1. Which strategic marketing assumptions and decisions arguably made boo.

com's failure
inevitable? Contract these with other dot-com-era survivor that are still in business, for
example lastminute.com, egg.com and firefox.com.

The list of strategic marketing assumptions and decision behind boo.com’s failure is
descried below:

i. Launching new venture of online global sports retail site in both Europe and
America simultaneously without proper market analysis and consumer behavior
analysis.

Unlike other ecommerce platform, they did not establish in one market before
providing local European and American distribution through acquisition and re-
branding of other retailers.

This one simple mindset made a vast impact in market capture and analysis.

ii. Boo possessed classic channel conflicts. Initially, it was difficult getting fashion
and sports brands to offer their products through boo.com. Manufacturers already
had a well-established distribution network through large high street sports and
fashion retailers and many smaller retailers.

If clothing brands permitted boo.com to sell their clothes online at discounted

prices, then this would conflict with retailers’ interests and would also portray the
brands in a negative light if their goods were in an online "bargain bucket". A
further pricing issue is where local or zone pricing in different markets exists, for
example lower prices often exist in the US than Europe and there are variations
in different European countries.

iii. The result shown by boo.com is not as expected.

With initial investment of $9 Million, they over focused on technology with several
suppliers being replaced before launch which was 6 months later than promised
to
investors, largely due to problems with implementing the technology.
Clothing the mannequin and populating the catalogue was also an expensive
challenge.

For 2000, about $6million was spent on content about spring/summer fashion
ware. It cost $200 to photograph each product, representing a monthly cost of
more than $500,000. Although the user experience of boo.com is often criticized
for its speed, it does seem to have had that wow factor that influenced investors

iv. Lack of planning for customer management

Boo.com was only focused on technology and retailing sportswear. None of the
management team has ever looked upon online visitor’s management. They even
do not have data on following:

1. Number of aimed visitors.

2. Online visitors’ conversion target and technique.
 3. Online visitors’ minimum spending limit
4. Customer acquisition cost
5. Payback time for customer acquisition cost

2. Using the framework of the marketing mix, appraise the marketing tactics of Boo.com
in the areas of product, price, Place, Promotion, Process, People and Physical evidence.

The 4Ps were designed at a time where businesses were more likely to sell products,
rather than services and the role of customer service in helping brand development
wasn't so well known. Over time, Booms and Pitner added three extended ‘service mix
P’s': Participants, Physical evidence and Processes, and later Participants was renamed
People. Today, it's recommended that the full 7Ps of the marketing mix are considered
when reviewing competitive strategies.

The 7Ps helps companies to review and define key issues that affect the marketing of its
products and services and is often now referred to as the 7Ps framework for the digital
marketing mix.

Using the framework of marketing mix, the marketing tactics of Boo.com has been
shown below:

i. Product:
The business idea was to become the world-leading Internet-based retailer of
prestigious brand leisure and sportswear of Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger,
Nike, Fila, Lacoste and Adidas

ii. Price:
The company was valued at $390 million. Yet much of this investment was based
on the vision of the founders to be a global brand and achieve "first mover
advantage"

iii. Place:
At launch it would open its virtual doors in both Europe and America.

iv. Promotion:
Extensive "high impact" marketing campaigns on TV and newspapers.

The founder Mr. Leander was previously a professional model and had formerly
been Malmsten's partner. This PR was initially focused within the fashion and
sportswear trade and then rolled out to publications likely to be read by the target
audience.

The success of this PR initiative can be judged by the 350,000 e-mail pre-
registrations who wanted to be notified of launch.

v. Process:
The web site was tailored for individual countries using the local language and
currency and also local prices. Orders were fulfilled and shipped out of one of two
warehouses: one in Louisville, Kentucky and the other in Cologne, Germany. This
 side of the business was relatively successful with on-time delivery rates
approaching 100% achieved.

vi. People:
At its zenith, boo.com had 350 staff, with over one hundred in London and new
offices in, Munich, New York, Paris and Stockholm on services including office
infrastructure, logistics, product information, pricing, front-end applications, call
centers, packaging, suppliers, designing logos, advertising//PR, legal issues, and
recruitment.

The audience targeted by boo.com can be characterized "young, well-off and

fashionconscious"18 to 24 years old.

vii. Physical evidence:

A virtual salesperson, initially named Jenny and later Miss Boo. She would
guide users through the site and give helpful tips. When selecting products, users
could drag them on to models, zoom in and rotate them in 3D to visualize them
from different angles.

3. In many ways, the visions of Boo's funders were 'Ideas before their time'. Give
examples of e-retail techniques used to create an engaging online customer experience
which Boo adopted that are now becoming commonplace.

The idea of Boo was indeed ‘idea before their time’. The main drawback was that the
technology was not developed and peoples were using dial up for internet. Boo.com’s
highlights failings in management and strategy that can be made in any sort of
organization.

Boo.com’s founders used £125 million in only a half year, to advertise itself as a global
organization but then had to manage various issues like diverse languages, tax structure
and pricing in nations it served. Their sales weren’t up to their desire, due to various
reasons and the company died too early because of no funds left when their initial plan
failed.

The founders of Boo.com concentrated excessively on a flashy and cutting-edge design

for their website, which featured 3-D images and technology enabling clients to zoom in
on various parts of a product. As a result, their website was tormented by technical
problems and delays and took twice as long as expected to develop.

The example of e-retail techniques used to create value to the customer in current
context are:

1. Mobile customized shopping experiences

Mobile customized shopping experiences with just two clicks are now common.

2. 3D modelling and product rendering

3D modelling can be used to show off the more subtle aspects of any given product
and highlight special features in a way that photographs are rarely capable of doing.
3D product rendering, on the other hand, provides unlimited flexibility and all you
need is the editable image file and the right software. Even if you didn’t have an
editable file to work from, it’s possible to accurately recreate the image you want to
edit and build your desired changes in.

The customization potential for 3D rendered images is vast and looks a lot better
than simply superimposing a logo or design onto a photo of a plain black shirt. Taking
this as an example, a 3D rendered t-shirt could have any number of designs edited
onto it and the final result could be viewed from practically any angle. This provides
an infinitely better idea of what the end product will look like, making 3D modelling
ideal for product designers and potential buyers alike. What’s more, you could quickly
replicate these designs onto shirts of any color, allowing you to produce mockups of
entire ranges quickly and efficiently.