Category Archives: Etc.

Etc., Marketing

Go Daddy: Spicing it up

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“I said, ‘What do you mean, scale?'” Parsons recalls. He disagreed with investment bankers’ suggestions that, among other things, he should keep headcount low even as he grows. “People think that because we’re an Internet company, we should be less people-intensive. I believe the exact opposite. When it comes to the Internet, people like dealing with people.”

Which is why Parsons has worked so hard to give Go Daddy a personality that, like it or not, sells. Parsons alone, for instance, decided to plaster the Go Daddy name on Michelle’s chest in the 2005 Super Bowl ad. And for the 2006 Super Bowl, he recut the commercial, featuring Michelle appealing to an arbiter of TV decency standards, 13 times before winning approval from ABC – each time taming it down, and each time watching business climb after news reports revealed that he was having to pull back to placate censors. Says Tucows’s Noss, “He played that thing like a maestro.”

More at Business2.0

Etc., Strategy

Chinese firms and price wars

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Two important factors in understanding price war distinctions are first, the state of each area’s market and second, the price sensitivity of consumers in each area.

“Chinese companies do have a lot more experience with price wars, which are widely reported business events,” says Zhang. “They are good at it. In the past 10 years, what triggered (the price wars) is the fact that the markets in China are growing. This business environment provides many profitable opportunities for [companies] to engage in price wars and to hone their skills. In a growing market, there are all different companies competing — some good, some bad — and the industry finds a way to consolidate. The only way to do that is a price war, where you bring down the prices and squeeze out the inefficient [companies].”

But the Western market is a more mature market, offering what Zhang calls “oligopolistic competition among mostly equals.” In lieu of price wars, this so-called mature market “encourages more finesse in devising marketing strategies” which may help explain why price wars are so frowned upon.

More at KnowledgeWharton

1-By Laksh, Books, Etc.

Cat O’ Nine Tales

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If there is any writer who could match the detail of a ‘Arthur Hailey’

and savagery of a ‘Frederick Forsyth’, it got to be Jeffery Archer.
And Mr.Archer brings more to the table. He spices up the procedings
with his unique style of humour (yes! spelt as h-u-m-o-u-r)

His style is quite evident in his epic novel ‘Kane and Abel’ or
the simple n’ sweet revenge tale ‘Not a penny more, Not a penny less’.
Cat o’ nine tales gives us the same old taste in a new bottle, packed
fresh from the prison.

As the name obviously suggests, Cat o’ nine tales, has nine
intruiging tales spanning a wide range of topics. While one story deals with
a husband’s murder attempt of his wife, the other deals with a
restauranter’s tax evasion.Once again the former reminds you of
Frederik Forsyth’s ‘No Comebacks’ and the later takes you back
to Arthur Hailey’s ‘Money Changers’.

Overall, Cat o’ nine tales is an interesting read. One could say Mr.Archer’s
time in prison was well spent and that his fellow inmates contributed to
another best seller:)

You will definitely enjoy the stories better if you’ve sampled the street
life of London alteast once.