> This being said, the reason for a company to participate
> on this list is simple (as pointed out by Scott), does it
> increase sales? If it did, it would pay for things like any
> additional insurance charges the company might incur
> for dispensing advice in this fashion. How do companies
> often try to increase sales? THEY ADVERTISE.
Not that I'm trying to pick on someone because of a .edu site
in his mail path, but Mark's obvious inexperience in the business
world has apparently led him to at least two mistakes, one about
something I said. I'll address both in unison.
What I tried to point out was not that the Britcars list was
a place to advertise -- in fact, I hope it's apparent to everyone
that I was explicitly avoiding use of the BC list as an advertisement
medium. What I suggested -- technical support, customer feedback,
distribution of requested information to specific individuals -- was
about as far from advertising as it's possible to get. Dana Henry's
message mentioned that Charles Runyan was concerned about the cost-to-
benefit ratio of the Britcars list and by extension their Internet
connection, and I pointed out six ways they could benefit from it in
ways that would make sense to a business manager.
More important, however, is the equation that profit = revenue - cost.
It shouldn't take a rocket scientist (and if it does, it's nice to know
there are a couple on the list! :-) to realize that to maximize profit,
you can either increase revenue or reduce cost. What I was trying to
demonstrate (particularly in the reference to electronic distribution,
my own area of expertise) was that the Internet can be a good business
tool because it can save cost.
A case in point, though by no means directly applicable, is our own
publications department here at Megatest. We're planning to change from
the distribution of paper manuals to the distribution of electronic
on-line interactive information sets, on the same media as the software.
We expect to save approximately $40,000 in printing costs in 1994. Now,
TRF isn't in the position to do quite such a drastic jump (all of Megatest's
customers have electronic means of reading this information, and we have
been printing fairly expensive manuals on good paper), but they can
nibble away at the costs easily, and can probably pay for the net hookup
with the first couple of electronic distributions in postage alone. Things
would be better if, as a couple of other people have suggested, TRF kept
updated price/parts lists in electronic format at an FTP site that users
could access at will (and on their own phone line's nickel).
> I've seen through personal experience the blizzard of paper
> just a few of these companies can generate.
TRF isn't DAK, Mark. :-) They haven't shown any indication so
far that they'd behave this way, and nothing that I or anyone else
has suggested has given cause to think that they would START to
behave this way. I guess what I'm trying to say is the old standby,
that if you don't know what *you're* talking about, I can't help
you, but if you don't know what *I'M* talking about, that's my
responsibility.
> (mjb, would it be possible to send a "no ads" version of the
> digest out?)
What, just for curiosity, caused this random firing of the ad-phobe
neuron, Mark? :-) It's sure nothing that *I* meant, or as near as
I can tell, wrote. I just saw a great opportunity to use my computer
and the Internet to vastly simplify ordering parts for my M.G., and
tried to point out to TRF why I thought they should participate.
--Scott
|