FaithLife Restructure Affects Verbum Staff?
Comments
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SineNomine said:Randy Lane said:
A company committed to debt-free operation has to be aggressive about financial strategies and "profitability" across the board.
It also needs good storefronts. To this day I cannot justify to myself why Verbum.com did not simply begin as a carbon copy of Logos.com that was then modified. If Logos.com in its present incarnation gets 4 out of 5 stars, Verbum.com does not yet manage a 2.
Right. I find myself viewing and ordering from the Logos site far more often simply because each product page indicates whether the volume is part of a larger package and also lets me know which particular volumes in a collection that I already own. It makes it much easier for me to make purchasing decisions. It would be nice if the Verbum site had some of those features.
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Just to echo some of what Augustine and others have said, I really think there is a huge potential market for Verbum and I hope the team is able to figure out the best way to tap into it. It is mainly for selfish reasons: the more Catholic customers there are, the more Catholic products will be offered. [;)]
For me, Verbum is the product I was looking for years to find. I had bought stuff like "Welcome to the Catholic Church" (now defunct) and the "Faith Database" and, while both were great in their own way, I saw more potential for interconnectedness between the vast library of materials from the history of the Catholic Church (between the Early Church Fathers, writings of the saints, and Church documents).
The price tag was a hurdle when I was comparing it to those other types of software (which retailed for $100 and $50 respectively). But when I started to view it as more of a digital library ecosystem akin to Amazon Kindle, the price tag made much more sense to me. It is easier for me to justify spending money on a digital library I will get to keep for life rather than a software program that will be replaced by the next model in a year or two. I spent $100 on "Welcome to the Catholic Church" ten years ago and my newest computer doesn't even recognize that there is anything written on the disc—so it is essentially useless to me now. With Verbum, I feel confident that I will still have access to my library for years and years (hopefully the rest of my life).
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Average Joe said:
Just to echo some of what Augustine and others have said, I really think there is a huge potential market for Verbum and I hope the team is able to figure out the best way to tap into it.
The market really is massive.
I am not quite clear about the restructuring: who, at present, is trying to tap into it right now (beyond basic direct sales)?
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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SineNomine said:Average Joe said:
Just to echo some of what Augustine and others have said, I really think there is a huge potential market for Verbum and I hope the team is able to figure out the best way to tap into it.
The market really is massive.
I am not quite clear about the restructuring: who, at present, is trying to tap into it right now (beyond basic direct sales)?
I agree with both of your points. As a Catholic theologian and a technology marketing executive, I see a huge gap filled for many Catholics with the Catechism package alone. This would lead to upsales in four areas: biblical scholarship, contemporary authors (e.g. Hahn), liturgical and contemplative prayer (e.g. St. Teresa of Avila), and even potentially Mariology.
However, since the transition to the standalone Verbum website, I have perceived a loss of momentum in the branding and marketing of Verbum.
Just my humble opinion and observations.
Agape,
Steve
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SineNomine said:
(Hey MJ!) I just noticed that the reply-to email address for an email I got from Verbum earlier this week begins "catholicandliturgical@".
This is an old (pre-Verbum) e-mail address that seems to get used sometimes due to a glitch or limitation in our e-mail system, so I wouldn't read anything into it.
The changes here have to do more with internal management structure than overall brand strategy for Verbum. We've had a lot of success as Verbum--much more than when we were just a sub-brand of Logos--and we're still convinced that the Catholic market is large and distinct enough to warrant its own brand.
SineNomine said:It also needs good storefronts. To this day I cannot justify to myself why Verbum.com did not simply begin as a carbon copy of Logos.com that was then modified. If Logos.com in its present incarnation gets 4 out of 5 stars, Verbum.com does not yet manage a 2.
There were technical reasons that made it unwise or impossible to just re-skin Logos.com. The functionality of Verbum.com has lagged as a result because it often requires duplicate work. The good news is that there are back-end improvements coming this year that should eliminate most of this problem and bring all our sites up to parity.
Stephen Terlizzi said:However, since the transition to the standalone Verbum website, I have perceived a loss of momentum in the branding and marketing of Verbum.
I could see a few things fueling this impression. The website has indeed required a lot of our attention (partly due to the technical reasons stated above). But it also coincided with the development of the Verbum Spanish and high school products and (shortly after) the loss of some people that had been key to the initial launch of Verbum. So, at least on the marketing and product development side, we've had to do more with less for quite a while now.
We're not giving up on these initiatives, much less on our established products, but we're hoping that restructuring and refocusing will put us on a firmer basis for sustainable growth and future development of the product.
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Thanks for the comments and insight, Louis. You probably know this already, but I/we love Verbum and all the Catholic resources that FaithLife keeps providing. I/We use it every day for study and in ministry.
I'm thinking out loud that It would help our individual causes to spread the word if we saw a little bit more in the way of promotion in the national Catholic media outlets ... Catholic Answers, NC Register, OSV, Relavent Radio, even local Catholic radio and newspapers. We know that's an investment but maybe some small steps can be initiated on a consistent basis that would help the cause growth you mention above.
Lastly, we're all glad to hear that you and Brody are still with FaithLife and appreciate the efforts of all who are helping with Verbum in whatever capacity.
[:)]
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Louis St. Hilaire said:
The changes here have to do more with internal management structure than overall brand strategy for Verbum. We've had a lot of success as Verbum--much more than when we were just a sub-brand of Logos--and we're still convinced that the Catholic market is large and distinct enough to warrant its own brand.
Great!
Louis St. Hilaire said:There were technical reasons that made it unwise or impossible to just re-skin Logos.com.
OK.
Louis St. Hilaire said:The functionality of Verbum.com has lagged as a result because it often requires duplicate work. The good news is that there are back-end improvements coming this year that should eliminate most of this problem and bring all our sites up to parity.
I've read mention of back-end improvements for Logos.com before. I'm really looking forward to this happening.
Louis St. Hilaire said:We're not giving up on these initiatives, much less on our established products, but we're hoping that restructuring and refocusing will put us on a firmer basis for sustainable growth and future development of the product.
Sounds good to me.
Louis St. Hilaire said:So, at least on the marketing and product development side, we've had to do more with less for quite a while now.
Hopefully now you can do more with more. [:)]
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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Steve said:
I'm thinking out loud that It would help our individual causes to spread the word if we saw a little bit more in the way of promotion in the national Catholic media outlets ... Catholic Answers, NC Register, OSV, Relavent Radio, even local Catholic radio and newspapers. We know that's an investment but maybe some small steps can be initiated on a consistent basis that would help the cause growth you mention above.
I have seen many ads for Verbum on the Catholic Answers Forums. I plug it over there whenever I can, too. [:D]
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