To: philip TESORIERO who wrote (2116 ) 7/29/1998 10:02:00 PM From: Buy_Low_Sell_High Respond to
CompUSA and Staples are two of the larger software retail outlets that I visit in San Diego. While Touchstone products are on their shelves and have appeared a couple of times in the CompUSA bi-weekly newspaper add, neither store has ever displayed (at least I have not seen it) a touchstone product in a manner that would catch the consumer's attention unless they were specifically looking for the product. With so many choices and flashy boxes on display, individual products get "lost" in the crowd. Let me ask those who are reading this a question: prior to your interest in the Touchstone stock as a turn-around play, did any of you ever buy a touchstone product? Did you even know they existed? Did you ever go to your local software outlet and "pick" a Touchstone product out from amoungst the many choices? . . . That's my point, if Touchstone does not effectively advertise their products to whoever their target market is, there will be no sales, no revenue, and no increase in stock value. Continuous introduction of new products and upgrades to existing products is required in the software industry as obsolecence will kill you if you don't. However, introducing new products then failing to effectively promote and advertise them is worse. NetOptimizer has been on the shelves for about 2 months now. If this product is as big a deal as those on this board make it out to be, how long do you think it will be before McAffe, Symantic, NetScape, Microsoft and others have competing products that will make NetOptimizer as sought after as their AntiVirus products are? Remember, Touchstone has already told us their PC-cillian sales suck and not to expect much of a contribution from them to the bottom line. Now is the time to make a name for yourself when there is no competition. To squander this opportunity is a sin.
