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Hard Luck It is not enough to just talk about something - you've got to do it. Or someone else will do it. Nua has a taste for waffle with its paean to tedium, "Nua Thinking". A few months ago, amid a splash of publicity, Adornis was announced. It would sell jewelry on the web. The web site is still being created by Nua months after the announcement of the site and it is still password protected. It seems that a very big company, Ashford.com has beaten the "thought leaders in the Internet Space" to the web, getting their jewelry and diamond selling venture online first. Adornis is a venture in which Nua has a minority (15%) stake. The idea behind it is that it will market jewelry on the web. The expertise in online strategy and apparently web design appears to be that of Nua. One of the first big mistakes made was the selection of the name Adornis. Perhaps it sounded cool at the time but in reality, it is too phonetically close to Adonis. This led to the rather embarrassing fiasco of most of the Irish newspapers reporting the name of the venture as Adonis.com. The Adonis.com site is a portal for hardcore porn. This was a branding screw up of the highest order. The other problem is that though the site is Adornis.com most people will inevitably end up pronouncing it Adornus.com. Even Adornus would have been a better choice since it combines two easily recognisable words. The most critical aspect of any brand is the name. Getting the name wrong can kill a product. Ashford.com is a publicly listed US company that sells luxury goods on the web. It has a track record of doing business on the internet and it has the experience. Experience is a critical factor in launching any business and it is far easier to expand the product lines of an existing business than start a new business. When it really comes down to it, just what has Nua actually sold on the web? It largely stacks references to other people's information into a database of links but produces very little of its own. Has Adornis.com sold anything? No. But apparently there is a lot of backing with venture capital and Nua keeps posting wonderful press releases about it on its web site. Of course if you go to www.adornis.com the site is password protected and obviously not available to the public. The Christmas market is the biggest one. If the Adornis.com venture is not live in time, it will miss a critical block of revenue. Furthermore, the established operations such as www.ashford.com will be in prime position to take the revenues for the Christmas market. On paper and press releases, Adornis sounds great. The management team that will run Adornis is impressive. However the competition, for example Ashford, do not limit their product lines to just jewelry and diamonds. And in most cases they have progressed into selling jewelry and diamonds. There is also an unsettling aspect to this venture. In an interview with Business And Finance magazine, Declan Ganley, the owner of 40% of Adornis.com mentioned Amazon.com as an example of a successful online retail venture. However the fundamental reason behind Amazon's success is that it provides access to an online community for literate people. This and good marketing are what keep people coming back for more. According to the interview, Adornis will not be a discounter but will offer top value. Attacking an established market is always dangerous. The market in jewelry and diamonds is an especially difficult one to attack as the product is an intensely tactile one. People like to see how the jewelry and diamonds look in reality.(Perhaps private viewing via webcams would be possible for the more expensive items.) Sometimes the jewelry has to be trimmed to fit. Pictures on a web page would hardly do a real diamond justice. However as the market is fragmented, it is possible that Adornis could take and hold a share. |
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