1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?
My name is Julianna Johnson. I am a student at the University of Florida majoring in Sociology and Family, Youth and Community Sciences with a minor in Nonprofit Organizational Leadership. I have talents in connecting with people whether in a personal or professional setting. I have worked with kids for years and in order to connect with a child you must first establish their trust which I do with many of the students I work with. In the future, I plan to help end the cycles of poverty by means of real estate investing. I will teach others how to invest and also use my funds for causes I find important. If I were to start this business, I believe it will give me a financial foundation to do other things I would like to do such as investing in real estate and communities.
2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).
Often times, people, especially students, struggle to find open seating to study or do work. This is a prominent issue in college towns that causes individuals to waste time looking for available space. My service (an app) allows users to know before they arrive at a location if there is adequate open seating so that they can conserve their time.
3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?
I believe this service can be used by anyone, but my marketing will be the most successful if I target a concentrated audience. Thus, I am offering it to universities and businesses. I believe that this product will be the most popular and necessary in college towns for students and faculty.. Universities can choose to purchase a subscription to the app that all of their affiliates can benefit from. Last, I would market this service to businesses such as coffee shops that are popular for workspace. I would market to them so that they could be included in the app and possibly see an increase in their business.
4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe it's valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.
Universities will pay me for this service because they are constantly looking for ways to compete with other universities. This service is another feature that they can add to their list to make them more appealing during recruitment. Businesses will pay me for this app because it has the potential to increase their customer traffic and thus their sales.
5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?
Currently, there are no companies that offer similar services which focus specifically on study space so this service is unique. This service offers something novel to both individuals and universities.
I believe all of these elements fit together nicely. I only have a few concerns. The first one is the necessary connections to build something of this magnitude. First it would require connections with someone who can build an app, as well as universities and businesses. I also believe the marketing can be quite complex as I market on different levels and scopes.
From this feedback, I took away that I needed a more targeted audience rather than offering product to “all people.” I also took away the strength of starting on a small scale and allowing the app to prove itself to the public, and expand with “word of mouth” being the (free) marketing tool. I incorporated this feedback into question three. I intentionally narrowed it down and no longer offer the product to individuals. Now it is only offered to businesses and universities.
Hi Julianna,
ReplyDeleteI think its so interesting you want to end the cycle of poverty through real estate investing. That is an amazing and fulfilling goal to have. I also think your idea is great. There have been many times where I have gone to the library and there was not one seat available so I had to try to go to a different library, which wasted over half an hour of study time. Therefore, I think your idea would be very effective and useful. Moreover, I liked how your used your feedback to improve your post.
Hi Julianna,
ReplyDeleteI have been following your posts about your open space service and I think its good that you've taken into consideration your feedback. I am surprised you decided to change the target market to only universities and businesses since I feel like many would most likely deny paying for this service for its customers/students, rather than just facilitating the program and having the customers pay. Although it would be of more convenience for the ultimate customer, many places probably feel that they are already sufficient.
Julianna,
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome that you're continuing to pursue this idea. And like you said, I don't think any other companies have implemented a program like this. If you can pull it off, this could be huge for you! I'm sure that you can find all of the connections you need right here on campus. It's a huge, very successful school, after all. Overall, still a fantastic job. You succeeded in defining a more accurate target audience and know exactly (or almost exactly) what else you need in order for this app to become reality.