1) 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?
o My name is Javier Chacon and I am a 3rd year Finance major here at the University of Florida. I have a talent in data analysis that I have been able to continue to build through running my own online business. Through running my own online business, I have been able to further develop my statistical analysis skills, as well as communication, teamwork, leadership, and marketing skills. I aspire to create a product/business that directly has a positive impact on people and solves a significant problem in society. If I were to start up this business, I could see it playing a significant role in my life as my concept is something that addresses a pretty serious issue in society today. My past experience operating my own business has further ignited my passion for innovation and I hope to be able to utilize that to make something that can help people today.
2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).
o I am offering to consumers a product that will offer additional protection and peace-of-mind in regards to their personal safety. My concept was to create clothing accessories, such as bracelets, necklaces, and rings as well as potentially “distress buttons” that can be placed into typical clothing, with the technological capacity to send live location to authorities/emergency contacts in times of crisis. Similar to the Life Alert, my product aims to provide an additional safety blanket to consumers which is directly aimed at reducing abduction and sexual assault rates in the world today. Sexual assault/abduction rates have continued to become more prevalent in our world today and one of the biggest issues with these crimes is locating the victims. My product helps solve consumer’s unmet needs by providing them with a tool that could help keep them out of dangerous situations and potentially save their lives when placed into a critical situation.
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?
o I am offering my product primarily to young/middle-aged women and families, although some men may also be interested in purchasing my product. I chose to target young/middle-age women because I was able to identify from my interviews that their specific demographic segment seemed to often feel unsafe when alone and are often targets of sexual assault/abduction crimes. I chose to target families as well because children are often victims of abductions and kidnappings and I think parents will have incentive to purchase this product in order to keep their children safe from danger. Men may have some incentive to purchase this product to keep their significant other safe as well. All of my target customers have one thing in common: concerns over personal safety. Women and children are often the targets of the crimes that I am trying to address which is why they are the primary consumers I am going after.
4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.
o The individuals that I have identified as my target market would care because my product directly addresses their personal safety. My product provides consumers with an additional layer of protection if they are placed in a dangerous situation and could potentially be the difference between tragedy/miracle. Customers will pay money to use my product because, again, it provides them with an additional layer of security and addresses any personal safety concerns. My product does not completely eliminate the risk of abduction or sexual assault, however if an individual is placed in one of those situations, I believe my product will give them a greater chance of surviving and remaining healthy as the distress signal on my product will alert authorities/emergency contacts as to their live location resulting in faster response times.
5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?
o After conducting interviews with an audience composed of a wide range of demographics, I have come to realize that there is a growing concern surrounding personal safety as a result of an increase in sexual assault/abduction rates. As far as I am aware, there are a few other competitors within this industry. What sets me apart is that my product sends live location to authorities/emergency contacts which helps reduce response times in these emergencies, while my competitor’s products are simply elementary containing a high pitch alarm or pepper spray. There are currently ZERO products that send live location to authorities and emergency contacts, and I believe this is a critical piece in creating a product to help protect people. Obviously, these products have not been marketed correctly or function properly, as seen by an increase in sexual assault/abduction crime within the United States. I have connections with individuals with engineering/computer science backgrounds that I think would be a great asset in creating this product and bringing this concept to life. I think what I have that nobody else has is the vision to create the product and connections to bring it to life.
6) In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others.
o I believe that all five of these elements do fit together and provide me with a strong foundation to build my concept. My background operating my own online business would give me a great building block for setting up the whole operation to launch a product. I also believe that my talent in statistical analysis and breaking down data would allow me to effectively price the product and eliminate any unnecessary costs. This would also prove to be vital in analyzing the effectiveness of my product by comparing crime rates before/after my product has been introduced and used. I am offering a product that solves a key issue that is faced in society today which is safety. The desire to be safe and remain safe will ultimately drive consumers to purchase this product as it solves a need that is of high-priority to them. My vision for the concept, as well as my connections with individuals containing an engineering/computer science background, will put me in a better position to be successful through bringing the product to life faster and more efficiently than potential competitors could.
Good evening Javier,
ReplyDeleteI feel that the talents and aspirations that you contain fit perfectly with your overall idea to protect citizens and people around the country. Having an online business is also an advantage, as this will allow you to understand the process of advertising a product and selling it to customers. You described your product and its audience very well by explaining the details of the product you plan to design as well as the target audience you wish to attract. Overall, the responses you gave to these questions all coordinated well with one another and allows you to have a solid vision towards a successful product. Your responses along with your previous experiences and passions sets you up for future success in the production of this product. Great job!