ENT3003 Blog!

20A - Growing Your Social Capital The first person I talked to was an executive at a construction company, who focused on their technology and app side of the business.  He was the domain expert I interviewed.  He allowed me to present my idea napkin to him in exchange for feedback on what he believes strengths and weaknesses of the business are.  One strength he liked was that there are not any apps like this on the market today that he knows about.  He appreciated how inventive and creative it was.  One weakness he identified though was that this app will take a lot of marketing and development to take off. The second expert I networked with was an independent marketing consultant who helps to manage and market a few different apps and websites.  She was the supplier in my market, by providing her services to help market businesses.  She thought the app was very intuitive, but she also believes that adding a few extra features would help it re...

1. My name is Emma! I am a junior at the University of Florida studying Marketing with a minor in Retail Studies.  I think it's fun to try and solve problems in a new and exciting way. If this product were to take off, I could see it branching out into so much than just grocery items.  I would not want this to be my livelihood though.  I would use this app to get my name out there, so I could do something I am more passionate about. 2. The product I am offering to customers is an application that can help narrow down the many choices that consumers have, particularly when shopping at the grocery store.  Consumers would download the app, input their preferences, and then receive the app's brand recommendation. This would help consumers save time and brain power on small purchases, such as household goods. 3. The consumer I would initially like to target is young adults who are slightly indecisive about their home buying decisions.  This would likely mean that...

18A- Create a Customer Avatar Overview: Our prototypical customer would be a young adult (18-32) who is out on their own for the first time, and having to make new decisions that they haven't had to make before.  These decisions are mainly based on grocery shopping and household products. Specifics: Young professional or college aged student. Lives in an urban or suburban area. Has lived on their own (no parents or roommate) for less than 18 months. Likes to be informed when making decisions. Gets overwhelmed when there are too many options. They most likely do not have any children yet, as they are not confident enough to make decisions for others just yet. I do also have a hard time making decisions occasionally, especially when I have too many options to choose from.  I am a 21 year old college student, who has no children, and likes to be informed when making a decision.

17A - Elevator Pitch No. 2 *Note: The video is black, because my laptop camera is broken, so I was only able to record audio. Feedback: I had received fairly positive feedback on my first elevator pitch.  Commenters appreciated that I talked a little bit about how the app works while giving my pitch.  I decided to also talk about how the app works in this elevator pitch, but to shorten it a little.  This allowed me to describe how the product worked without rambling on for too long.

15A- Figuring Out Buying Behavior Interview 1: The first person I interviewed stated that they mainly shop the deals when choosing groceries and household products.  They enjoy buying quality products, but at this point in their life, low price is a higher priority than high quality.  They tend to use coupons and search around to find the best deal possible.  They stated that many products they buy online now instead of in store, because they can find better deals through websites like Amazon.  This interviewee stated that they don't often think back to past purchases. Interview 2: The second person I interviewed stated that they like to shop at the lowest price, but don't mind paying more for a higher quality item.  Instead of shopping at just tradition grocery stores and convenient stores, this person likes to shop at local farmers' markets and other local offerings.  They like to be an active member in their community, and support small busine...

14A- Halfway Reflection  1.  The number one skill that I would encourage any student of this class to have is good time management.  It is so important to make sure you are keeping up with the assignments and getting them done ahead of time, because it is so easy to fall behind and then feel very overwhelmed.  I would encourage every student to get a planner and write down specific due dates of every assignment and cupcake. 2.  While I do enjoy this course, I sometimes find it hard to balance with my other courses, especially on weeks that are very exam heavy in my other classes.  During my first round of exams, I fell behind on some of my blog posts and ended up missing one.  I felt so mad at myself and wanted to give up.  But then I reminded myself that it is only one assignment, and we will always face bumps along the road.  It's how we respond to those bumps that define our levels of success in life.  After I missed that assig...

13A - Reading Reflection No. 1 1. The book I read was Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.  Phil is one of the cofounders of Nike.  When Phil started Nike, he was just a young man with a passion for running and a need for better shoes.  He didn't have tons of money or business strategies, he was just passionate about his product.  Phil encountered adversity and failure many times throughout the start of Nike, but he pushed forward.  One of the lessons he talks about in Shoe Dog is getting over failure quickly, so you can move on to the next great thing. 2.  Some of Phil's best competencies were his ability to observe the world around him and the ability to learn from failure.  The idea for Nike came from Phil being observant enough to notice the craze that consumers had for foreign goods, specifically products from Japan.  He was able to use this product craze to create the hype around his Nike Shoes idea. 3.  One part of the reading that conf...

12A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1 Segment: College Students Interview #1: This student gets frustrated when they are purchasing things from an online retailer (Amazon), but there seems to be multiple of the same good, just by different brands. Currently, this student purchases a lot of home good items (toilet paper, paper towels, dish soap, ect.) through an online retailer (Amazon).  They experience this frustration with pretty much every product they shop for, due to the large amount of brands and choices on the site. When this problem arises, they find themselves reading through every product to choose the best one. They noted that this takes a lot of time to do. Interview #2: This student expressed that she does not experience the frustration of not going knowing which good to choose at the grocery store. She stated that she did a lot of the grocery shopping in her house during high school for her family, so the transition to college grocery sho...

11A - Idea Napkin No.1 1.  My name is Emma Calvert.  Some character traits I possess are determination, thoughtfulness, and out of the box thinking.  I always try and look at life's problems in a new way, which is how I came up with this product idea.  If this product were to take off, I could see it branching out into so much more than just common grocery items.  It could be used in e-commerce to help shoppers pick out the . perfect outfit, or even implemented for bigger purchases, such as cars. 2. The product I am offering to customers is an application that can help narrow down the many choices that consumers have, particularly when shopping at the grocery store.  Consumers would download the app, input their preferences, and then receive the app's brand recommendation.  This would help consumers save time and brain power on small purchases, such as household goods. 3. The consumer I would initially like to target would be one who maybe...