Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Before Their Time
This is an interesting story about dot-com companies that were born before their time and failed. Infrastructure and public understanding weren't in place yet. Of those two, the most important was consumer appreciation for the benefits that a Pets.com provided. It wasn't there. People still preferred to buy pet food and accessories at stores. Chalk many of the dot-com busts to public relations. The start-up companies didn't know how to relate to their publics and spent wildly, hoping they would figure it out before the crunch. Of course, they didn't. The companies that made it through that period, such as Amazon.com, were careful to gauge what consumers were willing to pay for and have delivered. Getting ahead of one's target audience happens often. One spots a trend and tries to interest the media in it only to be rebuffed. A year later, it is all a journalist wants to talk about. This is one of the frustrations of media relations, but a reminder that one dare not leap too far into the future.
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