Rivalry

I recently came across a list of 10 factors that influence rivalry among competing firms. It quickly occured to me that these factors can easily be applied to the frum dating market.

Naturally, I based this analysis on the handful of dating markets I am familiar with (college, NY communities, etc.); feel free to challenge my points...

So here is the list (taken from an article about "Porter's 5 Forces"):

Intensity of rivalry is influenced by

1. Number of competitors
   
   
   
   • Girl to guy ratio. Take Columbia/Barnard for example – 5 girls for every guy. Not too much rivalry for the guys.




2. Whether there are tons of customers or not (slow or fast market growth)
   
   • How fast are there new people moving in? At Penn, for example, the market is strong but only grows once a year, in the fall. In NY, new people are moving in all throughout the year.
   
   



3. Do you need to sell a lot to break even? (fixed costs?)
   
   
   
   • Do you want to date lots of people? Or are you going to settle on one of the first that comes your way. If the former, more rivalry!
     
   
   
   
   


4. Perishable inventory (the firms needs to sell QUICKLY)
   
   
   
   • How old are you and how badly do you want to get married? Considering this factor, the heights is very, very competitive.
     
   
   
   
   


5. How easy is it for a customer to switch? If it is easy, more rivalry
   
   
   
   • In this sense the shidduch dating market is significantly more competitive than the “normal” dating market. In the former, it is very easy for a girl to switch from you to another guy (or vice versa) since there is little emotional commitment. A “normal” relationship is much harder to switch out of.
     
   
   
   
   


6. How different are the products?
   
   
   
   • This makes the heights less competitive than the heights. I imagine Ner Yisroel is even more competitive and Kiryas Yoel is ever more competitive.
     
   
   
   
   


7. How high are the stakes?
   
   
   
   • We’re talking about your companion for the rest of your life. The stakes, my friend, are high.
     
   
   
   
   


8. If there are high exit barriers, a firm needs to stay in an industry (hence intensifying the rivalry)
   
   
   
   • What is preventing you from picking up and moving to another city? If you live in NY, the stakes are high unless you move to Israel. More competition. If you live in Tuscon Arizona… not so much.
     
   
   
   
   


9. Diversity of rivals
   
   
   
   • In this case, the firm and the product are essentially one and the same, so there is little difference from this factor and factor no. 6
     
   
   
   
   



10. Industry shakeout – when there are too many firms, the industry shakes out the bad ones
    
    
    
    • In the dating market, the customers (guys/girls) tend to grow at the same rate as the number of firms (girls/guys) so, fortunately, a shakeout would be unlikely. However if the current “shidduch crisis” is true and there are, in fact, too many girls competing for a shrinking number of guys, this may be a real threat to the market. These are people we're talking about, and we cannot afford a "shakeout"! My solution: import males from other markets or cities. Overseas if necessary. Shipping costs will be taken into account.

So there you have it, folks. If you are offended by comparing the spiritual and delicate process of dating to a crude materialistic market-based analgoy... well, you clearly haven't dated.