Re: Barrier to entry.

From: Rob Frankel <rob_at_robfrankel.com>
Date: Tue 21 Mar 2000 10:48:59 -0800

JAMES SANTAGATA WROTE:
> I think it is quite limiting to suggest that only
> when fear driven marketing is applied can a brand
> serve as a barrier to entry.

I hope that I was clear in citing fear as an example.
There are tons more, but that's the first one that
comes to mind. Size is another, that sure works for
Microsoft.

> Amazon.com's brand has become a strong barrier to
> entry because they created and own the category of
> "online books.", it had nothing to do with fear.

I'd disagree here. Amazon has no barrier to entry from
where I sit. In fact, it could be argued that Amazon's
lack of focus has actually made it more vulnerable
than ever.

> eBay did the same for "online auctions" and Yahoo!
> did the same for "search engines".

Ummm, no. Both of them were first movers, so they got
the major share of attention. From that they got a
lot of business. But if you look carefully, what BOTH
did was legitimze the market for each of their
categories, inviting tons more competitive search
engines and auction sites.

Which means they FOSTERED entry, rather than creating a
barrier.

Rob Frankel, http://www.robfrankel.com
Author, "The Revenge of Brand X: How to Build A Big Time Brand on the
Web or Anywhere Else" on sale at http://www.revengeofbrandx.com
"Branding is not about getting your prospect to choose you over your
competition; it's about getting your prospect to see you as the only
solution." (sm) -- Rob Frankel
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Received on Tue Mar 21 2000 - 12:48:59 CST