Branding the Cow

FatCow's memorable website and service plan have given this local webhost a global customer base. A woman, a brand, and a simple plan made it all happen.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [March 20, 2003]

If you've been to FatCow's website, you'll remember it. The company's cow-themed Internet store front (which is heavy on the colors black, white, and yellow) and the memorable names of its services (Mini Moo Plan, Moo Money Affiliate Program) combine to form a strong brand.

Founded in 1998 in Albuquerque, N.Mex., the company currently has 30 employees and claims 20,000 customers, including several dedicated server customers. The company's founder and CEO, Jackie Fewell, came to the company with a background to business management and a plan to grow organically. One of her first hires was Todd Hasson, a UNIX expert.

Having originally set up on Microsoft's NT operating system, Fewell found UNIX more appropriate to her area. "I found in the late 1990s that given the talent we had available to us, NT was not the right platform to be on."

Hasson helped move FatCow to the UNIX platform, and also wrote the company's control panel and back office, including the billing system.

Keep it simple
Having built a stable platform, the company focused on Fewell's area of expertise: branding. "Everything we do is about simplicity," says Fewell. "Our branding creates a comfortable feeling for all of our customers, without losing our technically skilled customers. The brand makes us seem approachable. It lets our customers know they'll get attention and the process won't be complicated."

Simplicity extends to pricing, notes Peter Zeissmann, FatCow director of business development and marketing. "We have one price point for the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) market," he notes. "It's $99 per year for an all-encompassing e-commerce offering."

The FatCow $99 Hosting Plan comes with 100 e-mail addresses, 100 MB of disk space, 5 GB of monthly transfer, and more. Some options, such as webmail and anonymous FTP, cost more, either in one-time or annual fees.

Zeissmann believes that charging annual fees encourages customers to stay. "Our peers charge on a monthly basis," he notes, suggesting that they are making a costly mistake.

The company targets new customers—especially businesses that are just starting to build an Internet presence—with its Mini Moo Domain Parking plan, which is free with the purchase of a domain name ($20 per year for a .com domain, for example). Domains are offered through a partnership with TuCows.

Zeissmann says, "although the Mini Moo plan is offered at or below cost, we see a significant conversion rate to our other plans."

Keep your customers
Zeissmann expects to get more SMB customers as the webhosting industry consolidates, with the biggest companies cutting costs in customer service, especially at the low end of the market. "It's one thing to talk about customer service," says Zeissmann. "But we feel that acquisitions will cause customer service to decline."

Customer service is vital for the long term. Zeissmann says, "we really compete nationwide and even globally. There are about 10,000 or 15,000 hosts in this space, plus some larger companies. When customers select a host, there's a decision process. We see a lot of repeat visits to our website as people compare offerings."

The bottom line, according to Zeissmann, is this: "Customers buy on price and leave on service." He feels FatCow wins when customers become dissatisfied with the service offered by FatCow's competitors.

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