1) Find a business owner and talk to them about their customers.
The entrepreneur I decided to interview was Collin the Chief of Everything over at NewScooters4Less! It only made sense to contact one of the most relevant scooter companies here in Gainesville with the idea I had for the course. I have set in on several presentations by Collin about entrepreneurship and if you haven't done that, I highly recommend you find out the next meeting he will be at. Unfortunately he had a tight schedule so I was not able to meet up with him person to person, but he made a video talking about all the questions! The link is below:
2) Next, go and talk to 3 'target customers' -- using the demographics/psychographics the entrepreneur described.
The target customers were of course students at the University of Florida. Turns out if you tell people they do not have to be recorded, there's a good chance they will say no.
Who do you think their target customers are?
In this case all three 'target customers' responded with the same answer. "Students at UF". For this particular business, it's pretty easy to realize that without UF, NS4L would go out of business in a heartbeat.
What are their customers' unmet needs?
-response 1- "I think a lot of people just like the idea of convenience. I know with my friends, they don't necessarily need to have a scooter, it just makes life easier. Uhh but also I can understand that for people who live off campus why a scooter makes much more sense. Regardless I want one"
-response 2- "Getting to class if you don't live in a dorm. I hate the buses here. RTS is just awful sometimes. Before coming here, never in a million years would I have thought I would own a scooter. Now I have one and I love it. I'm living at the retreat next year so it'll really be useful then."
-response 3- "Unmet needs are definitely just ease of transportation. There's parking everywhere for them and they help people get to class or wherever they need to go in Gainesville."
Where do they find their customers? What are their customer's demographics?
I put these two questions togother becuase collectively I got virtually the same responses. Each person for both questions said something along the lines of
"they find their customers around UF and their demographics are simply college students." Any age, regardless of gender.
What kinds of media do their customers consume?
Again all 3 people said the same thing "Social media is king"
I would say the entrepreneur definitely understand the customers needs, otherwise NS4L wouldn't be so relevant and ultimately wouldn't still be in business.[
Hi Alagana (Anan?),
ReplyDeleteI did not complete this assignment, so I do not have a blog post to leave for you. I like that you went to NS4L. This is clearly a very relevant company here in Gainesville, and plays a huge role in how students commute to campus. I think it is obvious to see that the majority of their sales comes from UF students, and it is awesome that they are capitalizing on the business in this area. I agree that without UF their business would definitely be on the decline...
Great job !
Anan,
ReplyDeleteI think it's awesome that you got into contact with the CEO of NSFL. Even though you couldn't meet 1-1 with him, the fact he took the time to record a video and upload it on youtube for you is amazing. He really goes above and beyond to connect with the local community and help out whatever way he can.
I think the customers you interviewed would be surprised at how much wider the consumer demographics are. The CEO mentioned that the demographics are much larger than Florida Gator Students, but even business professionals.
Check out my blog here http://kevindoanent3003.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-twenty-percent.html
Anan --
ReplyDeleteSee if you can embed that video into your post, it'd make it a lot easier for students to see.
Second, great job landing Collin. He's an awesome awesome guy and has literally transformed the community of Gainesville. I'm so glad you got to connect with him.
Third, I thought you could have done a better job writing. I didn't get the sense that you put too much time into writing this post--it was as if you went just 1 step above the bare minimum
Good luck, and wish you the best!
http://prestonkirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2016/02/half-way-reflection.html