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Lesson #3: Go After Customers both New and Old

Article Overview: “If there’s something I can do and I feel it should be done, I just want to do it,” says Johnson. “I just don’t want to leave it undone because I’ll sit back and say, why didn’t I do that? Why didn’t I start that business?”

Lesson #3: Go After Customers both New and Old

“If there’s something I can do and I feel it should be done, I just want to do it,” says Johnson. “I just don’t want to leave it undone because I’ll sit back and say, why didn’t I do that? Why didn’t I start that business?”

Johnson has been called a serial entrepreneur thanks to his penchant for starting new businesses on the fly. Throughout his career, however, if there is one thing he has learned it is this: there are always new customers to be gotten.

In February 2000, BET launched its online subsidiary, BET.com. It had been a longtime goal of Johnson’s. “The failure of any community to avail itself of the resources of the Internet will limit its ability to succeed,” he says. “BET is bringing its media channels, content and brand resources together with those of our partners to create an online destination that will educate, enrich, empower, and entertain African-Americans.”

In launching BET.com, everyone from Bill Gates to Barry Diller to AT&T found their way into being investors in the venture. But it was not to be a site like any other. Its goal was not just to increase traffic. BET.com wanted to bring more African-Americans to the Internet in the first place.

Originally, the site was set to be just a homepage for BET, showcasing its television lineup. But Johnson wanted it to be much more than that. He wanted to create an online portal that would bring in visitors both new and old. Johnson adapted the site to feature comprehensive news targeted towards African Americans, chat capabilities, and an online store.

“The African-American online community is growing rapidly,” reads the BET.com website, “and thus there is a need for a comprehensive, relevant online product that avails existing and emerging Black and Urban users to the best the Internet has to offer.”

Johnson, however, was not alone in his goal to cater to online African Americans. Before BET.com, there was NetNoir, Afronet, BlackFamilies and Blackvoices. What was going to set BET.com apart from the rest?

BET.com planned on going after not just the visitors to those other sites, but to African Americans who were not even connected yet. Johnson wanted to bring a new black audience onto the web. He saw the potential not in stealing away his competitor’s customers, but in creating new ones entirely his own.

In 1997, Johnson said, “We are going to brand the Internet, much the way we branded cable some 16 years ago.” With $35 million in financial backing, Johnson unleashed a marketing machine on the cable network to push his television viewers online. Always the opportunist, Johnson did not see his competitors as the main opposition. Instead, it was the market itself – trying to expand the market and bring new customers in was his main goal. There was a digital divide occurring in America and Johnson knew it. If he could bridge that divide and bring more African Americans online, he would not have to worry about his competition. BET.com would take care of that for him.

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Article Tags: african americans, barry diller, bet, bill gates, failure, fly, longtime goal, media channels, new businesses, penchant, serial entrepreneur, subsidiary



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