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Capitulation All Around
Let's have a round of applause, shall we?
If only for the reason that one of the most deeply entrenched offline brokers finally
admitted that it needed to get on the web in order to survive.
Quite the blast of insight, Merrill Lynch.
So while the media all around is heralding the mighty bull for "taking the plunge," reality
states that its online competitors, already years ahead of Merrill in terms of customer
acquisition, retention, loyalty, not to mention overall acceptance, must have had
champagne at 6 a.m. when the news broke.
That is, Merrill joining the fray and causing a "hotbed of competition" serves a dual
purpose for those that have already established themselves.
First off, it validates the online-only brokers moves once and for all.
Secondly, with all of the restrictions imposed by Merrill, whether it be a steep upfront
asset "admission", ridiculously high per trade fee, or simply that the "highly anticipated"
service won't be fully up and running until basically Christmas, the competition has to be
dancing in the streets.
As in they have absolutely nothing to worry about.
After all, by the time Merrill finally does get up and running, it will have a small problem.
And that would be...
Learning how to run a successful business online.
Which is, just to point out, entirely different than running a successful business offline.
And, whether it be from a marketing, customer acquisition, retention, branding, execution
etc., etc. standpoint, let me just throw out the thought that Merrill is going to have a tough
time on this one.
Plus, while you are pondering the above, feel free to remember that Merrill's online
competition have a multi-year headstart.
End of story.
Now let's move right along...
On a similar note, you might have noticed that one of the most forward thinking in the
business, EGRP, announced that it was acquiring Telebank, in a bid to become more
and more the one stop shopping mecca for personal finance.
Should be interesting to watch.
If only for the reason that if perhaps more than 5 customers simultaneously could be
access the EGRP service, it would be something that will more than likely fly. |
