As we move on, things seem more real, and honestly, more doable to me. This is fun. As we dig deeper into the world of "cyber marketing" and maybe a little later franchising (non-cyber outlets to offer the cookies in), it becomes more and more clear that what we are doing is cool, and this is actually the right time to do it in.

By "cool", I mean the "Cabana" cookies are the embodiment of the attitudes of our target market- the early to mid-course yuppies (young upwardly-mobile professionals), the sizable late highschool to late college-aged people with a little "for-fun-money" left in their pockets, and the countless numbers of wonderful, beautiful, internet friendly, socially active people in offices and homes all across Europe (for now) who spend a good part of their free time online. This target market is accustomed to good, high quality products, We offer good, high quality cookies. Fierce competition amongst multitudes of businesses has given our target market a very large selection of products to choose from. Choice is paramount in our cookies. Nowadays, "choice-based marketing" is a success story in all sorts of businesses, from reataurant chains like Mongo's to Timberland's configurable shoes to Mymuesli breakfast cereal combinations. Our concept is "in". Our price will not be cheap, but absolutely fair. And most important of all, we foster a culture. We see in cookies, what Starbucks saw in coffee; although, in a much different way.

Also, this is the right time for us to let Cookie Cabana loose. The retail internet market is slowly maturing, peole's trust in internet shopping has increased dramatically since even a few years ago (I consider myself a conservative shopper, but even I spend an increasing sum of money on various online purchases). A growing number of online tools are now available that offer effective marketing venues at a reasonable cost. And, not to forget, this is the right time because we can finally do this thing now.

Cookie news:
-- The cookie-cabana.com "under construction" page should be available by the end of next week. This is what Benjamin has promised. The page should be interesting, it is designed to keep people coming back regularly until launch time.
-- We have eventually decided on four cookie sizes, roughly corresponding to the Starbucks' short, tall, grande, plus a jumbo version of our own.
-- The flow of technical information between us and the web design team has already begun, and the first milestone results are scheduled for presentation around three weeks from now.