The developer of the CorelDraw Graphics Suite offers lower pricing, but may find the design community reluctant to switch from established tools.
Corel is aiming to snag FreeHand users who are still in the dark when it comes to the future of the popular Macromedia illustration tool.
In an exclusive to Publish.com, we caught up with Nick Davies, general manager of Graphics Products for Corel Corp. of Ottawa, Canada, to find out what the company is doing to compete in the graphics space during this period of transition.
Davies said that this week Corel is rolling out a limited-time offer for FreeHand users in an effort to garner a piece of the moving market share amid Adobe's buyout of Macromedia.
"We're looking at the market consolidation in the graphics space, and the concern from users that Adobe is becoming a bit of a monopolist in the space. Corel wants users to understand that we have some very strong alternatives whether the market is ultimately more consolidated or not," Davies said.
Corel is launching a North America-based promotional campaign specifically for FreeHand users, to encourage them to try out the company's CorelDraw graphics suite at a discounted rate of only $99 for the full suite.
Click here to read more about how Corel is trying to woo small businesses.
Davies termed the offering "adding spice to the market," and said the company is intent on executing an awareness campaign highlighting the power of its illustration suite.
"We want to make sure that, going forward, we let people try out CorelDraw and see what benefits it has. In particular [for] FreeHand users, and [given] the product's uncertainty, we want those users to know that the obvious move to Illustrator is not necessarily as obvious and there is another alternative out there," Davies said.
But Corel may discover that one of the bigger challenges in the push will lie in finding devoted FreeHand, or even Illustrator, users who are ready to take on the learning curve of the CorelDraw solution.
Jeff Koke, creative director of Koke Creative in Austin, Texas, said he thinks that Illustrator still has a greater ability to integrate text layout with vector art, as well as being better for the placement of filtering of raster images.
"I also think CorelDraw has an image in the professional community as an amateur's illustration program. Integration with other Adobe applications is also an important consideration," Koke said.
In regard to the professional community versus the occasional graphic solutions users, Davies said the company is proactively targeting the segment of users who need a good graphics solution for marketing and collateral materials but may not be using it on a daily basis or as the primary focus of their work.
The outlook for Macromedia tools is mixed. Click here to learn more.
Patrick Foster of HiredGunDesign, who uses both Illustrator and FreeHand, said another consideration is the lack of a Mac version of CorelDraw12, which might hinder the company's ability to get designers to switch.
Ian Kelleigh, founder of FreeHandSource.com, echoed Foster, saying, "Not enough professionals in my industry support or know how to use this software. If given the choice, even with the incentives, I would automatically choose Illustrator, because it is more widely known and used in the graphic production industry than [its] competitors. I could go almost anywhere with Illustrator files and be able to work with them."
According to the company, CorelDraw 12 supports FreeHand Versions 7 and 8. FreeHand users of Versions 9, 10 and 11 can save their files in the lower Version 8 format and import them into CorelDraw using the FreeHand import filter.
Corel is offering a free two-hour Lynda.com training CD to help FreeHand users learn the software. However, the company still faces an industry-wide compatibility curve.
The campaign starts this week and will end on Sep. 1, 2005. During the campaign, registered FreeHand customers will be able to purchase CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 for $99. Users can also download a free 30-day trial version. The company is also offering a complete 30-day money back guarantee on purchases of licensed versions.
The CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 includes CorelDraw 12 for illustration, page layout and vector drawing; Corel PHOTO-PAINT 12 for digital imaging; and Corel R.A.V.E. 3 for motion-graphics creation. The package also ships with CorelTrace 12 and Corel Capture 12.
To learn more about the offer, visit the offer page on Corel's Web site.
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