Figuring out buyer behavior no. 1

Assignment 12A

1.) Pick a segment- The segment I choose is involving home cleaning supplies and those who purchase them. 

2.) For my three people in the segment, I went to the store and hung around the cleaning/ home improvement aisles until I found people willing to do a short interview with me. 

3.) The unmet need in this case that I found was with people not being satisfied with their product, or buying a product with some sort of function or lack of that doesn’t fully meet their needs. For example, one person purchasing a Roomba vacuum had complaints about how the circular vacuum wouldn’t accurately clean in corners. 

4.) In my interviews, I found that when someone noticed a problem in the quality or function of their cleaning supplies, they usually looked online at the product ratings for the product they had, and then began to look at comparable products. 

5.) In general, I learned in my interviews that people want devices to clean that will fit into smaller spaces. This can include longer handles, better joints that will move 360 degrees, and other things of that nature. The need was there a little more I noticed in people that had small children or people with pets that shed more than average. 

6.) Based on what I know about this segment and my interviews, I’d describe this segment as more particular and specific in their unmet needs. In my information search, it usually took a few minutes of talking and very specific questions to even get the customers to realize the type of complaints I wanted them to think about. This assignment actually reminded me a little bit of the bug list, specifically in the ways that you had to ask increasingly deeper and specific questions to reach the root of the unmet need. 

Idea Napkin

1.) I’m a very adaptable person I feel like. I grew up as a military kid and had to move a lot, so I enjoy talking with people and helping them out in whichever way I can. I’m very artsy, so being creative is a passion and a skill of mine that I can carry over to many different areas. There’s an old family farm in my family as well, so working and managing a farm is in my skill set as well. My business concept is involving getting younger people into the stock market and investing. Regarding this concept, I see this business as a good chunk of my lief, as I would like to take part in all of the workshops in the program. I’d like to help younger people in becoming more confident is business ventures, so I would like to try and be around the program and be a sort of metro and instructor. 

2.) I’m offering my customers a way to be more confident and possibly lucrative in the trading world of stocks. Many customers aren’t very knowledgable about hot the stock market works, and I want to be able to teach young people how it works and how to be smart with their money. I’d also like to teach my generation how to be aa little better at taking chances that may pay off in the end. 

3.) I’m offering this service to anyone ages 18-25. I feel like the first demographic I would reach would be more either college students of people in big cities, purely because of the amount of people. These customers are all living in a fast-paced life, and many are also looking for ways to make a little bit of money on the side too. 

4.) I’d like to think that the customers care about my opportunity because they can see how it will benefit them. They will gain confidence, experience, and possibly earn some money, all while learning a new skill set and a new aspect of the global economic community. 

5.) This is set apart from other just informational services because I will be offering a multiple-step process and entry into the world of trading. You can kind of experiment with the process, and then get into it deeper as almost a game, but still the possibility for financial gain is there. 

I do believe that these five elements fit together really well. In any business, there are aspects that initially aren’t thought of, and often I feel like these aspects are the tiniest details. I know in my own experience, when I’m trying to accomplish a major task or go on a trip or something similar to that, I always seem to miss one of the smallest details that tends to be very significant to the final product. I believe this applies to businesses as well. For example, a certain color choice might seem to be a small thing, but when the color is on the sign in front of a shop that customers see, it can make a big difference. All five of these elements are important in their own way and I really don’t think any one is more impactful than the others because they each cover a different topic and have their own weight in the final product. 

Solving the Problem

1.) My selected opportunity is one of the economic opportunities I wrote about in the 6A assignment. The particular opportunity I found was after watching a news report on the upswing of the stock market and the amount of people commonly investing in each age demographic. This got me to thinking about how out of all the people I know, or my friends know in the early 20s age range, almost none of them have invested very much, if ever, in stocks. So my opportunity is a bit of an untapped or uninformed market, possibly a bit of both. 

2.) For the product/service, I took a little inspiration from my high school economics teacher. He used to put us in groups and make us run fake businesses with a computer system that would actually test our decisions and see how the business would actually do in a real world situation. My idea kind of reflects this, mixed with a class aspect. I think a program set up for 18-25 year olds could be held in a public place, such as a library or a college campus, and it could teach all about the stock market and how it works. The program would be set up with a low buy-in, of about $5 or so. Then after the participant enters, they can enter into test markets, which would be computer simulations like the one I mentioned above. Once the participants get comfortable and start understanding the process, then they can play with their $5 and invest in a second set of simulations, that mimic the real stock market. Then whoever does best, gets a percentage of the buy-in pool. The pool would be used to operate the business and to also keep customers coming back with the reward system. The customers would not only be receiving useful information about the inner workings of the stock market, but could also have a chance to test their knowledge and possibly earn some money while they’re at it. 

Identifying Opportunities

IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES 

Opportunities:

      Economic-

1. Stock market is booming and has hit highs unimaginable for this time as short as two years ago. PART A- I grew up in a family that watched the news daily, so I’m in the habit of checking news a lot. On this particular day, I was watching Fox News and the reporter was doing a segment to compare stock market prices now and every year for the last five years. PART B- I’d think that an opportunity exists here because a fair amount of young people don’t usually deal with the stock market because of the crash in 2008, and the trends the reporter was showing might tend to make people more optimistic. PART C- The customer for this opportunity is probably younger people (early to mid-twenties). PART D- I feel like this opportunity would be relatively easy to exploit, perhaps through classes a person could sign up for or a seminar.      I saw this opportunity because recently I’ve been talking with my grandparents more about the stock markets. They’ve been investing heavily in the stock market for years and have just started teaching me about how it works. Because of this, my interest lately has been centered around stock market news articles. 
2. Baby Boomers aren’t retiring, or are only partially retiring.  PART A- I found an article on a news site called “The Balance” that has to do with trends in the economy that are happening, regardless of politics. PART B- I think this suggests an opportunity might exist here because the Baby Boomers make up such a large population  of the older demographic in the US. PART C- I feel like the people most likely to be customers for an opportunity would be the Baby Boomers themselves, or their children. PART D- I feel like an opportunity here might be slightly harder, just because older people tend to be mores stuck in their ways and less open to trying new ideas, but ultimately I feel like an arrangement that is popular in general with this crowd could be reached.    I saw this opportunity because I have a grandmother who lately has been retired, gone back to work, and then retired again several times, so this is a particular topic of interest to me. 

    Regulatory Changes-

1. Medical devices are going to start being hooked up to internet monitoring systems now. Examples include heart pacemaker monitoring centers. PART A- I found this opportunity while listening to two hospital workers on the bus. PART B- I think this opportunity exists because there are so many hospitals that are understaffed, and any sort of technology to help in speeding up routine check-ins would be a good market. PART C- I think the most likely customer for this opportunity would be hospitals themselves, or other private clinics dealing with post-surgery patients. PART D- I feel like this opportunity would be very easy to exploit due to the sheer amount of medical facilities.     I saw this opportunity because I take a bus that goes by a hospital every day, and I am also planning on pursuing a career in medicine dealing with patients, so I’d like to be informed about as many opportunities as possible. 
2. In May 2017, regulations regarding In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) came into play with many clinics. PART A- I look a lot on medical journals, so I came across this new regulation and there were a lot of reviews on the topic. PART B- I definitely think there are opportunities that exist here because In Vitro certainly caters to a certain market of people that have tried everything else, and this is their last stop. PART C- I think the most likely customers for this would be any couples that are having issues in their reproductive lives. PART D- Opportunities here would be kind of difficult to exploit, only because this market is slightly touchy on a personal standpoint, so there might be some lines to tiptoe around.    I saw this opportunity because several of my family members have used this service, and it has always been a debate at family get togethers, so I tend to try and be more informed on the subject.