RE: [wg-c] breaking up (names) is hard to do

[Dave Crocker <dcrocker@brandenburg.com>]

At 12:19 AM 8/24/99 , Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
> > Anything above US$10 is not just too high but is absurdly too
> > high.  More
> > reasonable is US$2-5.
>
>An old marketing hack once clued me in to a truism. I am now giving you
>the same clue. Something is worth exactly what someone else will pay for
>it, regardless of cost. Not a penny more nor a penny less. If the cost

One of the reasons that competition is healthy is that it drives prices 
down.  Marketing and sales people tend not to like competition, because it 
makes it harder to sell their own product.  So the amount people are 
willing to spend can vary enormously for many products; that's called price 
elasticity.

While it is nice and simple to use a "charge whatever the market will 
tolerate" basis for discussing pricing, the actual exercise involves market 
dynamics that are a tad more complicated.

For non-competitive markets, prices can be disproportionately 
higher.  That's is meant by being able to achieve "higher 
margins".  Markets with lower margins get that way primarily due to 
competition.

>Any two-bit book keeper can calculate the cost margins on a going
>concern. Forecasting costs on a new concern is a finer art. However, to
>take those cost guestimates and then say that it is a fair
>representation of the market price is a fallacy. One that amatures
>(non-professionals) make on a continuous basis.

Although they are new as a business category, registries and registrars 
entail marketing, sales, technical and operations aspects that are not.  It 
is a business that is quite similar to a number of other, well-established 
lines of business, albeit rather simpler than those other.  As such, 
determining reasonable business costs isn't all that tough.


At 12:30 AM 8/24/99 , Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
>More FUD Dave? There have been answers, for stale links,  for years and
>billboards get changed every 30-60 days. Some of them bill by the week.
>As for my expert opinion, I have met the marketing guru's, I am not
>them. But I, at least, talk to them. You don't seem to even have their
>phone number. I have been a specialist, and paid expert, in e-commerce
>technology for over five years. I've worked with three pre-IPO companies
>in the last six weeks.

Always glad to see the discussion devolve into a personal challenge, 
especially when its done from ignorance.

Ok, Roeland, I have no business experience.  I haven't been doing product 
and market development, writing business plans, determining costs and 
pricing, or worrying about factors affecting product success.  And heavens 
knows I certainly haven't dealt with any startups, except...

You win.  Yours is longer.

d/

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Dave Crocker                                         Tel: +1 408 246 8253
Brandenburg Consulting                               Fax: +1 408 273 6464
675 Spruce Drive                             <http://www.brandenburg.com>
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