Posted on 03/11/2012 4:06:57 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
One week agao, on Saturday night, March 3, 2012, Carbonite announced its decision to break off relations with its key radio endorser. It appears to have been a fateful decision.
From Chuck Jaffe at MarketWatch, Don’t ‘rush’ to Carbonite shares (h/t commenter Eliot Ness):
When Carbonite Inc. stock took a quick plunge this week, there was an obvious consensus about what caused the move: The company pulled advertising from Rush Limbaugh’s talk-radio program after the controversial host made inflammatory remarks about a Georgetown University law student.
Yes, the market could have feared that Limbaugh’s fans would cancel Carbonite’s service, an online back-up solution for consumers and businesses, or mount their own boycott. Or maybe investors assumed Carbonite will suffer because it will no longer have access to Limbaugh’s audience.
Jaffe goes on to point out that Carbonite has underlying business problems which are driving the long term decline in the stock price, but quotes another analyst as pointing out that the result drop likely is attributable to the Rush controversy:
“There is no way Carbonite’s underlying business is changing as much as the stock trading says it is on a daily basis,” said David Trainer, president of New Constructs Inc., a research firm based in Nashville. “That says there is a lot of excessive trading going on; maybe it’s the Rush thing or maybe not. … For the average investor, a stock this young being pushed around by like this traders is a wing and a prayer.”
Reader Zane makes a related point at his blog:
However, the reality is, with the exception of a zealous few, there will be likely little customers to be had amongst the activists – certainly not the amount of customers that were reached by the Limbaugh show. By the time next Valentines day rolls around will the money spent by the activist come close to money spent by listeners of Rush- likely not even close.That being said,
One more thing : I don’t know if boycotting Limbaugh was a good business choice and I think, no one else knows either. What I do know is: making decisions based on the loudest screamers of the moment, does not usually bring about good business results.
That was my first reaction when Carbonite dropped Rush. How many of the DailyKos and Media Matters screamers actually used or were considering using Carbonite. Probably few.
Why did Carbonite make such a precipitous decision?
There are few things that cannot wait for Monday morning, yet Carbonite issued its statement on a Saturday night, in what appears to be a matter of executives’ personal and political opinions outweighing shareholder interests.
Shareholder are getting massacred as a result.
Does anyone know if any of the other conservative talk-show hosts are dropping Carbonite as an advertiser? I know Mark Levin had them.
Yes, my carbonite is still working, too. I’m fixin’ to write them a letter. A week prior to this brouhaha I subscribed for a year’s service. Then, this happened and I cancelled on Monday.
It will be April 2013 before my subscription would have expired. Is it going to run until then?
“However, a beautiful, LIBERAL, brainless, socialite wife ... would definitely make his world rise, or fall ...
Therein lies what probably happened ... “
Exactly!
BLBSW says to hubby, “It’s Saturday night. You don’t get your weekly ration until you call and cancel Rush!”
Because its CEO is a leftist moron who like all leftists put his own ego above that of his company.
“It will be April 2013 before my subscription would have expired. Is it going to run until then?”
____________________________________________
Too bad that you have that much time left.
I have only two months left.
I msgd them through the Carbonite control panel.
Right click on the icon, then open the “information center”.
I told them that I would not renew, and why.
Once I have another backup system, I will just delete everything connected with them.
It had a little to do with Limbaugh I am sure. Maybe not as much as most perceive. However, pulling their advertisement off Limbaugh’s network (the way they did it) has doomed their company and will hasten the decline. It drove a stake in the heart of the wounded beast.
If they would have removed their advertisement quietly and for financial reasons they would not have lost millions of dollars of revenue. It was a bone headed, knee jerk reaction that cost them tens of thousands of subscribers.
Try a charge back on your credit card, even if you already paid for it. Just tell your credit card company the service didn’t work as promised and they wouldn’t give your money back. Too slow,etc.
Here is an earlier article....I see a doomed company...
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/03/carbonite-shoots-its-business-model-in-the-foot/
“We generate substantially all of our revenue from the sale of subscriptions to our solutions. In order to grow, we must continue to attract a large number of customers on a cost-effective basis, many of whom have not previously used online backup solutions…. Currently, we rely significantly on advertising endorsements by certain radio personalities. The loss of one or more of these endorsement arrangements or our inability to obtain additional effective endorsements could adversely affect our advertising and customer acquisition efforts and our operating results.”
Maybe they are looking for a gov’t bailout.
“You could make up the situation by advertising....but where do you cast your limited advertising dollars?”
Carbonite is now running commercials on HGTV - I just saw one about 30 minutes ago. Not saying they didn’t - but I’ve never noticed any Carbonite TV ads before.
I doubt that they are spending more on an HGTV ad than they did on a radio spot with Rush. Whether or not it will work is the question.
what killed them in the end was that by leaving Rush we found out they were a lefty operation and everyone fled I used them once, but turn on Rush, and you are not worthy
Maybe they'll get it. sad really.
They do need to be pursued and exposed, but within the context of history and the understanding of the 'viral' social media network. One colleague ended up canceling a fund raising event for a local shelter as one of the sponsoring companies was a makeup company selling product in China(China still requires animal testing to sell product there, not make...sell). Nothing the company representative said or documentation produced that they were leading the cause to change China's laws was sufficient. The whole event was canceled.
The other colleague was stalked on Facebook to her personal account. Her information is "public" and she lists herself as conservative and christian. Her posts are inspirational etc. The stalker came back to her business page and posted how this business owner is the type of business out to destroy America and she couldn't continue to be part of a business "relationship" like this.
And for FReepers who say to stay away from the likes of FB or the new Google +1, well any marketing guru will tell you otherwise. But there are inherent risks and they are increasing.
You see I am starting to view this whole matter of social media as the means of the 'boycott.' It is a viral marketplace, Managing social media complaints before they explode into Tweets, YouTube videos and Facebook shares
For well under $100 you can buy a USB hard drive with plenty of space to back up one - if not two - computers. No paid subscriptions, no hassle, you can set your computer to automatically backup on whatever schedule suits you. I have two at 320Gb each, that cost around $69 each.
I would recommend keeping one at a location other than your home, such as at work, a relatives house, or at a friends house.
That way a fire or theft doesn’t negate your effort. I keep a backup drive at work and bring it home about once a month, backup everything, and take it back to work the next day.
A week ago, in one of the post-announcement threads, was a post quoting management about the extremely high customer acquisition cost, and how renewals were the key to profitability.
The company's knee-jerk reaction to the mau-mauing by the cultural Marxists may get some of management invited to the next cocktail party.
However, I daresay that by "insulting by association" the conservative leaning customer base as targeted and developed by advertising on Limbaugh probably wasn't the best business move, especially by a company with such razor thin margins and more highly rated competitors.
In other posts, I've seen that they rank something around #9 in the backup biz.
EBH....here you go...you hit the nail on the head...check this article. Basically social media has turned activism into a hyper drive mode
http://www.venturingcapital.com/
A book will eventually be written by the Carbonite CEO, explaining that they never dreamed of the day when a stumble by Rush......
I don’t think it was a stumble by Rush. It was a piss-poor business decision by the CEO. Just like that mattress joint, ?-Train.
With all the posts on how lousy Carbonite is and Citrix also. And now that Carbonite is a leftist company. Makes me wonder how Rush and other conservative talk shows have pushed these products for years and years.
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