Business

This paper identifies the process that a company must go through to gain new business opportunities, the potential hazards if the company does not perform a thorough analysis of its market opportunity and how it can ensure a match with its business model. It also analyzes how the use of the internet can change a companys business model. Specifically how the internet can affect the way a company performs its business and interacts with its customers.

One of the most important step before exploring any new business opportunity is market research. The organization must know if there is a market that exists for its particular new product or service, if the market size is large enough and the need is available for the said product or service in the market, then the business may proceed to explore this opportunity.

What exactly market research does is identify the potential customers from the market. Whenever a product or service is developed, a target market is identified to sell it to, that target market is the universal set for the company, whose one sub-set should eventually become the consumers of the new brand that is being introduced. Market research also identifies the dynamics of that subset as well as the universal set.

After having successfully recognized the target market, and establishing the marketability of that consumer base, an organization can use marketing techniques specific to that market. For example if a company develops boxing gloves for arthritis patients, it should market to that segment only and not waste its marketing budget on other segments.

The role of market research is important because if not done correctly, it can destroy the whole business. In the previous example, if the company does not realize in the market research process that the number of arthritis patients who also enjoy boxing is so small that a product developed for them would not be profitable then the company is doomed.

The major advantage of internet is its ability to be extremely interactive with the customers and actively receive feedback (Chaudhury and Kuilboer, 2002). In addition to that, internet is an amazing marketing research tool as well as a tool for targeting the specific audience. Most of market research of an ecommerce organization can be done on the internet. Furthermore, ads can be shown only to the people who have related interests. This narrowing of the focus of marketing has a streamlining effect on the business.

Internet provides with more dynamic interaction with the consumers. In traditional medium like TV or print, the communication is only one-way, whereas on the internet, the communication goes both ways and immense data can be generated by consumers and hence used by the business. This changes the whole dynamics of business processes.