E-Commerce

The Internet offers the opportunity to sell directly to customers in both the consumer market and the business-to-business market. This direct selling of goods and services has been labeled e-commerce. Many of the sites already mentioned in this chapter have a sales component either as a primary or secondary goal. Many companies maintain their existing brick and mortar stores while also selling through the Internet. Consumer-targeted companies like Eddie Bauer, The Gap, and Barnes and Noble are a few examples. Sears allows online visitors to Sears.com to choose from 4 million parts and carries schematics of 90,000 items. The items carry the same prices as they do in the stores and can be picked up at and returned to the stores as well.11 Circuit City has a similar program. Others like Amazon.com, eBay.com, and E-toys.com maintain Internet sites only.

Teenage Advertising Magazines Seek the Most Elusive Readers of All

Teenagers are one of the fastest-growing market segments in America. There are nearly 31 million teenagers in the United States, and according to Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), a market research firm that specializes in teens, they spend more than $155 billion a year.While their numbers and purchasing power make them a very attractive segment for marketers, teens are very difficult to reachparticularly through magazines. Teenagers spend a lot more time listening to radio,watching TV, and surfing the Internet than reading magazines. And while teenagers in general are an elusive segment for advertisers, young males are a particularly difficult audience to capture. According to TRU, 80 percent of girls between the ages of 12 and 19 read a magazine for pleasure every week compared to only 65 percent of boys. The Big Five teen magazinesSeventeen, YM, Teen, Teen People, and CosmoGirlall target girls. Only Teen People manages to pull in a sizable male audience, as male teens account for around 20 percent of its readers. Conventional wisdom in the magazine industry says that teenage males are too antsy to cozy up with a magazine for any length of time. And when they do, they tend to read publications such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, or niche titles catering to specific interests such as extreme sports or video gaming. Publishers also note that teen guys are so worried about being teased by friends for needing advice on things such as muscle building or snagging girls that they balk at picking up magazines that deal with these topics. And today,no matter how racy the content, its difficult for a magazine to compete with the raw subject matter available on the Internet and many cable TV channels.

While few magazines have been successful in reaching the elusive teenage male segment on a large scale, publishers continue to look for the right formula to do so. After years of watching girl-oriented magazines dominate the teen-glossies market, a number of publishers are trying to lure teenage boys. For example, Rodale Inc. created a spin-off of its Mens Health magazine for teen guys called MH-18. The new magazines content was similar to the girls magazine Seventeen as it included boyish lifestyle fare: workout plans, girlkissing tips,and ways to boost grades.When MH-18 was launched in August 2000, the editor acknowledged that it was a risky venture as he was not sure how teen guys would respond to the new magazine. It did not take long for him to get an answer: MH-18 lasted only one year before being shuttered by the publisher. While MH-18 was unsuccessful with a fairly tame editorial mix, another publisher, TransWorld Media, is taking a different approach with its publication Stance, which debuted in early 2000. The new publication takes its cover-shot and content cues from adult magazines such as Gear, Maxim, Stuff, and FHM. Stances publisher says that the magazine is a combination of the things teenage boys want to look at: girls, action sports, video games, cars, and music. Stance steers clear of grooming articles and girlgetting pointers, focusing more on cool stuff to buy such as computers and video game players and exotic things to do such as snowboarding in Austria. The magazine has been very successful in attracting readers as well as a variety of advertisers. Marketers will be keeping a close watch on Stance and other new magazines that target the elusive teen male market. Advertisers would love to see magazines that can attract teenage boys succeed so that they can beter target this important market segment. Publishers have already proved that they can attract teenage girls.Now if they can only get the guys to pick up a magazine!

St. John's 61, Notre Dame 58 Irish Regain Their Fight but Lose to Red Storm By MARK VIERA
The St. Johns basketball team has been defined by its youth this season. With a lineup of five freshmen, no active seniors and an absent coach, losses were viewed as learning experiences, and victories, moral or otherwise, could have been counted as confidence boosters. Notre Dame's Jack Cooley shooting over God'sgift Achiuwa of St. John's. Cooley had 18 points. Stay on top of all the news, on and off the court, on The Times's college sports blog.

D'Angelo Harrison scored 15 points for St. John's, which had been 0-10 against ranked teams. So perhaps it was fitting that the Red Storm picked up their first victory against a ranked opponent in 11 tries in their home finale, 61-58 over No. 20 Notre Dame on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. I think were growing every day, and it shows out there, said the freshman swingman Moe Harkless, who led St. Johns with 22 points and 9 rebounds. Earlier in the year, we had trouble closing out games. As of late, weve done better. Amir Garretts runner with 8.9 seconds to play ended Notre Dames ninegame winning streak. The Fighting Irish, who had trailed by 14 points in the second half, rushed the ball downcourt and could have tied the score on Alex Dragicevichs 3-point attempt, but the shot missed and the Garden crowd roared. Leading throughout, St. Johns (13-16, 6-10 Big East) kept Notre Dame off balance with its aggressive matchup zone defense, which forced the Irish into taking poor shots. The Red Storm limited the Irish to 37.3 percent shooting from the field, including 12.9 percent on 3-pointers. Only two Notre Dame players scored in double figures. Since losing its best player, Tim Abromaitis, to a season-ending knee injury in late November, Notre Dame (20-9, 12-4) has been one of the most surprising stories of the season. The Irish have evolved from an afterthought with modest hopes of making the National Invitation Tournament to a conference title contender. The law of averages catches up to you, Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey said. We have stolen some wins banging down 3s on the road. And we really couldnt today. Notre Dame has exceeded expectations, going 16-7 since the injury to Abromaitis, the teams most talented scorer. A fifth-year senior and a co-captain, Abromaitis was expected to step into the leading role after the departure of Ben Hansbrough, the Big East player of the year last season for a team that finished 277.

Wearing a shirt and tie, Abromaitis watched Saturdays game from Notre Dames bench. He joined the team on the court for warm-ups and pregame introductions. Notre Dame started its ascent on Dec. 27 with a 72-59 victory over Pittsburgh, then ranked 22nd. The victory was so surprising that Jack Swarbrick, the athletic director, sent Brey a text message essentially asking, Did that just happen? On Jan. 7, the Irish reached another important milepost with a 67-65 double-overtime victory at Louisville, then ranked 11th. That victory helped persuade the players that they could make something special from what might have been a lost season. Notre Dame has been helped by a sophomore backcourt of Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant that has matured more quickly than even the coaches expected. With their athleticism and quickness, Atkins and Grant have presented matchup problems for opponents. But neither had much of an impact Saturday, as they combined for 7 points against a stifling defense. Atkins averaged 13 points a game before facing St. Johns, and Grant has emerged by playing more assertively on offense, taking more shots. I always felt Atkins and Grant were going to have the keys to this car eventually, Brey said recently. I didnt think it was going to be this soon. But when Abro went down, we had to play off those guys. And they were ready for it, and they have grabbed this role. The way Brey operates may be the key to Notre Dames success. He was honored as the Big East coach of the year for the third time last season. Perhaps Breys biggest asset is his practice of avoiding coaching players to fit a scheme. He learned a lesson in flexibility in 2010, when an injury to the star forward Luke Harangody forced Notre Dame to use a more deliberate pace, which it calls a burn offense, as in burning time on the clock. It starts with recruiting, said the assistant coach Rod Balanis, who has worked under Brey since 2000. We recruit guys with high basketball I.Q.s that understand how to play. When you have guys like that, when you have smart guys, they can adapt on the fly. Adapting on the fly has been a necessity this season for St. Johns, too. All season, the Big Easts top teams have beaten up the Red Storm, who lost to

Georgetown, Louisville and Syracuse, among others. St. Johns had been 0 -10 this season against ranked teams. Part of the reason for the struggles is evide nt in the Red Storms box scores, which have featured a starting lineup of all freshmen in nine games this season. Those young players have had to grow up largely without Coach Steve Lavin, who missed all but four games this season while recovering from prostate cancer surgery in October. The Red Storms big win Saturday showed just how far the team has come in a trying season.