Assignment 25A: What's Next

Existing Market. 

What I Think Is Next:

I think the next product DailyDiagnostic could make is a powder that you sprinkle in the toliet after you urinate. Initially, there could be three main ones for the three most common vitamin deficiencies. The darker the color turns of each color, the more deficient you are of that vitamin. I think this would be easier for the people who don't want to install a whole new toilet and aren't as committed to maximizing their health. In previous assignments, I mentioned the use of an app for parents who want to keep an eye on their children's levels. This app could also include more in depth information, acting as a guide for healthy habits. 

Existing Market Interviews:

"What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?"

"What is your idea of what customers might want next?"

1 - "I would suggest to start focusing on your advertising and marketing plans. Maybe figuring out if you will market by geographic location or any other factors. Since your target market is multigenerational families, going to huge suburban school districts due tot the families that live there might be a smart move. It is a place to reach the families who have children and possibly older generations living with them. Something customers might want next or what they might want added to the product is computer updates with the screen. New tests for certain illnesses/deficiencies might come out and I won't want to have to buy a whole new toilet. I think simply reprogramming with an update would be a selling point if it is feasible"

2 - " I didn't see anything in your venture concept about where you will be manufacturing so start there? Figuring out whether you want your product to be manufactured in the US or outside the country would be the first step. Recently, It has been sort of a selling point for products to be made in the US because a lot of people want jobs to sty in the US. Society has always been obsessed with looking younger but I also think it is important to feel younger and healthier. So maybe creating an anti-aging product not for looks but for feeling better on the inside and fixing things that age on the inside?

3 - "In your venture concept I saw that you briefly mentioned influencer marketing. Although that is great idea, think about a 16-25 year old talking about a toilet on social media. I think you should start taking into consideration how likely it will be that someone will accept that brad deal and for how much money. It is kinda odd to market and sponsor a toilet on social media so think about how you want to do that and reflect your brand as a personality."

Reflection:

    I had a difficult time trying to get ideas out of the people I interviewed. They would just look at my venture concept and think that it was all good and didn't need any feedback. However, once I probed them to talk more I got some really useful information out of these interviews. Two of the three talked about marketing/advertising my product and the other interviewee talked about manufacturing.

    I think a reoccurring theme I have seen throughout all my interviews in this class but specifically these three is the near obsession with living longer, looking younger and being healthier. My perspective on that is if you are healthier on the inside and treat your body well then you will look/feel healthier on the outside. I think it is also important that people don't just want to live longer but be frail and weak but rather live long and be active when they are older. The purpose of my product is to enhance people's lives. 

    Influencer marketing and sponsored posts have taken over social media. Originally I thought this would be a great idea to get the word out until I realized from this interview that it would be kinda weird. I mean who would want a sponsored post on their instagram about a toilet or a youtube video on their profile. That is something I definitely should reconsider and think about whether to completely scratch that idea or come up with a way to balance it out. 

New Market: In previous assignments, I never really stated that my target segments would be of an affluent part of the society. After thinking about this "new market", I realized that my product was positioned as that for someone who has enough money to maximize their health. I think a new market for my product would be targeting a more lower income part of society. Maybe I could create a toilet that just does minimal functions of the personal performance identifier or create a less expensive version by using the most basic toilet and just adding the scanner and screen. The powder product I mentioned earlier could also be positioned for this segment. 

New Market Interviews:

"How will this business help to meet the needs of customers like you"

"What kinds of adaptations to the product/service mix do you think we should make to be successful in this new market"

1 - "It will help meet our needs by providing a way to prevent any complications that could possibly cost us more money in the future. Such complications could be small such as being low in iron and dealing with the effects of that or something huge like hospital visits. When there is no room to mess around financially, you got to find ways to save every bit. Making the product more cost effective by using cheaper materials for the actual toilet and then including the screen and scanner or having it come as an attachment would be possible adaptations to make the product more successful."

2 - It helps fulfill the need of time. My family and I don't have much leisure time so this product would definitely help us have more of this type of time. If people really cannot afford the product, maybe installing them in Minute Clinics at CVS as a free service. On their way to work, people can stop in quickly."

Reflection:

    This new market definitely poses some difficult questions. How could we get the price down? How differently do we position this product to this new market? The needs that were satisfied were still the same as my original market: time and money. I was surprised about the CVS idea and I don't really know how much that would work.
    It reduces the attractiveness of the time savings my product provides since you do have to stop there. However, it still saves more time than a doctors office and saves money. I think CVS would be interested because after people use the toilet, they can purchase all the vitamin/nutrient supplements right there, increasing CVS's sales.