I thought your December editorial (“In `dot-com’ overload”) was right on! It baffles me how the dot.coms get the evaluations and cash that they do – and then they spend it like drunken sailors on advertising and product giveaways. (Any fool knows you can get lots of “customers” if you give your product away!) I also agree that reality will set in and the shakeout will come when the Christmas sales report card comes in. It should be interesting.
I would love to see more stories comparing the dreams of dot.coms to the reality of established direct marketers, looking at such factors as brand, merchandising, customer retention, and back-end infrastructure. Please help educate Wall Street about the over-valued dot.coms that are little more than a Powerpoint presentation and a couple of hotshot salespeople!
We enjoyed your “In `dot-com’ overload” editorial in December. We are a small company with a small Website that we just launched Nov. 1. We have been pleasantly surprised by the response, even with very little advertising.
We are looking forward to 2000. Keep up the good work.