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| Build an online marketplace for brand customers There, brands could participate by featuring and selling apparel products made of Gore-Tex fabric. Again, one might ask: Doesn't Gore-Tex's website already do this, since it features many brands and their products that are based on Gore-Tex fabric? Not really: A closer look at the website reveals that the products are simply listed with links to the respective brands' websites for further exploration and purchase. There is no sense in which the brands actively participate on Gore-Tex's website, so the latter cannot be considered a marketplace like Amazon.com or eBay. | |
| Build an offline marketplace for brand customers In this case, each brand could have its own mini-store, staffed by its own salespeople. This would be similar to the way that Apple and Microsoft have mini-stores within BestBuy. | |
| Invite end-customers to register for additional benefits Another option would be for Gore-Tex to allow end-customers to register any Gore-Tex-based product they buy with Gore-Tex and send the items in for repairs. The key here is that the repair service is a clear complement to the product bought from Gore-Tex's customers (the brands). Just offering free ice cream to end-customers, as an absurd example, wouldn't make Gore-Tex a platform because the ice cream is completely unrelated to the products bought from Gore-Tex's customers. An added benefit of pursuing this option would be for Gore-Tex to get closer to its end-customers, which would allow it to learn directly where its technology needs further refinement or improvement. |