...CASESTUDY3. BOO.COM: POSTER CHILD FOR DOT.COM FAILURE? Boo.com arrived on the Internet scene promising its investors and on-line shoppers the treat of a profitable Web site offering high-quality, stylish, designer sportswear that could be purchased easily from the office or home. Thanks to advanced widespread publicity, Boo.com became, perhaps, the most eagerly awaited Internet IPO (initial public offering of stock) of its time. However, the company declared bankruptcy only six months after its Web site had been launched and before the company could ever undertake an IPO. Investors lost an estimated $185 million, while shoppers faced a system too difficult for most to use. Many people are still wondering how it could have all gone so wrong so swiftly. The idea for Boo.com came from two 28-year-old Swedish friends, Ernst Malmsten and Kajsa Leander, who had already established and later sold Bokus.com, which is the world's third-largest on-line bookstore after Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com. The two were joined by Patrik Hedelin, an investment banker at HSBC Holdings. Boo.com planned to sell trendy fashion products over the Web, offering such brands as North Face, Adidas, Fila, Vans, Cosmic Girl, and Donna Karan. The Boo.com business model differed from other Internet start-ups in that its products would be sold at full retail price rather than at a discount. Malmsten labeled his target group as "cash-rich, time-poor." The Boo Web site enabled shoppers to view every product...
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...1 Introduction Boo.com, an European company, was founded in 1998 by three Swedish businessmen with its headquarters based in London, UK. All of them had business experience and also founded Bokus.com, the third largest book e-retailer of the world. They became millionaires after selling Bokus.com and the investors characterized them as skilled European internet businessmen (Stockport, Kunnath and Sedick, 2001). The purpose or the reason for being of this company was clearly defined. The company wanted to create the first website for sports clothes. It will be recognized as a European label, but with a worldwide touch and sport and the fashion counterpart of Amazon. At the beginning it would open its website in 18 countries (Margolis, 1999). They also had a name which was easy to remember, really short and easy to spell around the world. Furthermore, Boo.com described its vision as "bringing beautiful clothes to the world"(Goldstein, 1999, p.27). Young people between 18 and 30 were chosen as a target group due to the fact that they were trendsetters and interested in sports activities. Furthermore, they are fashion conscious and they have knowledge of how using the internet (Okonkwo, 2007). The company is a fashion retailer, selling quality products of branded and niche suppliers, with a promise of a free delivery within five days. They listed brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Fila, Lacoste and Adidas (Malmsten, Portanger and Drazin, 2001). But obviously something...
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...Samantha Lev, Stephen Stewart Dr. Allen MKT 425 February 28, 2016 Group Case Study: Boo.com There are several marketing decisions and strategies that led to the failure of the 1998 online global sports retail site. The most obvious assumption was that the company lacked the resources it needed along with the expertise to create a company that would launch and continue to be successful for many years to come. The founders of the company were former creators and the financial director of an online bookstore. Bokus.com was very successful and after it sold they decided to venture into a different market and create a new company, but they would soon realize that they were no experts in the sports retail industry. These new Boo.com owners also lacked a business strategy which would have given them a long term plan for their website to generate increasing income in the future. They simply strived to get the global sports retail site up in running as soon as possible and believed that all they needed was a large enough investment which they accumulated easily. Their vision was to be the “first online global sports retail site [as well as being] a European brand , but with a global appeal” which was mainly focused on being thrown together quickly and not considering the long term vision of the company. With a long term strategy and better plan for the future of the company, Boo.com could have been a success just like lastminute.com, Juniper.com, and Shutterfly.com. Brent Hoberman...
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...Week 3 Case 2 - The Failure of Boo.com 1. Was Boo.com doomed by its faulty strategy or its poor implementation? Boo.com was doomed by both poor implementation and strategy. Strategy: ”Boo.com first announced that it would launch by the end of May 1999; however, due to software problems, the Web site actually launched in November 1999. The company failed to meet its sales targets by January of 2000” (Cullen J. &., 2008). By the co-founder Ernst Malmsten’s own admission “We have been too visionary” (Cullen J. &., 2008). Clothing is one of the hardest things to sell on the internet because people like to try clothes on, see and feel them personally. I don’t think they were realistic in regards to their competition. “The company also failed to consider those companies with strong brand names (Land’s End, Nordstrom) that had already established strong presences in the markets that they wished to attack. Many of these companies had a long history in these markets due to catalog and brick and mortar operations. Consequently, they had advantage in resources, as well as in brand name” (Cullen J. &., 2008). They launched globally rather than starting out in one market and then spreading out as resources allowed. Quite simply they spread their resources too thin. The primary challenges were: Multiple Currencies – they muddled through this with a costly investment in technology. Multiple Languages – “to be accepted by markets in different countries, the content has to be in different languages”...
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...dit NMIMS | The World .com fall - IT Bubble burst | | Poleswar Rao V | | INTRODUCTION The dot-com industry began in the early 1990s as a collection of startup companies using the Internet as their primary means to conduct business. These companies typically used the “.com” suffix in their company names, such as Amazon.com, and proliferated in the late 90’s with the massive investments in Internet-related stocks and enterprises. But with the failure and consolidation of many of these companies their numbers have since dwindled. The catastrophic collapse of the dot-coms that shook the U.S. economy started in May 2000. More than 210 dotcom companies failed in 2000 and a total of 762 dot-coms closed for the period January 2000 to December 2001. Since many of these dot-coms began to lay off their staff, the unemployment rate also increased from 3.9% to 6% by 2002. The dot-com bubble burst because the boom was based on the false premise that new technology would eliminate the need for brick-and-mortar stores as this new business model would supplant the old one, thereby converting the “Old Economy,” which is based on the production of physical goods into a “New Economy,” which is based on heavy use of information and communication technology. Although a great deal can be learned from examining the dot-com successes, it is equally important to study reasons for the failures. Examining the mistakes made by the dot-coms can provide insight into the evolution of e-commerce...
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...S U C C E S S F U L ON THE INTERNET A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF A MASTERS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE ROBIN S. CLELAND SEPTEMBER 2000 BUILDING SUCCESSFUL BRANDS ON THE INTERNET CONTENTS SUBJECT PAGE CHAPTER 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Overview Objectives Methodology Structure INTRODUCTION 6 7 9 9 11 CHAPTER 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 THE NATURE OF BRANDS 12 13 13 14 15 16 18 19 20 22 22 23 2.9 Introduction What is a Brand? The Layers of a Brand Product and Service Brands Branding & the Buying Process The Importance of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Emotional Loyalty The Concept of Brand Equity 2.8.1 The Value of Brands to Customers 2.8.2 The Value of Brands to Companies Conclusion CHAPTER 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 BUILDING BRANDS 24 25 25 26 27 28 30 31 32 32 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Introduction Overview of the Brand-Building Process The Value Proposition 3.3.1 Added Value 3.3.2 Distinctive Brand Identity Developing the Framework and Communicating the Value Proposition Building Customer Relationships Characteristics of Successful Brands Conclusion 1 BUILDING SUCCESSFUL BRANDS ON THE INTERNET CHAPTER 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 THE INTERNET 33 34 34 35 35 39 40 43 Introduction Overview of the Internet 4.2.1 The Defining Characteristics of the Internet The Growth of the Internet The Internet & e-Commerce The Impact of the Internet...
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...The Internet Bubble Fundamentals of E-Commerce Instructor: Scott Howell Student: Lisa Mercer May 27, 2012 Introduction Within the past decades of the internet first being established the lives of everyday Americans and the world have changed greatly. Businesses have changed and evolved greatly with the access to the internet, as many are able to purse dreams of starting a business and possibly making millions. The internet has opened the doors for many to communicate with each other, receive daily news, and to do shopping. The upcoming of possibilities through the internet also led to irrational decisions brought on by greed from investors that made way for the Dot Com Bubble. History of Internet A pioneer of the creation the internet was Tim Berners-Lee. Though the internet didn’t become wide spread until the early 1990s the making of the World Wide Web can be traced back into the 1980s. Berners-Lee tried to sell his creation to the company that he was working for in Switzerland, but they were slow to acknowledge his efforts.(Griffin, 2000) With that Berners-Lee turned to the internet community in 1991 making his World Wide Web browser and web server software available. (Griffin, 2000) Many enthusiasts began setting up their own web servers around the world. Many scientists were already using the internet to share information found it easier to post their information on the web and wait for a reply. With some government agencies having the responsibility...
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...Introduction to E-business To Debbie and Richard Introduction to E-business Management and strategy Colin Combe AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier OXFORD TOKYO Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803 First edition 2006 Copyright ß 2006, Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (þ44) (0) 1865 843830; fax: (þ44) (0) 1865 853333; email: permissions@elsevier.com. Alternatively you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier website at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Control Number: 2005938727 ISBN–13: 978-0-7506-6731-9 ISBN–10: 0-7506-6731-1 For information on all Butterworth-Heinemann publications visit our website at http:/ /books.elsevier.com Printed and bound in...
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...Running head: EVOLUTION OF E-COMMERCE Business 70 Student Phil Vu De Anza College Abstract In this class project, I did some research on Evolution of E-Commerce through various sources. I picked different related topics to complete the contents for the research and final paper. Evolution of E-Commerce E-commerce has evolved from online billboards to a fully functional, personalized shopping experience over the past decade. While there were admittedly a few bumps along the road, the path from 1994 through the 2004 holiday shopping season is full of crucial milestones of Internet pioneers and technology innovators. A stroll down memory lane reminds us of terms like "stickiness," "eyeballs" and "personalization" that once captured the essence of articles about what it takes to be successful on the Web. However, even as we look back at 10 years of growth, many analysts have one eye on the future and they are saying, "We've got a long way to go." A quick glimpse at the data promises much more evolution in the years to come. Forrester Research, for example, predicted American firms alone would sell US$316 billion in goods and services via the Web by 2010. That figure would more than double 2004's online spending to account for some 12 percent of all retail sales, up from about 7 percent today. ...
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...A–Z OF eBUSINESS MODELS Written and researched by Suntop Media Adobe Systems A Adobe Systems Adobe Systems was founded by John Warnock (now CEO and chairman) and Charles Geschke (president and chairman). Both worked at Xerox’s famous Palo Alto Research Center (Parc). Geschke arrived there via Carnegie Mellon and Xavier University. Warnock took a more circuitous route by way of the Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Computer Sciences, IBM and the University of Utah. Adobe helped ignite the revolution in desktop publishing in the early 1980s. Its software includes Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Photoshop. Headquartered at San Jose, CA, it now employs 2,700 people. Adobe’s interests include Adobe Ventures and Adobe Ventures II. Venture capital partnerships with Hambrecht and Quist have earned over $100 million since 1994. Links: www.adobe.com Amazon.com Amazon.com must be the most talked about company in the world. For a business that’s just five years old that’s quite an achievement; for one that has yet to make a single penny in profits, it’s unheard of. But then Amazon.com is more than just a business; it’s a business phenomenon. Launched as a website in June 1995, by the beginning of 1999 Amazon.com Inc. had a market capitalization of $6 billion, by August 1999 it had jumped to $20 billion. Amazon’s value can vary by several billion depending on stock market sentiment. Founder Jeff Bezos has promoted Amazon.com to the point where it is now synonymous with ecommerce...
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...Executive Summary Facebook’s growth in user base and web integration has created a massive platform that reaches over a billion people. Facebook has been successful driving revenue by developing algorithms and application programming interfaces. These revenue drivers turned their social networking platform into an advertising tool, connecting third-party businesses to quality consumers. Although Facebook’s user base and revenue are growing at very rapid rate, there is concern with their future strategy. This paper addresses that concern and the doubt that the revenue streams the company has developed will be sustainable in the long-term. Examining Facebook’s history, competition, financials and target markets will reveal a direction for the future. Recommendations are made for a long-term strategy to diversify revenue streams and maintain year over year growth in profitability through: global markets, emerging technologies and integration. Keywords: Facebook, social networking, technology, advertising, data, Internet user, global market, application development, mobile, beacon Analysis of Facebook to Develop a Business Strategy Maintaining Revenue Growth in the Future Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in a dorm room at the campus of Harvard University in February 2004. Its initial purpose was to form a social network exclusive to Harvard, allowing the viewing of students’ personal details to the entire student body and to create a platform for communication. Within four...
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...Stockholm School of Economics Department of Management and Organization Master Thesis, 20 credits “Can strategic analysis through a market and resource based view prevent the founding of companies with an unsustainable business strategy?” Abstract The Resource-based and Market-based views (RBV and MBV) are two theoretical frameworks which try to find an optimal structure for business strategy by focusing on key strategic points to gain the maximum output or return. During the peak and later upheaval of what is often called the “dot.com bubble” – business models, valuations and strategies were questioned with regards to their anchorage to reality and building endurable businesses. Based on a wide investigation of literature and reports within the Resource-based and Market-based view combined with first-hand interviews and second hand research, we have tried to find to what extent these strategies could or would have prevented investments in IT-ventures lacking the prerequisites for long term competitive advantage. The initial indications and rationale was that the information and frameworks would provide a structured strategic analysis that, if correctly used, could have prevented the poor investments and even lessened the impact of the crash. However, our conclusions are that a strategic analysis, using the MBV and RBV frameworks, would not have been able to give a correct strategic recommendation since the analysis would have been largely based on incorrect...
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...critical that online retailers create a sustainable competitive advantage in their e-commerce strategy and plan for long-term strategic positioning. The article uses a case study analysis of Amazon.com's strategy to develop an understanding of the e-commerce competitive environment and the importance of building a sustainable competitive environment to create value for the firm, its customers, and its shareholders. © 2004 The Internet Business Review The Internet Business Review Issue 1 – October 2004 Introduction Is the Internet a leech that sucks a company’s assets dry? Many investors, entrepreneurs, and managers pondered this billion-dollar question as hundreds of dotcoms collapsed over the last two years. Companies, such as Boo.com, Etoys, Onsale, @home, and Webvan, are extinct and many more cling to existence. The dreams of consumers, shareholders and other stakeholders have been shattered. From their inception, these dotcoms were going to revolutionize the world and make investors and managers very rich in the process. These dreams did not materialize as planned. What went wrong? Internet retailers face intense competition in their fight to gain a share of the $100 billion market due to the large number of competitors, ease of entry, low switching costs, and the strength of existing multi-channel retailers (e.g., Shop.com). To survive, it is critical that...
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...Instructor’s Manual Jane Murtaugh College of DuPage BUSINESS IN ACTION 3rd Edition COURTLAND L. BOVEE JOHN V. THILL & BARBARA E. SCHATZMAN Introduction This Instructor’s Manual brings together a set of completely integrated support materials designed to save instructors the trouble of finding and assembling the resources available for each chapter of the text. 1. Course Planning Guide Included in the guide are suggestions for course design, classroom activities, and supplemental teaching aids. 2. Learning Objectives and Summary of Learning Objectives For each chapter, learning objectives and the summary of the learning objectives are listed. 3. Brief Chapter Outlines For each chapter, a brief chapter outline is provided. 4. Lecture Notes and Chapter Outlines For each chapter, a comprehensive outline is provided, as well as a variety of stimulating lecture enrichment materials. 5. Real-World Cases At least two real-world cases related to chapter material are included for each chapter. 6. Answers to End-of-Chapter Questions Answers to the end-of-chapter questions are provided, as well as suggested teaching tips when appropriate. 7. Answers to See It on the Web Exercises Following the end-of-chapter questions, answers to the See It on the Web Exercises can be found, along with tips for the instructor. Answers to Boxed Features In each chapter, students are presented with at least two supplemental “boxes,” both containing questions about the material discussed. Answers...
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...B R A N D P L A N N I N G 1 < CONTENTS PAGE CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Chapter 1 BRAND POSITIONING MODEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Chapter 2 BRAND RESONANCE MODEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Chapter 3 BRAND VALUE CHAIN MODEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 B R A N D P L A N N I N G 5 INTRODUCTION Great brands are no accidents. They are a result of thoughtful and imaginative planning. Anyone building or managing a brand must carefully develop and implement creative brand strategies. To aid in that planning, three tools or models are helpful. Like the famous Russian nesting “matrioshka” dolls, the three models are inter-connected and become larger and increasing in scope: The first model is a component into the second model; the second model, in turn, is a component into the third model. Combined, the three models provide crucial micro and macro perspectives to successful brand building. Specifically, the three models are as follows, to be described in more detail below: 1. Brand positioning model describes how to establish competitive advantages in the minds...
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