Re: Barrier to entry.

From: Brad Jensen <brad_at_elstore.com>
Date: Fri 17 Mar 2000 13:10:21 -0600

VIN TON WROTE:
> Can a successful ad campaign and, or brand create
> a significant barrier to entry? And how to do so
> successfully? This post is regarding to the
> explanations from dot.com companies trying to
> justify the exorbitant amounts of capital devoted
> to advertising both on and off line.

TO WHICH ROB FRANKEL REPLIED:
> Sure, happens all the time. It's called fear-driven
> marketing and works by suggesting that if you use any
> other brand, you're in deep yogurt. Fedex, for
> example, has thrived for decades on the fear of
> allowing a less qualified service screw up delivery of
> your critically important packages.

IBM used to get away with it with the unofficial 'No
one ever got fired for choosing IBM'.

The idea being that computerizing was fraught with
danger (fraught, I say!) Chances are it would be over
budget and behind schedule, and you didn't want people
to be able to say that you picked a cheap computer and
that was the problem.

I heard stories about IBM going in to upper
mamangement, and telling them that the DP manager was
obviously incompetent because he chose another supplier
instead of IBM (my boss told me this, while it was
happening to him).

I was thinking this weekend how 'American Airlines' has
always owned the 'best airline' place in my head, just
because they were the first airline I traveled on, in
my college years. Maybe there is somehting of the fact
that 'American' owns a place of pride in my head also.

At the same time, there was a regional airline called
'Ozark', and people used to tell me that 'Ozark' is
'Krazo' spelled backwards.

--
Brad Jensen brad_at_elstore.com
President
Electronic Storage Corporation Tulsa OK USA
918-664-7276
LaserVault Report Retrieval & Data Mining
www.Laservault.com




Received on Fri Mar 17 2000 - 13:10:21 CST