RE: UKNM: RE: DIXONS - FREE SHARE

[Jatinder Rai (ITN)]

Your'e right.  In a sad sort of way, Dixons are actually doing us all a

favour... encouraging more people to get on the Net.  Just like MFI,

everyone is quick to slag off Dixons, but they do actually serve some useful

purpose to a lot of people.


-----Original Message-----

From:

ownerchinwag [dot] com

 [

ownerchinwag [dot] com]On">mailto:ownerchinwag [dot] com]On

 Behalf Of Steve Johnston

Sent: 24 September 1998 09:59

To:

uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

Subject: UKNM: RE: DIXONS - FREE SHARE


Let's face it Dixons is on the whole a dreadful place to shop, and I rarely

meet anybody who has a kind word to say about any of the Dixons Group stores

(PCWorld, Currys, The Link & Dixons). But to the 'mass' market without whom

our embryonic endeavours are futile in the long run, Dixons is their gateway

(nay, portal) to the sexy and fast-growing world of high-powered consumer

electronics. As such, Dixons have a profound influence and a move like this

should be embraced by the 'new media' industry as being of enormous benefit.

Dixons windows are full of 'Free internet access' posters. This is good

news.


When you add to this the fact that somewhere within a terrifyingly

'traditional' retail business, in which executives will routinely sell their

Grannies for half a percent, a huge leap of faith in the future has been

taken, and I would dearly love to see the internal justification for it.

When big legacy businesses such as the Dixons Group make investment

decisions the numbers are worked extremely hard, so what numbers are they

working on here in which John Clare (CEO) and Stanley Kalms (Chairman) are

confident of their exposure to risk and the likely return.


The IMRG spends a good deal of time with big brand retailers, and frankly it

is depressing how limited the vision and understanding present is. So to see

Dixons make a move like this is extremely good news. Retailers typically

wait for their competition to move so that they have something to measure

their own position against. Dixons' move will be very good for retailer

attitudes towards the internet.



Of course there are many holes to pick in the detail, and we all love having

someone to hate, but c'mon people, don't be so predictable.


(Incidentally Dixons are not currently a member of the IMRG and the above is

not an attempt to impress them into becoming one. Frankly I would be

dumbstruck if anyone from the Dixons Group subscribed.)


Regards,


Steve Johnston

Director of Development

IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group)



http://www.imrg.org/

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