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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Dallas Morning News
Byline: Bill Deener
Feb. 28--It was an obnoxious little jingle that intruded upon the subconscious. Like an unwanted houseguest, it just wouldn't go away.
In the spring of 1998, viewers of CNBC television watched a bright red dancing dot sing: "Myyyyyyy Discount Broker is so fast and eeeeasy."
The commercial was annoying, unimaginative and not very sophisticated.
But it worked.
People remembered the ad. And by the thousands they began signing up for the online brokerage service -- Mydiscountbroker.com. The firm is now the Dallas area's largest online securities firm.
"That animated dot was so obnoxious that we even got some hate mail suggesting that we take it off the air," said Bruce Zucker, president of Mydiscountbroker.com. "But customers could remember our name, so it was effective and got us going that first year."
The number of accounts grew from fewer than 5,000 at the end of 1998 to more than 37,000 today, with $460 million in assets. Mydiscountbroker.com almost tripled its account base in 2000 -- all the more impressive given the vicious market downturn that saw the Nasdaq stock market drop almost 40...
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