Today we visited the casing and front panel printing people with our design ideas for the Blio PBX.
Pics are at the usual place.
It seems there are two routes forward:
1) We make a Cream/Beige colour 1U box that blends in then you mount it flat against a wall. This would be very much like your traditional (analog) PABX systems found in many small businesses around the country. We basically assume that a doctor’s office or a small legal firm would like to replace their PBX but keep it on the wall and keep most of their current phones.
2) We make a Black/Dark-grey colour 1U box that’s designed for rack mounting in a 19″ cabinet. It’s more like an Ethernet switch or router. You could put it down on a desk or stack it, but it kinda asks for an environment with at least a small 19″ wall box/cabinet (which will cost you about R500) or a big server room cabinet. We basically assume this is for an office that has structured Cat5 Ethernet wiring. With this route we are guessing people may keep some of their analog phones but they want a few SIP phones.. they are more tech-savvy, early adopters.
Now, the fun part where you, the reader get to shape the future of our product.
You can answer with one of 4 options..
Black/Cabinet
Black/Wall
Cream/Cabinet
Cream/Wall
If the price was the same and you _had_ to buy one, would you take a black or cream one and would you put it in a cabinet or on your wall..
Please add a comment with your answer.
Johan, I will go with black/Cabinet.
People pay for the story. If the story is a boring beige box then the consumer will expect it to be cheap and compare its price to other boring beige boxes.
If the story is about ground-breaking, powerful technology that’s going to revolutionise their business, then the device needs to look the part.
Some doctors spend millions on specialised gear… And medical gear generally looks quite futuristic… It doesn’t need to look that way, but when you’re spending a million rand it’s nice to have something that makes the hole in your pocket feel a little more justified.
I think the ideal balance is to get the device to look like it should cost more than you’re selling it for.
ath
Fluorescent Yellow, 19″ rackmount for [price] + 50%
Khaki Green/Cabinet for [price]
Thanks Antoine, you should eat less orange sherbet
Jonathan, I like your thinking.
Black over beige, but far nicer would be a colour that stands out. Symantec do their appliances in yellow, Netgear in blue. Pick a colour that reflects your brand.
Rack mountable is more flexible I think – you can mount it in a rack (if you have one) or stick it in the cupboard (if you don’t)
Hey Nick
Or a purple like Extreme (:
I think most people associate black with quality.
Black is beautiful !
I would prefer black/dark grey to beige, but I wouldn’t want to have to buy a cabinet just for this.
If I had a cabinet already with ethernet switches in it, etc., then black would definitely make sense.
I agree with Jonathan that beige looks cheap.