Return to the dot com boom?

Back in the heady days towards the end of the twentieth century there was a rush of blood to the heads of investment bankers to pour money into nascent web companies. Typified by young technology driven entrepreneurs with a vague proposition and people working long hours at computers, business principles were disregarded in a rush to get money invested in the latest young hopeful. The term ‘cash burn’ was coined to describe the consumption of the capital investment chiefly into people and advertising. Within a couple of years it all ended in tears. We launched our business Technical Marketing Ltd s in 1999 during this first internet frenzy, self funded, based on proven and prudent business models but embracing the internet technology. A new article today – Still waiting for the dot com revolution - suggests that the sector is maturing based on new and more stable technologies but still has a way to go to deliver a must have experience to users. All too often the content disappoints. From America we read much about Web 2.0, the so-called Social media and the boom in video sites. The Prime Minister even published his congratulations to the new French president on You Tube! Then on the other hand the market is fragmenting with specialists not just in building web sites, but in search engine optimization, usability testing, content management software, statistical analysis and quite possibly in interpreting the evolving terminology to baffled clients. Back in 1999 we were invited to pitch for an advertising campaign for one newly floated dot com company. The initial meeting took place in an apartment in Kensington trying to establish a brief while the busy entrepreneur dressed before dashing off to take a flight to Paris. ‘All you need to know is in the prospectus’ was the brief. It was impossible to figure out what this company did or identify any sort of business model let alone define target audiences and markets. They seemed to actually be buying other dot coms that were floundering and burning cash in the process. We declined the account. Shortly after the business folded. Today we are faced with a growing list of internet related technologies and specialists and may we need to step back and put the web site into context within a marketing plan. Experience in the b-2-b sector shows that for most of our clients the web site is a convenient resource to obtain specific or background information about a company they already know. Providing the site works and the information they need can be quickly found and accessed they are happy. Knowing your market and customers will be the best guide to determining what should be on the site rather than employing an expensive cluster of different specialists to find out what you already know.