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Marketing Savvy Hello Everybody, Thank Goodness it's Friday. :-) It's another beautiful day here on the East coast and it reminds me the days in Hawaii, so Aloha and Mahalo for sharing the sunny days and cool breezes. It hasn't cooled down for Microsoft, in fact their problems are heating up in an official capacity. At the top of the news this week, Microsoft has "officially" been told to split the company into two parts. Will this affect you and your business? Some are saying yes. A new virus is out there and people using high speed access are susceptible. Look for more news on this as the FBI is briefed. It doesn't seem to be wide spread but does affect home users the most. Don't open those attachments. Now...on to the news. ********************************************************************************
They talked to top IT folks and asked them how this would affect their companies. Some agreed that it was the best thing that could happen for the competition, while others felt that it wouldn't affect their bottom line with any price decreases from Microsoft. Others are concerned that support will be decreased because you'll have to call two different companies to get support for one problem that crosses several applications. http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/CWFlash/000607E6C6 ******************************************************
The ruling will take affect in September, even as the appeals process goes on. Apparently there are already 100 lawsuits against Microsoft, from other folks, and this will increase with the ruling. Stock price will settle down, but not go up. Some Microsoft folks are leaving the company as they feel morale go down. Find out why. http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2583541,00.html ********************************************************
They are online and have grown up with the Internet. So, what do they use the Internet to accomplish? It seems that 80% play games, 72% use email, 54% use it for homework and only 18% actually enter all those contests that are available. Now, here's the important question. How many of them are shopping online? Only 22% buy anything. Like adults, they do use the Internet to research purchases or to see what's out there, but they go to "real world" stores to make the majority of their purchases. They only buy online when they can't get the product in the store. Read the full article to see what the 8-24 year olds are buying and why. From a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers and another one by the Zandl Group. http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/demographics/article/ ********************************************************
Another article from CyberAtlas that is chock full of statistics. International Data Corp. predicts that this year will be the last year that the US will dominate online spending. While US purchasers are spending less, International purchasers are spending more. This means that ecommerce is down for sites that sell only to US customers, but up for sites that sell to International customers. Globally, ecommerce is going up, while in the US consumers are spending less online. http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/retailing/article/0,1323,6061_387791,00.html ********************************************************
Business 2.0 has a list of 10 multi-million dollar corporations and which ones will do well and which ones that simply "don't get it". I have also seen this in my work on the Internet and know that it is true. The client that shops online and uses the Internet is the one that makes the best decisions with regard to their web site. It's obvious, when a client is making inappropriate decisions, that they simply do not use the Internet themselves. I agree with Sears being on the "don't get it" list. I've emailed the webmaster myself about their web site and their online decisions. Why would such a large company put washing machines and refrigerators online before they are willing to sell clothes? Who is buying a washing machine online? Not many people. The masses aren't buying clothes online, but more are buying clothes than washing machines. Does anyone understand that thought process? Not me. Anyway, I can't blame the web master. The response was that they were rolling out the online product line in the manner directed from higher up. <sigh> Oh well. This is an EXCELLENT article that gives and overview of 10 Top bricks and mortar companies that are working to become top "clicks and mortar" companies. They contain extremely valuable information - for those who want to "get it". http://www.business2.com/content/channels/ebusiness/2000/06/01/12091 ********************************************************
My son's 8th grade class had to track 2 IPO's and they were given a list of 10 web sites to use in completing the requirements of their assignment. For your information, cnbc.com was voted as the "best" site by the kids. It contained all the information they were required to get and did it all in one place. In addition, the functionality of the site was so much fun that the kids actually used the drop down menus to track the stocks for "longer" than was required by the assignment. That's an accomplishment in itself. My hat is off to a financial site that made it easy for 14 year olds to get the stock information they needed. If they can use it, surely adults will find the site valuable too. ************************************************************************ “Do not wish to be anything
but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.” --St. Francis De Sales ************************************************************************ ©1997-2000 CreativeWriting.com, LLC |
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