No More Promotions, I Mean It
In “things that make you go ugh” news I ran across this interesting opinion on Google’s continuous Google Checkout promotions to drive adoption:
Is $58 million a drop in the bucket for megabucks Google? Maybe, but its not the way I’d want my company to do business. Google is pushing Checkout by buying its way into the market, not on any perceived merits of its product. If your product can’t at least perform reasonably well without you dropping $58 million to get it there, maybe it doesn’t deserve to exist at all.
I had to read it twice, too. Asides the fact that sales promotions are probably as old as the oldest profession itself, I would not run a business without aggressive promotions unless you’re the clear, undisputed leader (or have a monopoly).
And on the subject of Google’s $58 million marketing expense the author probably overlooked PayPal’s on-going $100 million promotion which by the way is offering a better deal then Google Checkout right now with $15 off of $30.