A visit to a bookstore gave me a new idea relating to Logos last week. A national Christian bookstore has a $9.99 sale on an entry level Logos 3 package on clearance now. I am considering buying a dozen of these and having a "Study the Bible on Your Computer" course in my Church. I would just give the packages to the class. Then I would recommend a few additional resources that could be bought from Logos.com. I think that would really benefit my members and would also benefit Logos. I think the interest would be high, and the members of the class might be Logos customers for life.
Did that two years ago for a Bible Study class at my church. Worked great.
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Mark A. Smith said:
Often word-of-mouth or a mention by a teacher or pastor counts more than a demo in a Christian book store. And in most cases you couldn't get a demo in a bookstore anyway, just a pretty box with a DVD inside.
Mark you are absolutely correct in that word-of-mouth is how most people find out about Logos. I did mine doing a bunch of on-line research looking at the different packages offered by different vendors and talking to several Pastor friends regarding Logos. All had heard of it, but didn't have the budget to purchase or weren't technology oriented. I have talked to sapes people in several stores and one of them was the son of a local pastor and he and his dad both think Logos is the best. So again it would be word of mouth. At the two closest Christian bookstores in my area the same beat up Logos 3 boxes are on display. At the store I purchased my Pastor's Library it was a special order as they didn't have any Logos products in stock.
So I presonally do not see it as an issue and still see it as an opportunity to talk to people about Logos everywhere I go.
In Christ,
Ken
Lenovo Yoga 7 15ITL5 Touch Screen; 11th Gen Intel i7 2.8Ghz; 12Gb RAM; 500Gb SDD;WIN 11
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Floyd, I purchased mine through a Christian bookstore, not because I saw it there - they didn't have any copies and had to special order it in - but because of my homework on-line.
In Christ,
Ken
Lenovo Yoga 7 15ITL5 Touch Screen; 11th Gen Intel i7 2.8Ghz; 12Gb RAM; 500Gb SDD;WIN 11
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Bob Schaefer said:
What if Wal-Mart's $10 software selection included a Logos starter set? What if Logos fans could direct their family and friends to a free download of L4 and a few basic resources? (Yes, they could get the free eBible demo in L3 and then download the new L4 engine, but that's a lot of work - I'm talking a one-click install here.)
Bob, from my knowledge of the inner workings of Wal-Mart, a $10 software offering would be a next to nothing revenue stream for Logos. Wally World dictates prices to their vendors, where else can you have some 30-something talk to a Disney Executive with an opening line like "Okay, what can Disney do for Wal-Mart?"
Personally I am glad not to see Logos in Wal-Mart @ $10, because I would probably not think it was worth much if it was selling at that price. Don't get me wrong I like a bargain and a fair price, but it you are willing to give it away it isn't worth much. Case in point the software company (we aren't one of the behemoths like Oracle, SAP, etc) went up against one of these large behemoths for a very large company's as their business solution. The other side went to the executives of the company and said they would give the software to them for the deal - planning to make up the revenue on support - to which the CEO rsponded and said "Then your software isn't worth anything." which ended their hopes and negotiations. We ended with the deal. I said all that to emphasize that price does matter both ways. It's a two-edged sword. Price to high you're out of the market. Too low and no one takes you seriously.
God Bless.
In Christ,
Ken
Lenovo Yoga 7 15ITL5 Touch Screen; 11th Gen Intel i7 2.8Ghz; 12Gb RAM; 500Gb SDD;WIN 11
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Something else that's related to this subject is the idea that Bob Pritchett brought up in one of his posts. He compared Logos 4 to a luxury automobile - a Lexus - if I remember correctly.
But I think that saying that Logos 4 is a "luxury" or "premium" Bible software misses the mark. It's not "Luxury" Bible Software - it's "Professional Level" Bible Software. There's a difference.
So, I think a better approach when comparing Logos 4 to other Bible programs - would be to liken it to a comparison of the programs AUTOCAD and Sketch-Up from Google.
AUTOCAD is a "professional" level software for serious drafting and architecture, whereas Sketch-up is sort of a tool for amateurs. Sketch-Up can't do half of what AUTOCAD can do.
So, (IMHO) - it would be better to use a tag line like: LOGOS BIBLE SOFTWARE; Professional Level Software For The Serious Study of Scripture.
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Stein Dahl said:
LOGOS BIBLE SOFTWARE; Professional Level Software For The Serious Study of Scripture
Stein I could agree more with your analogy. I liked the tag line too.
In Christ,
Ken
Lenovo Yoga 7 15ITL5 Touch Screen; 11th Gen Intel i7 2.8Ghz; 12Gb RAM; 500Gb SDD;WIN 11
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Stein Dahl said:
Something else that's related to this subject is the idea that Bob Pritchett brought up in one of his posts. He compared Logos 4 to a luxury automobile - a Lexus - if I remember correctly.
But I think that saying that Logos 4 is a "luxury" or "premium" Bible software misses the mark. It's not "Luxury" Bible Software - it's "Professional Level" Bible Software. There's a difference.
So, I think a better approach when comparing Logos 4 to other Bible programs - would be to liken it to a comparison of the programs AUTOCAD and Sketch-Up from Google.
AUTOCAD is a "professional" level software for serious drafting and architecture, whereas Sketch-up is sort of a tool for amateurs. Sketch-Up can't do half of what AUTOCAD can do.
So, (IMHO) - it would be better to use a tag line like: LOGOS BIBLE SOFTWARE; Professional Level Software For The Serious Study of Scripture.
Dale Pritchett once wrote - (in the printed user's manuals) -
"Logos Bible Study Software was designed and written to enhance personal Bible study. At Logos Research Systems we believe that quality software tools and texts make the Bible more accessible and facilitate its study. We thank all of our loyal users who have been gracious with their time and suggestions to assist us in making Logos Bible Study Software the unparalleled biblical library tool that it has become. We are commited to providing these tools and welcome your comments and suggestions towards this end." - emphasis added
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If this is what LOGOS wants to be (priced out of market; professional software...) then bring back Libronix. ( If I hadn't bought Ultimate... for $19.99 I would never, ever have heard of LOGOS. And if I had, I wouldn't have been interested.)
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Jeff Moore said:
If this is what LOGOS wants to be (priced out of market; professional software...) then bring back Libronix. ( If I hadn't bought Ultimate... for $19.99 I would never, ever have heard of LOGOS. And if I had, I wouldn't have been interested.)
Jeff, welcome to the forums.
For many people a reasonable Logos setup is under $40 - which is scarcely "priced out of market". Bob's vision is to be able to serve everyone from a Sunday School participant to a pastor to an academic. Regardless of where one falls in the mix, you can start by simply meeting your current needs and seamless change as your needs change without going through a software conversion. Don't even bother to price the Portfolio package if a Bible and a Bible dictionary is all you need. And I suspect Bob still has some tricks up his sleeve to not loose the low end market.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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With the free engine and free resources, you have a pretty good set up to get you started for $0
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Kelvin Niblett said:
With the free engine and free resources, you have a pretty good set up to get you started for $0
Free resources are very limited... Lexham English Bible ,Faithlife study Bible suite ( Faithlife Study Bible, Lexham Bible Dictionary), Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan.. I do know that occasionally free things come by in book of the month. It should also be noted that the FSB page states these "are free for a limited time, so download them today!" So eventually you may have no free Bible. That said it is a free way to get a good translation, and great study Bible, and good devotional. one can add on free Book of Common Prayer (1979) Sunday Lectionary & Book of Common Prayer (1979) Daily Office Lectionary and while not current for a Sunday lectionary, it is close to the RCL.... and the Daily office offers a nice set of daily readings.
-Dan
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Jeff Moore said:
If this is what LOGOS wants to be (priced out of market; professional software...) then bring back Libronix. ( If I hadn't bought Ultimate... for $19.99 I would never, ever have heard of LOGOS. And if I had, I wouldn't have been interested.)
Welcome [:D]
Logos has announced subscription access that starts at $ 8.99 per month => Introducing Logos Cloud
Technically, Libronix coming back is not viable (due to Microsoft's upgrades of Internet Explorer 8, which was the Libronix display engine).
Keep Smiling [:)]
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