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#Written by David Tam, 1996.           #
#davidkftam@netscape.net Copyright 1999#
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David Tam
Wednesday, September 18, 1996.

                             Business Press Review
                             =====================

McFarland, Janet. "Internet gives small firm a big reach", The Globe and Mail.
Monday, September 16, 1996. B3.                            ------------------

    Securitex Inc, a small Montreal-based company who used to have trouble
raising awareness in the international market, has successfully accomplished
this task by setting up a website.  By spending $12 000 to build an effective
website, this small company has received an IFB (information for bid) worth $11
million from the famous London Fire Brigade.  This is potentially an amazing
return on the initial investment, and they have successfully accomplished their
goals of raising international market awareness.

    Securitex is a fire suit manufacturer of only 55 employees.  Ross Cochran,
president of the company, discovered that an increasing number of fire fighters
are surfing the web and decided to tap the potential market.  $12 000 is quite
a small amount to pay for an international marketing vehicle.  Originally, this
vehicle was intended only for the U.S. market but it turned out that to also
encompass the rest of the world.  Securitex is the first in its specialized
industry to have set up a website, giving the company a "novelty factor" which
was important in its decision to set up the website.  Its success can be seen
in the new order inquires it receives from Portugal, Italy, and South America.

    To build further upon its successful international marketing vehicle, it
has decided to raise even more awareness of its website by agreeing to become
the official website for a competition called the Firefighter Combat Challenge,
which is held annually in Florida.  Schedules of events and results will be
posted on the site.  This will give the website a "hook", persuading fire
fighter surfers to continually return to the website to check event results.
Another use they plan for their website is for improving customer service.
Existing customers and potential customers can view the products and
specifications on the internet instead of sending it in a computer disk format
(which easily becomes out of date).

    This case is an excellent example small businesses can learn from in terms
of using a business tool such as the Internet to raise international market
awareness.  As we have seen in out lecture from ESNA Inc., it can sometimes be
difficult for a Canadian company to penetrate the US and international markets.