posted on August 14, 2008 10:11:25 AM new
It just seems everything eBay has been doing the past several years has been just plain WRONG. The whole thing reminds me of the "New Coke" debacle of the 1980's.
Here's a link to the Wikikpedia article - substitute the names of the players with the EBay folks, "secret" marketing team with finding team, the competitor with Amazon and it looks like the same story.
As they said in the lyrics of one of my old hippie folk songs: ("Where have all the flowers gone" : When will they ever learn?
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posted on August 14, 2008 10:15:48 AM new
How about this MSNBC article from 2005:
By Michael E. Ross
Reporter
MSNBC
Fri., April. 22, 2005
Michael E. Ross
It was early 1985, and the news was slowly leaking out: The Coca-Cola Co. was working on a new kind of Coke, a variation of a product that reached back through American history, a rejoinder to the emerging challenge from an upstart called Pepsi.
The company, already two years into taste tests and research, was working with the secrecy of a military operation.
Then on April 23, New Coke was launched with fanfare, including prime-time TV ads. Company Chairman Roberto C. Goizueta proclaimed New Coke “smoother, rounder yet bolder,” speaking of it more like a fine wine than a carbonated treat.
But public reaction was overwhelmingly negative; some people likened the change in Coke to trampling the American flag.
Sounding retreat
Soon people were hoarding cases of the old stuff. In June 1985, Newsweek reported that savvy black marketeers sold old Coke for $30 a case. A Hollywood producer, giving an old vintage its proper respect, reportedly rented a wine cellar to hold 100 cases of the old Coke.
On July 11, Coca-Cola yanked New Coke from store shelves. “We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola,” said company President Donald R. Keough.
New Coke thus joined rabbit jerky, clear beer and the eight-track tape in the pantheon of marketing goofs, products that seemed like good ideas at the time.
Sam Craig, professor of marketing and international business at the Stern School of Business at New York University, pointed to what he and other industry observers have long considered a fatal mistake on Coca-Cola's part. “They didn't ask the critical question of Coke users: Do you want a new Coke? By failing to ask that critical question, they had to backpedal very quickly.”
On the 20th anniversary of the New Coke debacle, the original beverage is still going strong: The company's fourth-quarter net profits in 2004 were $1.2 billion, up 30 percent from the same period the previous year.
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posted on August 14, 2008 10:21:18 AM new
“They didn't ask the critical question of Coke users: Do you want a new Coke? By failing to ask that critical question, they had to backpedal very quickly.”
I think that line sums up Ebay's issue - Ebay users - buyers & sellers - don't want a NEW Ebay, there are some minor tweaks that could be made - but they just dont want a NEW one.
The new Coke also made a crappy mixed drink - my rum & Coke was never the same.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on August 15, 2008 04:28:37 AM new
Ah, but the Coke situation was a little bit different, and I remember it well. They garnered tons of publicity, with the news outlets running stories and "surveys".
And it wasn't completely negative, since the contest was between two of the company's products, with others essentially shut out of the discussion.
Plus they wound up with Coke Classic, offerning another product to take shelf space from someone else.
posted on August 16, 2008 03:21:00 PM new
Don't forget that with Coke you have a huge direct competitor, Pepsi. With eBay we only have Amazon which is not exactly the same, though secretly both companies want to have more of each other's market share...
posted on August 16, 2008 09:56:32 PM new
I agree that the ebay situation is somewhat different that there isn't a direct competitor. However, one thing that I am seeing is more and more buyers are going directly to websites (or web stores) to find their items and completely avoiding ebay. Ebay's real competition is the collective individual websites.
And sellers that have developed webstores in the past couple of years are now starting to reap the rewards.
: When will they ever learn?
Caroline