BIZRATE.

COM

Aneesh Varghese, Sooraj Jose, Dijo George, Deepthi L.,

Jean George Varghese

1.What is the original value proposition for consumers? What role does marketing
research play in defining this value proposition?
The data is collected from the consumers when they purchased from Bizrates online
partners. A pop up window would appear and a survey is offered to get response on a variety
of criteria.
Later the data thus collected is used for preparing merchant ratings with respect to various
dimensions.
Customers can ensure that the ecommerce site they use is suitable for them by selecting the
site high in ratings for the preferred parameters.
Market research can be used to check the appropriateness and usefulness of the various
parameters used for measuring customer feedback.
2.What is the original value proposition for merchants? What role does marketing
research play in defining this value proposition?
The research done was sold to merchants in a detailed form. It consisted of Customer analysis
report, consumer online report and custom cuts.
They can understand where they stand and the areas for improvement by the analysis of
ratings they get.The merchants got ratings by virtue of which they earned more customers
and also the various reports helped in gauging the level of their market position.
It is rather more reliable as the data is from the actual customers who have done the purchase.
Marketing research helps to identify the benefit received by the merchants and the cost they
incur for the same.
3.How does marketing research help BizRate to become a relationship-enabler between
the consumer and merchant?
Bizrate gives a sense of trust for the customer that a certain merchant is credible.This is
beneficial for both the customer and the merchant as the customer as well as the merchant can
utilize the credibility factor to their own advantage.
The customer can make sure that the purchases he makes are from the sources most suitable
to his requirements.
The merchant can increase his customer base and sales.He can also focus on the areas of
improvement required.
4. What is effect of Red October on the value proposition to the consumers? To the
merchant/vendor? To BizRate?
Value proposition to consumers: BizRate unveiled new product searching tool for the
consumer which allowed not only shopping by merchant but by specific product also.

Consumers had options to perform comparisons like quality, price, etc. A consumer when
comparing a merchant in a particular category; the consumer could also inspect the BizRate
rating. In case of product based searches the consumer should be taken directly to the retailers
webpage that features there product. Also BizRate provided a rebate. As a result of customer
participation the credibility and integrity increased among the consumers and this became the
major part of the consumer value propositions.
Value proposition to merchants: BizRates merchandising pods helped the merchants with
rating of 4 and above to display promotional banners in a predefined space with the ratings
also; this was done without charging any fee, but BizRate collected a cut of sales generated
from click through.
This helped the merchants to advertise their product without spending much money on
advertisement.
Value proposition to BizRate: By launching Red October, it helped BizRate to achieve 4
million unique visitors and make it the 12th most popular shopping website in Internet. Also it
was ranked by Media Metirx as 2nd best shopping portal in web beating Yahoo and MSN, this
was achieved by spending only 10 million USD on marketing. Number of merchants joined
increased from 1700 to 2700 with a retention rate of 99%. This affected the brand value of
BizRate and they had a large customer and merchant base.
5. Does Red October enhance or inhibit consumer-vendor relationship? How?
Yes, Red October enhanced the customer- vendor relationship, the consumer were given
option to do comparison of the merchant quality with price and consumer could rate the
merchant and provide feedback at necessary times; there by the merchant can find solution to
the trouble to enhance customer satisfaction and finally building a good relationship among
them. Consumer also had an option to opt out of merchandising display and view rating
information without any promotional banner. Also many surveys done by BizRate by
participating consumer helped the merchant to know the problems faced by the consumer
while making a purchase through WEB and this survey could help the merchant to find
solution to the problem by which credibility can be increased and also customer satisfaction
and finally helps in maintaining a good relation between consumer and the merchants.
6. Describe the management decision problem facing BizRate?
The management decision problem is whether the company should go with e-commerce only
or go for a coexistence of both ecommerce and research division.
The research division is Bizrates core competency.So The company should focus on it.
Red October gave the company a new opportunity in the field ecommerce.The profits came
from this caused a rethink to occur.
But the company has a dilemma of whether they should go with their core field of research or
to incorporate the ecommerce also.

But the latter option can dilute the efficiency of the firm and deviate the focus from its
research field.

7. Describe the corresponding Marketing Research Problem

Marketing Research Problem Identification mainly focuses on 6 aspects

Market Potential Research

Market Share Research
Market Characteristics Research
Sales Analysis Research
Forecasting Research &
Business Trend Research

In case of Bizrate the company had to focus on the below mentioned aspects,

How much was their Market Share from internet market research and ecommerce separately? Also the Profit from each segment had to be noted.
They had to analyze whether the market characteristics in e-commerce would
increase/decrease taking the data from the past few years.
What would be the trend and forecast of both these businesses separately?
How would the customers react to the change in the companys business?
How will the clients respond (vendors) to this change from a internet MR firm to a
e-commerce firm?
Will it be able to survive by only focusing on the e-commerce side where its
competitors already have a strong hold?

8. Outline the information required to tackle the Marketing Research Problem

The methods used for problem solving in Marketing Research are,
Segmentation Research
Product Research
Pricing Research
Promotion Research &
Distribution Research
The information required for Bizrate to solve the MR problem should have been,
The comparative study on the expected growth of e-commerce with internet market
research for the past few years and forecast for the future.
What did the customers generally prefer The e-commerce business or the internet
market research business?
Identify the core strength of the company?

 What should be the promotional strategy if they decide to move the business only to
e-commerce?
The overall cost for the transition?
What should be the strategy to generate additional income from one business if they
completely avoid the other business?
9. Create Research Questions and corresponding hypothesis?
Will the transition be acceptable for the customers? (Yes/No)
How do the customers see our firm now? (As a market research firm/ As an ecommerce firm).
Will the company be able to generate the same amount of profit if it makes the
transition? (Yes/No).
Will be company be able to maintain the promises (if the transition happens) they had
made to the customers during its initial stage of 1996-97.(Yes/No)
Will this decision of transition make them compromise on the Ethical aspect?
(Yes/No)
How long will it take the public to cope up with the new transition made?
Will they be able to get a competitive edge if they focus on one business rather than
both? (Yes/No)
Is this change really needed, considering the future forecast (trend)? (Yes/No)