25A: What's Next?
Existing Market
Person number one said they think I should expand this idea to graduate and doctorate programs, as they suffer even more than undergraduates when it comes to textbook prices.
Person number two said we should look to providing the service to the entirety of the Florida public university system.
Person number three said we should look to using our proprietary service to help high schools as well. They said their high school’s textbooks were old and tattered, and schools could save money by digitizing their books.
New Market.
Currently, the way the business is set up, we would be marketing towards schools, as they would then offer the service to students. We could provide this service to customers directly, maybe as a book subscription service, similar to what Nook or Kindle does.
By being a central location for people to access any book they want, similar to Spotify or Apple Music, publishers and customers can both benefit. If it worked for music streaming, why couldn’t it work for book streaming?
Step 3: Interview two people from this new market. Again, describe to each interviewee what your concept is. Then, ask them how they think your business might be help to meet customers like them. What kinds of adaptations to the product/service mix do they think you should make to be successful in this new market?
Person 1 said the easiest way to reach a consumer base is through social media marketing, through Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook ads...maybe even LinkedIn. This company could create online communities of like-minded book readers, and offer suggestions to each other!
Person 2 said it would be great to see virtual book clubs started by my company, and have video conferences where people can discuss the book they read together.
I’ve learned that my subscription service idea actually has a lot of potential in new markets that I had not even thought about. The thing that blew me away was the idea of virtual book clubs, and being able to connect users to each other.
I really liked the idea of expanding this business venture to graduate and doctoral programs. I am about to graduate and I'm starting to apply for graduate school and this is a service I could see myself using. This would also open up the market to expand the shelf life of your company. So instead of a person using the service only four years you could now generate eight years of sales. I think this is a really good idea when it comes to subscriptions.
ReplyDeleteFederico,
ReplyDeleteI like the new market idea of offering it directly to students through a subscription service. If you are able to do this it should increase your profits because you will not have to worry about paying the school any commission. I think it would be smart to start out with the school first because it will get the business some attention and then once it gets known enough you can separate from the school.
Hey Fede,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a great job at identifying what the next step would be with this post, and how your business idea could effectively enter new markets such as offering the service to graduate and doctoral programs. This would not only be the most wise decision for expansion, but success with this extended target would be easily emulated given it is not much different from your current target. Great post and keep up the good work!
Bringing your service to all of the Florida public university’s is a great idea like your interviewer stated. I was not aware of the need in the graduate or doctorate programs so that is also anther great market. This interviews really helped me think about my business in a different way and it seems they did the same for you.
ReplyDelete