BA 290A-2 and ME290P
Fall 1998

Managing the New Product Development Process: Design Theory and Methodology

Nutrabase.com is being developed as part of a project for BA295A (Entrepreneurship). There is also potential for tie-ins to Marketing Research class (BA 261). The originator of the idea is W.B. Peale, MBA `99. W.B. worked previously as a researcher at a large consulting firm, and worked this summer at an Internet Market Research firm. Drew Parker, also MBA `99, worked as a software engineer, consultant, and project manager in Silicon Valley and San Francisco's Multimedia gulch. He is a founder of Envizit Corp. (creator of GlobalRent.com) and works part time as a consultant for Organic Online, a large San Franisco web site developer (clients include McDonald's and Starbucks).

A description of the project (as presented to BA295A) is below. Skills needed for the project include people with any or all of the following expertise:

• Nutrition/Fitness/Diet Programs

• Web site development

• Statistics/Marketing Research

• Database Management

• Graphic Design

This is a consumer-oriented Web site

focusing on nutrition. The site will be built upon an extensive database of nutritional content information for thousands of food products available in supermarkets and restaurants. The database will draw upon existing USDA databases, product labels and nutritional studies. With the database as its foundation, the site will offer visitors four major services:

1. Interactive screening, comparing and ranking of food products

2. Diet tracking, analysis, and planning

3. Information resources on nutrition, maintained by expert editorial staff

4. Moderated community forums centered around nutritional/health issues

Possible Revenue streams:

1. ADVERTISING - ads can be targeted to visitors searching in a specific category of food, or to members of site communities
2. PROMOTIONS - food manufacturers and marketers can use the site to send targeted promotional offers and test promotional campaigns
3. CLICK-THROUGH - traffic generation commissions from Peapod, NetGrocer, food and dietary supplement marketers, etc.
4. MARKET RESEARCH - extremely valuable data can be gathered from visitors, including their evolving nutritional concerns, responses to promotions and advertising, detailed dietary patterns, etc. This behavioral information could be cross-referenced to demographic data and supermarket "club" cards.

Web Auctions are a growing form of e-commerce enabled by the proliferation of web technology.

While hundreds of auction sites exist on the web, selling anything from computers to lab equipment to beanie babies, there are few consumer-oriented information sites on the web regarding these auctions.

The big auction houses often know exactly what an item put up for auction will sell for based on historical data, while consumers, enthralled with the "game" aspect of auctions, may overpay for merchandise.

I propose development of an auction portal site that consolidates information from dozens of ongoing auction sites, and provides consumers with access to the information and related services.

Possible revenue models include advertising and sales of auction pricing data.

I'm looking for people interested in e-commerce, marketing research, database, data analysis, interface design.