Digital Marketing Strategy Analysis: Lessons from Boo.com's Failure

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the digital marketing strategy employed by Boo.com, an early pioneer in online retail. The report examines the company's marketing tactics, including its use of e-retail techniques, promotional strategies, and pricing models. It explores the strategic assumptions and decisions that influenced Boo.com's trajectory, highlighting factors such as technological reliance, globalization efforts, and manufacturing challenges. The analysis delves into the company's target customer base, the effectiveness of its distribution channels, and the reasons behind its ultimate failure. The report also discusses the innovative e-retail techniques employed by Boo.com, such as the use of online salesmen and personalized email marketing. Overall, the report offers valuable insights into the complexities of digital marketing and the critical factors that determine the success or failure of online businesses.

Running head: DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
Digital Marketing Strategy
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1DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
The company Boo.com was one of the pioneers in the use of digital media for its
marketing purposes. The company was founded by three Swedish entrepreneurs, namely,
Kajsa Leander, Patrik Hedelin and Ernst Malmsten in the year 1998 (Wrey 2015). The
company is an “online sports retailer” and intended to “amazonize the sector” (Wrey 2015).
The aim of the company was to “the world’s first online global sports retail site” (Wrey
2015). However, after an initial successful run the company had to shut down due to various
reasons like lack of financial support from the financers, strategic errors and other factors.
“Strategic marketing assumptions and decisions”
Effective marketing strategies form an important part of any company or business
organization (Chaston 2015). It is often seen that the overall growth as well as the
development or the failure of any organization depends on the marketing strategies which is
being followed by that particular business organization (Guler and Tufan 2013). It would be
apt to say that the marketing strategies followed by the company Boo.com were responsible
for the untimely fall of the company Boo.com. Some of the marketing strategies which made
the fall of the company Boo.com inevitable are listed below-
Firstly, the over-reliance of the company on the technology of its time can be ascribed as
one of the major factors which facilitated the downfall of the company. It is to be noted that
the company was one of the premier ones to initiate the process of online shopping and the
company is often considered to be the “sports and retail version of Amazon” (Wrey 2015).
However, it is to be noted that the company was operational back in the 1990s and 2000s
when there was no broadband and people needed to use dial-up connections (Wrey 2015).
The individuals had to download the software in order to access the websites. The primary
motive of the company for following the path of online marketing can be deciphered from the
lines in “New Media Age” (1999) which states “The $60b USD industry is dominated by Gen

2DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
Xers who are online….If boo.com becomes known as the place to keep up with fashion and
can supply the latest trends then there is no doubt that there is a market, a highly profitable
one at that, for profits to grow from”. However, the actual thing which happened has been
pertinently captured in the words of a reviewer- “Eighty-one minutes to pay too much money
for a pair of shoes that I still have to wait a week to get?” (Wrey 2015).
The second marketing strategy which can be ascribed to the fall of the company Boo.com
was the untimely globalization followed by the company Boo.com. It is to be noted that the
company Boo.com wanted to a global leader in the online fashion garments industry and
therefore it planned to expand its business in Europe and America without having proper
means to reinforce its sale and technological aspects (Wrey 2015). The company should have
waited its sales to increase and other means of revenue generation before embarking on the
path of globalization.
The third marketing strategy which can be taken as a factor for the inevitable fall of the
company Boo.com was the manufacturing blunders committed by the company. The
company emphasized more on the design as well as the material of garments manufactured
by it and other related aspects instead of focusing more on the size of the garments
manufactured by it (Wrey 2015). Therefore, the choices available to the customers in terms
of sizes were very limited and this increased the dissatisfaction level of the customers related
to the product.
Another factor responsible for the downfall of the company Boo.com was that on the
drive to become global and the online giant the company ended up spending more on the
technological advancement rather than investing on improving the quality of the products
manufactured by it and other aspects (Wrey 2015).

3DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
Moreover, it can also be said that the company Boo.com fail to introduce various new
strategies like competitive pricing strategies, promotional strategies and various other policies
followed by various other companies like firebox.com and lasminute.com.
“Marketing tactics of Boo.com”
It is often seen that the products sold buy a company or business organization plays a
significant role in the overall growth as well as the development of the company or the
business organization concerned (Dennis et al. 2012). The idea behind the original creation of
the company Boo.com was very revolutionary for its time. The company in order to leave a
lasting impression on its various customers decided to go ahead with a name which was very
unconventional. In the words of Rob Talbot, the owners of the company Boo.com were
“looking for a name that was easy to spell across all the different countries and easy to
remember….something that didn’t have a particular meaning” (Wrey 2015). The target
customer base of the company was “young, well-off and fashion-conscious’ 18-to-24-year-
olds” (Wrey 2015). The company was an online retailer for the various brands like Nike,
Adidas, Ralph Lauren, Polo, Fila, Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger and various others (Wrey 2015).
The company used to provide expensive garments to the customers. Therefore, the choice of
its target customer base was not appropriate for the products sold by it.
Pricing forms an important aspect of the marketing strategy followed by the various
companies or business organizations. Pricing strategy was a major issue for the company
Boo.com. The company intended to sell its products over the online platform. It is to be noted
that back in the 1990s and 2000s when the company was operational pricing strategy was
seen to be direct representation of the brand image of the company (Wrey 2015). A lower
pricing policy followed by the company meant a negative brand image whereas a higher
pricing policy followed meant a positive brand image (Gomez-Herrera, Martens and Turlea

4DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
2014). However, it was noticed that the various customers had to pay the same amount of
money to buy the products online as they would have to spend to buy the products from the
physical stores. In addition to this, the customers after ordering the products had a wait for a
week or two to get the delivery of the products ordered by them.
Promotion forms an important aspect of any company or business organization. It helps
the companies or business organizations to promote their various products as well as services
(Birindelli 2012). The company Boo.com also followed an extensive promotional plan for the
promotion of its various products as well as services. The company used to promote its
various products in the fashion magazine called “Boom” (Wrey 2015). The company also
used to promote its products extensively over the Televisions and radio and various other
internet platforms. However, it is significant to note the conversion rate of the company for
the sale of its products was only 0.25% (Wrey 2015).
It is to be noted that the distribution channel followed by the company Boo.com was the
online platform (Wrey 2015). However, the customers who used to avail their services had to
wait for more than a week for the delivery of the products ordered by them. Moreover, the
price which was charged by the company was the same which was charged by the various
retail stores. In addition to that, the various brands whose products were sold by Boo.com
already had their retail stores and thus they were reluctant to offer their services to the
company. It is also to be noted that the people back in the 1990s and 2000s were not much
familiar to the concept of buying products over the internet and this indirectly hampered the
prospects of the company (Brownsword 2016).
The process of online selling of products was followed by the company boo.com.
However, it was often seen that the process of online purchase of products was a very long as

5DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
well as tedious process and many customers preferred to buy products from the various retail
stores (Crewe 2013).
The company boo.com had a considerable success in the 1990s and 2000s and therefore, a
large workforce was needed to cater to all the needs as well as the requirements of the
customers. The company therefore had to spend a considerable amount of its profit on the
maintenance of this workforce. This proved to be considerably dear to the company as the
company was not making much profit.
“Examples of e-retail techniques”
Some of the ideas used by the company boo.com were very innovative as well as
advanced for its time and are still used by the major online shopping websites. The first major
e-retail technique used by the company was the use of a pseudo-online salesman. The
company recognizing the hesitation of the customers to get buy products online incorporated
the idea of the online salesman who would guide the customers over the website to buy the
various products (Wrey 2015). Another, significant technique used by the company was that
it used to send the customers information about the new products as well as services over the
email and manual posts (Wrey 2015). The company also used to provide images of the
products which the customers were interested in buying to capture the customers and also to
enhance the experience of the customers (Wrey 2015). These techniques are commonplace
today however they were very revolutionary back in the 1990s and 2000s.

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7DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
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