Many users also do product analyses and comparisons and report their
findings via the World Wide Web. Quite frequently one can find others who may
be familiar with a product that you are currently testing. A company can get
first hand reports on the functionality of such products before spending a great
deal of money. Also, the large base of Internet users is a principle area for
the distribution of surveys for an analysis of the market for a new product of
service ideas. These surveys can reach millions of people and potential clients
with very little effort on the part of the surveyors. Once a product is already
marketed, you can examine the level of satisfaction that users have received
from the product. Getting customer feedback can lead to new and improved
products. Feedback will let you know what customers think of your product faster,
easier and much less expensively than any other market you may reach. For the
cost of a page or two of Web programming, you can have a crystal ball into where
to position your product or service in the marketplace.
Accessing information over the Internet is much faster on most occasions
than transmissions and transfers via fax or postal courier services. You can
access information and data from countries around the world and make interactive
connections to remote computer systems just about anywhere in the world.
Electronic mail has also proved to be an effective solution to the problem of
telephone tag. Contacting others through email has provided a unique method of
communication which has the speed of telephone conversations, yet still provides
the advantages of postal mail. Email can be sent from just about anywhere that
there is an Internet service or access so that businessmen or travelers can keep
in touch with up to the minute details of the office.
Another benefit of the World Wide Web is wide scale information circulation.
You can place documents on the Internet and instantly make them accessible to
millions of users around the world. Hypertext documents provide an effective
technique by which to present information to subscribers, clients or the general
public. Creating World Wide Web documents and registering your site with larger
Web sites improves the availability of the documents to a client base larger,
and cheaper, than the circulation of many major newspapers and/or television
medias. You may not be able to use the mail, phone system and regulation
systems in all of your potential international markets. With the World Wide Web,
however, you can open up a dialogue with international markets as easily as with
the company across the street.
The Web is also more cost-effective than conventional advertising.
Transferring on-line documents via the Internet takes a minimal amount of time,
saving a great deal of money over postal or courier services which can also
suffer late deliveries, losses or damage. If a document transfer fails on the
Internet, you can always try again since the cost of the transfer is exactly the
same. Current or potential clients are not lost due to late or absent documents.
Beyond product and market analysis, there are a great number of experts on
the Internet who make their presence widely known and easily accessible. Quite
often you can get free advice and help with problems you might have from the
same people you may otherwise pay highly for their consulting services to large
organizations, magazines, and other periodicals. Researchers and business
executives alike have attested to the fact that much of their communications
over the Internet are with others in their line of research or field of work.
Communicating with peers allows the sharing of ideas, problems and solutions
among themselves. Often people find that others in their field have already
created solutions for problems similar to their own. They are able to obtain
advice on their own situations and create a solution based upon this shared
knowledge.
As competition intensifies in the business world, consumers are faced with
more and more products and services to choose from. The future of business is
being decided right now in the minds and wallets of customers. The successful
business and marketing approach utilizes everything possible to insure that the
choice the customer makes is to choose their product or service. Computer
technology is by far the most important and impressive means by which to insure
a company's success. Computers play a significant role in every aspect of a
company's survival, from product design and manufacturing, creating client
databases, inventory control , market analysis, advertising and sales, and even
total company operations.