breathe.com, HotCustard.com, HighTech women, faceforwatches.com

MarketingSherpa.co.uk
Practical News, Gossip & Tips
for Internet Marketers in the UK
May 30, 2000 - Vol. I, Issue 3

Please forward to your friends & colleagues. We depend
on you to grow our circulation!

1. NEWS & GOSSIP: HighTech Women, FT.com
Internet World 2000, breathe.com

2. CASE STUDY: Face For Watches

3. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: HotCustard.com

4. JOBS: eVox, The Academy of Internet Commerce

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NEWS & GOSSIP
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-> 40 Female CEOs Get Together: HighTech Women

HighTech Women, a group for women in technology and
related sectors, has built up a user base of over 500
since launching in March. Founder Lucy P. Marcus of
Marcus Venture Consulting describes HighTech Women as
‘both aspirational and inspirational’ -- Members range
from recently-graduated students to board members
(including 40 CEOs). Future plans include a series of
specialised roundtable discussion groups, school and
university outreach programmes, and shadowing schemes.
http://www.hightech-women.com.

-> FT.com Finds New Virus: E-apathy

Forget ILOVEYOU – the latest virus sweeping the UK could
be called ‘E-apathy’. According to a MORI survey for
FT.com this week, at least 93% of the British public
couldn’t give a monkey’s about the Net -- though they
recognise it’s here to stay, they don’t want to be a
part of it, and don’t feel like they’re losing out by
not getting involved. ‘Does that mean we should all
stop bothering?’ I hear you cry. NO!!! Because the
same survey showed that people in the ABC1 group are
twice as likely to access the Net regularly as they are
to read a broadsheet -- it’s not lack of exposure to the
Net that’s creating apathy, it’s what people find when
they get there. Are YOU an e-phobe? Take the test at:
http://www.ft.com/apathy

-> Best Freebies: Internet World 2000

Now in its seventh year, and boasting over 400
exhibitors, 130 free seminars, and Masterclasses galore,
Internet World 2000 was five times the size of last
year’s event. So, your trusty editor was somewhat
shocked to hear so many people sounding, well...
disappointed. ‘You can’t tell what any of these people
do from their exhibits,’ I overheard (more than once);
‘nobody can answer my questions’; and ‘all they want is
email addresses for spamming’.

But... unperturbed, we checked out the freebies. Amid
the usual plethora of mugs, T-shirts, mouse mats, and
bags to put them all in, we were initially quite keen on
the bright orange stress ball courtesy of software
engineering house Indicii Salus. But the winner is...
photographic multimedia company Panormania, for their
fabulous Whoopee Cushion. Now we can break the ice at
New Media schmoozes everywhere!!

Indicii Salus: http://www.indiciisalus.com
Panormania: http://www.panormania.com

-> Yea/Nay: Breathe.com

Breathe.com, apparently, is the Internet. It’s
here to help us make the most out of our lives.
Regardless of whether we access it via our PCs or our
mobile phones, it can offer us great places to shop,
help us book tickets for gigs, buy shares, chat to other
people, and let us ‘enjoy a whole raft of content on
many different subjects’.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Sounds like something people
could get used to. So we’d like to be able to say that
we were awakened to the wonders of breathe by the
current ad campaign on the box. Nope -– we got it from
the Web site. What we got from the TV ads amounted to
very little we’re afraid –- we cooed at the
cinematography, we were truly wowed by the technical
wizardry employed to make peas and bowling balls move
about in time to the breathy soundtrack, but we didn’t
learn a lot about breathe. And we doubt that Joe/Joanne
Public did either – even if they managed to see the
blink-and-you’ll-miss-it caption at the end (‘mobile
internet on any network’), They’d have been confused.

We checked out http://www.breathe.com because we do that
sort of thing. Do we think that TV viewers will have
been curious enough to do the same as a result of the no
doubt very expensive ad? Nay!!

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CASE STUDY: faceforwatches.com
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-> Face For Watches Targets Young Trendsetters With
Modem-Numbing Flash 4 Web Site Design

Face For Watches is a leading-edge retailer of trendy,
state-of-the-art watches, with branches in Covent
Garden. Many of the watches they sell aren’t available
from anyone else -- unless, that is, you’re prepared to
travel to Japan. With a niche-market focus (and no
competition online for the moment), Face For Watches had
free rein when it came to creating their online
presence, according to company marketer Michael Paine.

Design: We all know by now that simple, catalogue-style
affairs work best as e-tail sites, right? But Face For
Watches wanted their Web site to be as trendy and state-
of-the-art as the watches they sell, and reflect the
image they’d already established at their London branch,
Paine tells us. On a supplier’s recommendation, they
drafted Web agency Domino Systems (who, by the way,
recently increased Tiny Computers’ online sales tenfold
by turning their site into a simple, catalogue-style
affair). In this case, though, Domino opted for a Flash
4 only design (no HTML), which requires a 250K download
before it even gets started. Sounds like a recipe for
disaster, doesn’t it? But consider...

The Audience: Face For Watches’ target customers are
fashion-conscious 18- to 34-year-olds. They’ve got the
necessary plug-ins on their PCs because they like to
have the latest stuff. Most of all though, they love
shopping. And with the ‘exploration and surprise’ that
the Flash 4 site allows, Face For Watches believe that
their users can shop - rather than simply buy – online.
There’s a subtle difference.

Online Strategy: Word of mouth has done a lot for site
traffic, and being a Macromedia ‘Site of the Day’ last
December won’t have done any harm either. An online ad
campaign, managed by Domino Systems, is about to begin;
so far, however, promotion on the Net has been confined
to listings on the top search engines, and ‘shopping
mall’ sites like Coolshopping.com, and Shopsmart.com.

Offline Strategy: The company has done very little in
terms of paid-for advertising offline. In fact, their
site gets a regular plug for free in lifestyle magazines
(Maxim, Loaded, etc.) because they supply the watches
used in features. Other than that, they put their URL
on their shopping bags, anything they mail out to
existing customers, and all over the retail branch.

Cost and Results: Face For Watches have not provided
specifics, but they’re pleased with what they have
achieved with the site so far – a natural extension of
their brand into online realms which appeals directly to
the customers they want to attract. There are no plans
for an HTML version.

Related URLs:
http://www.faceforwatches.com
http://www.domino.co.uk
http://www.coolshopping.com
http://www.shopsmart.com
http://www.macromedia.co.uk

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: HotCustard.com
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-> HotCustard.com Specializes in Rescuing Troubled
E-Commerce Firms

We’ve seen the last of Boo.com, then –- in its most
recent guise anyhow. We’ve heard how they wasted all
that money on expensive ads before they’d even got their
logistics sorted, and how they tried to be too clever
with their site and ended up with something that was
user-unfriendly, and painfully slow (when it worked at
all). And we’ve heard all the doom and gloom from the
media: this, they say, will be the first of many
‘Internet casualties’. So, we decided to speak to Jan
Selfridge (ex-retail marketeer for Marks and Spencer)
and Ian Standing (ex-creative director of Abbot Mead and
Vickers) of HotCustard.com, a new E-Marketing Agency
with a simple goal: to take ailing dot-coms and make
them work. They don’t have a negative attitude at
HotCustard.com. They just have attitude. Full stop.

Q: What problems do you come across most regularly?

JS: Falling traffic. Abandoned shopping trolleys –
traffic that doesn’t convert into sales. And non-
returning customers –- people who buy once and never
come back. Sometimes clients haven’t got a clue what’s
causing it; others (especially the larger ones) know
where they’re going wrong but have difficulty admitting
that they’ve spent so much but still need help.

Q: You launched on 13th April. Who have you been working
with since then?

IS: Let’s put it this way – we’ve got some big clients.
I mean BIG clients, who’ve spent big money on e-commerce
sites that are just not working. That’s a huge
embarrassment for a company, and it hurts them to have
to come to us and admit they’ve made mistakes. So they
don’t want us to tell anybody. But they are coming to
us –- we feel we’ve really exploited a gap in the market
by offering a lifeline to dot-coms already up and
running. When we were planning HotCustard we honestly
thought there would be people doing this kind of thing
already, but there weren’t.

Q: What mistakes are your big clients making?

IS: They treat a Web site like a company library, an
empty space which needs cramming with as much
information about them as possible. But that’s not true.
If you go to a restaurant you don’t instantly arrive at
a table covered with absolutely everything on the menu –
someone takes your coat, you’re shown to a table, your
chair is pushed in, you look at a wine list and a menu,
and so on. Most of the sites we see have all the right
content but presentation is the problem - it’s like this
big impenetrable wall.

Q: Poor presentation? Sounds like you’re talking about
Boo.com?

IS: Their site suffered from poor presentation and poor
communication with users. As more and more people buy
on line they’re going to want to be able to do it more
and more quickly. Bells and whistles are all very well,
but you need to give customers the option to bypass
them. Web designers still look on the Internet as an
entertainment medium. But e-tail sites need to be
primarily about selling, not entertainment.

Q: You describe your company as ‘arse-kicking’. Why do
you think such a hard-nosed approach to your clients is
necessary?

JS: Because the level of complacency out there is huge!
We can tell them what they’re doing wrong, but there’s
no point being half-hearted. There’s no grey area – it
either works or it doesn’t.

IS: One of our clients said ‘Oh -- I thought you’d be
younger!’ People seem to forget that experience counts
– we know what we’re doing because we’re old enough to
have made all the mistakes. A lot of money is spent in
this industry without consulting somebody who has.

Q: You also offer your services to start-ups. What
advice can you offer anyone thinking of launching an
Internet presence?

IS: Do your homework! Especially when it comes to
researching the customers you want to attract. It’s
basic marketing stuff, but it’s getting overlooked.
Having the money, and someone with the technical know-
how isn’t enough – you’ve got to have a marketeer on
your team. You’d be surprised how many people leap onto
the bandwagon without one.
http://www.hotcustard.com

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JOBS
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-> eVox: Business Development

London - The ideal candidate is a talented and creative
strategist who will drive Business development efforts.
Work on high profile business relationships. 2 years
internet experience in developing, negotiating and
implementing profitable partnerships with e-commerce and
Internet content companies as well as develop strategic
marketing partners. Must be able to grasp and communicate
technical details in a tangible, approachable fashion.
Technical understanding of imaging, graphic design,
and/or photography is a big plus. Requires the proven
ability to work within a team environment, excellent
communication skills, and the ability to multi task
effectively. Please send a cover letter and CV to:
john@evox.com

-> The Academy of Internet Commerce: Marketing

The Academy of Internet Commerce is looking for hungry,
hard-working, talented marketing people to help manage
our spectacular growth and realise our global potential.
If you have exceptional commitment and creative,
analytical and organisational skills, then the role
offers almost unlimited potential for career growth.
Some solid terrestrial marketing experience is
essential. A track record in PR or Internet-related
marketing will count in your favour.
http://www.aic.uk.com

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