In response to Logan Graham`s blog Marry Me, Groupon about how Groupon can create profit for a business as a response to his previous blog about how Groupon has the ability to harm a business, I am proposing the question of what variable decides if Groupon profits or harms a business.

Logan came to the conclusion that “low variable costs and an intangible good“ are most likely to lead to the best success with Groupon, but I do not believe this to be the case. I believe that for Groupon to be successful is that the business must be in a popular industry with lots of substitutes present so that the coupon for that business attracts customers to  that specific business.

Also, the promotion through the coupon has to be a good deal or else customers will not bother to use the coupon and the business will loose money.

I do agree that the product or good must be an intangible good as if it is not useful to the general population; customers will not be searching Groupon for promotions on that good.

So, business owners need to examine the market of their product before making a decision to use Groupon or not.

On Tuesday, the business world lost a very important figure: Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple.

Steve Jobs revolutionized the world of technology and music over the past few years and while doing so, his company became one of the most popular companies in the technology industry for computers and portable music players. Back in 2001, the music industry was being plagued by illegal downloading of music, and then Jobs came out with innovative online music store iTunes which has now become one of the most popular places to by music online and it has kept the music industry alive, and caused other online music stores to emerge such as Amazon Music.

He was also the man behind the invention of the iPod, which replaced bulky MP3 players with the sleek iPod which fit into the user’s pockets, which has now revolutionized to the phone industry with the iPhone and the tablet industry with the iPad.

Steve Job’s work at Apple over the past decade has made Apple the model business for all other business in the portable music business and has been the inspiration for many new devices, such as the Blackberry Playbook, and with his passing this week the industry will be changed forever.