» uk-netmarketing: roundup: 19-05-2000

The post boo.com fallout
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - May 19, 2000

Considering the earlier criticism of pretty much everything that Boo.com did, there were few hints of 'I told you so' amongst the posts to the list this week. Perhaps everyone thought it bad form to speak ill of the recently liquidated, particularly when a number have been through or know people who have experienced the painful proceedings themselves.

Robin Gurney posted "So who's next? How about a sweepstake to guess the date of the next big crash. Uncharitable I know but given the still scary amounts of money some properties are throwing at branding activities it can't be long before a few more drop. In response to some previous posts I think that some of the people in the Boo marketing department did a blinding job ... After all we, and many others, have been talking about them non-stop (almost) and watching their every move. Personally I hated the site's navigation and crash frequency ..."

Stefan Magdalinski commented on the situation and waggled a finger or two. He wrote, "... none of those 300 will be unemployed in 24 hours. Unfortunately this includes the people responsible for the UI, who should probably go and build dry stone walls or something. ... I blame Macromedia and Organic. Especially Organic, who should just know better. ... Boo's problems were 90% to do with falling for the hype of a few completely moonfruit.com graphic designers (looking to their portfolio rather than the needs of their customers) than the management, the business model or certainly the back-end technology."

He also added a word of warning, "Having fairly relentlessly slagged boo.com since launch (but less so than some others) I find myself uncomfortable with the both the faux-sympathy that many are displaying (oh what a terrible shame), and the sheer gloating of others. Look to your own houses, because the week's events certainly make me nervous about mine."

Ray Taylor questioned the alleged poor financial management, which the press had certainly played on. He emailed, "Surely, the one and only fatal flaw of Boo was cost control. And the lesson learned should be that every start-up management team should include at least one grey, preferably as financial director, with a painful habit of asking ‘Why the feck do you want to spend all that much?’ before s/he signs any cheques."

Sarah Clelland continued on the same theme, "What I find really disconcerting is Ernst Malmsten from boo admitting to the FT that they weren't in control of their financial situation. Boo.com failed because they rushed to market, going live on a massive scale when they had no majorly exciting products, hadn't tested their site properly, didn't have substantial fulfilment systems in place and got their financial and marketing strategies wrong. In short their entire business plan was seriously flawed."

Danny O’Brien added, "What really intrigued me all the way through the boo story was that they were trying very hard - and very smartly - to pursue a model that no-one else was trying. I actually found it really hard to condemn boo out of hand (even when everyone else was gearing up to, and when as professional curmudgeon, I was practically honour bound to), because whenever I'd spoken to them, it was clear that they'd plotted out the whole thing as carefully as anyone else I'd seen. Except, in their smartness, they'd applied a whole set of novel principles that I had no way of testing as right or wrong. They seemed to be consciously rejecting the previous mode of prior successful Net start-ups: that of starting small, and desperately scaling up as fast as your audience grew. Instead, they attempted to create all the instruments of an international brand, ex nihil, from the first day they launched. Within the logic of that intent, they *needed* an utterly perfect fulfilment system; they *needed* a presence in every major market; they *needed* a gigantic media push; they *needed* a spectacularly innovative Website. With smart enough people, and a hundred million dollars, that seemed at least attemptable, just this once."

On a lighter note, Debbie Caldicott spotted ClickMango’s Joanna Lumley indulging in some not-so-healthy pastimes. She wrote, "did anyone see the BAFTAs last night? - there was a brief shot of Caroline Aherne with Joanna Lumley in the background, cigarette poised. I don't know, you spend a fortune on launching a new healthy/natural website and get your prime publicity person shown on TV smoking a fag!"

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