Copyright © Titti Rundstrom All rights reserved. 

Cognac@Internet

...a word of "mouse"...

My corporate disclaimer: Opinions and views of Cognac@Internet are exclusively its writer and do not necessarily represent opinions of Lusina I.S.G.... Now, do we really need that? Email webmaster@swfrance.com  

One year later; so what's new?

After souring experience in the early 1998 with the much touted Magazine du Cognac Planete XO, lately reduced just to Magazine XO and having nothing to do with Cognac, I am back on the web pages of www.swfrance.com. While surfing the Andes, snorkelling the reefs off Costa Rica and working off the holidays cookies on the slopes of Italian Dolomites, times has come to look back on the state of Cognac on the Internet.

In one simple comment; much fluff, much redundancy and rare glimpse into the future. So, why Cognac related web sites lack imagination, lack creative force and once they are up, they stay frozen in time. Yes, there are exceptions but few and far between. Let's go to the positive first. The much maligned BNIC created an excellent site at www.bnic.fr. Yes, it is in French at this time, but we must assume that an English version is coming and at least summary pages in Chinese, Japanese, Russian and few other European languages are on the way. The other one is a crossroads site of Cognac Larsen at www.cognac-larsen.fr. A simple idea of pointing to many web sites carrying Cognac Larsen information with a very nifty page of search engines summary.

Somewhere suspended in the mid-life crisis are www.swfrance.com with its sister, or rather exact copy site at www.cognacnet.com and new www.cognacweb.com reincarnation of the old www.cognac-world.com . First about my hosts. Still the biggest in scope, still the most ambitious with frequent news updates and interviews but still no e-commerce. It is the definite web portal for Cognac but the Buy on Internet page will not be sufficient to fill the gap for not having e-commerce. What's is behind www.cognacnet.com is a bit of mystery as the owners are not talking. The intentions of www.cognacweb.com are fairly transparent but the execution is just not there. The search option, which is the highlight returns rather mysterious results. It seems that is does not search the web as a whole. So, what is its purpose?

And now, the fallen stars. Clearly www.le-cognac.com is suspended in the air and doing nothing; the news are out of date and poorly selected, maybe the e-commerce preoccupies its owners. www.dxcom.com or whatever its latest reincarnation is just a poor example of an ambitious start, making the first step and then forgetting about it. Close it or do it better! www.remy.com is a site that had an ambitious intention; extend the print and TV advertising to the web. But it failed for simply reason that Internet today is still a different media and the convergence of print, TV and the web is still some years ahead. So, it is necessary to re-tool this site; simplify the message! But the original intention was commendable.

I used to do a Barrel of Shame piece but since the same names continue to appear; Martell, Camus, Otard, Hennessy etc., there is no point in doing it.

And there are pages by many Cognac (and Pineau des Charentes) producers that float in the cyberspace all on their own. Poorly executed, poorly presented and giving the impression of an amateur undertaking. Some have appeared 2 years ago and have not been updated since. My advice is simple; don't go on the web if you are not prepared to maintain your image. Or, even, better. Go on the web but get on the web site that deals with your products. First and foremost, the web is about image, brand recognition, promotion and in the case of Cognac, the selling on-line is yet to happen in volume. Well presented image, clearly identified brand, well spelled out promotions lead to sales and eventually to on-line sales.

So, I hoist my glass of Cognac with congratulations to www.bnic.fr and www.cognac-larsen.fr, for the best Cognac sites in 1998.