Sonny,
I have dedicated a whole life to studying marketing both on wholesale,
and retail in this country! I know the first attempts of selling with
catalogues in 1960's. It will never work in Italy. The people here
are too pragmatic to buy through net or catalouges. We saw JC Pennies,
and Sears go bust here in 1970's. The people havn't changed! Even if
Dell offers discounts, they will not order over the net. Furthermore,
net is very rarely used, most up north, by professionals and students.
In the south, I have no comments! gg Having said that, maybe if Dell
tries to set-up and sells like CPQ and IBM, why not. They can have for
certain a market share!
Germans in many ways are more open to change and Americanized when it comes to business in general. I think Dell could work there.
I think when US Companies talk about business moves in Europe, they should be careful. There is not one single country as Europe, nor there shall ever be one! We have a group of independent states, led by foolish politicians that are seaching to create a United States. If it would be put to vote in Germany and France, majority today will vote NO. Those that vote YES like Portugal, Spain and Greece, are countries with the Third World economy that only have to gain! They are basket cases!
Theese United States can't even get along to creat a multinational force to send to Bosnia, until US came along and took the leadership!
Theses United Sates (!!) speak different languages, have different taste, different culture, and the best, dislike eachother! So when Sara Lee, Sears, and JC Pennies tried the failed!
As to flood of cheap Asian goods, well, here the governments are not
as liberal and fair-minded as the US. Asians can sell us cheaper what
they sold in the past! No objections! If they try to screw-up the local manufactureres, sooner than later they get slapped by higher tariffs. In my line business, we have recived upto 50% discount
from our suppliers, which make us even more competitive. In a way, the
Asian crisis wasn't all that bad!
Have a nice day!
Yaacov |
