Ferrit autopsy
Ok I am going to try and write this without getting personal or overly critical, It should also be noted I don’t know jack about marketing or business
Lets begin
So what went wrong? Well in my opinion Ferrit didn’t offer anything new that didn’t already exist. It has been implied they were working on a trade me killer that offered new good rather than second hand stuff that at the time trade me was known for.
In theory this sounded simple and a good idea but has lots of other problems like where do you get your products from and how do you add thousands of products to your inventory, but this is nothing that cant be solved without a few beers down at the malthouse. Any way to summarise, Define what your going for , and more importantly make sure there is a need for that service.
I also think starting a business simply to crush another business is a shit idea.
Second, Marketing.
What is the best way to market a website? Well let’s face it, people are lazy and have poor short term memory. Don’t expect them to see some AD on the back of a speeding bus or on TV and remember the exact URL of your site. The best way to advertise your site is online and word of mouth, Hell I think free laser etched hotdogs would have worked better that the AD campaigns they used. I also see people actually avoided the site based on those AD’s but I am sure marketing executives have some BS terms to make this sound ok.
Third, Honesty.
If you are going to offer reviews on products don’t “tweak “customer’s reviews, don’t make up reviews, and if you do make up or tweak reviews don’t get caught.
Fourth, Jack be nimble
So you’re a start-up with almost unlimited funding, what do you do? Well let’s face it, it wasn’t a start-up and would have probably inherited a few processes that would slow down development and change. Process tends to keep things stable ( once they are working) but at the beginning of something ground breaking you need to be free to change quickly and adapt to market forces. I am not saying you should be willy nilly with changes but you need a certain level of freedom to fix things that don’t work.
Fifth, listen to the user
If people are ranting about you site, swallow your pride and make some changes. Don’t try and reinvent something new when there are plenty of working examples of sites that do work you could learn from.
Sixth, know when to pull the plug.
People have been waiting for this for almost 2 years and if the public have already figured out that its not working, what’s going on inside? I am sure there are countless times people say it’s a long term investment but lets face it, if you inject millions into something you would expect to see some returns rather quickly.
Seventh, you cant buy innovation or passion.
I really don’t want to be taken as a "I told you so" because it isn’t, no one likes to see business shutdown but there is a lot to learn for from this.
And one last point, get the bloody .com next time
