After conducting numerous interviews with people I identified as being within my target segment, I feel that I have a good understanding of who my typical customer would be. If I had to create a customer avatar for my target segment, it would be a twenty year-old male or female. This is because my product is an online textbook service that offers cheaper alternatives to buying textbooks for classes. Such a product would be most used by college students, which is why the 20 year old avatar is perfect.
The twenty year-old student would be someone who is someone in college, living either in a dorm or an off-campus apartment, and has very little expendable money. The student enjoys cheap pleasures like drinking at mid-town, going for a movie, or getting a bite to eat with some friends. These students typically do not have a lot of external responsibilities or obligations such as having children. Many of them work small part-time jobs to help supplement whatever income they have. This college student watches shows like the Office, Game of Thrones, Friends, and Breaking Bad. Their tastes are varied generally, but being a young college student in this day and age, I feel that most of them are politically conscious even though this doesn't inherently affect my product. Most of my segment would fall between the ages of 18 to 23 although there could be plenty of potential customers who are outside of this range.
I feel like I have everything in common with this avatar because I definitely fall into the target segment I am aiming my textbook service at. This is why I came up the idea in the first place, I was trying to find a way to cut down costs incurred by college students. I have the same tastes and many of the same overall perspectives as this customer avatar which comes as no surprise given how it is I came up with my service, identified a target segment, and created this customer avatar.
Friday, October 26, 2018
Friday, October 19, 2018
Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2
The focus of this exercise was to get a closer look at the purchasing decisions of my target segments, college students who need textbooks. The three primary factors that were being studied was how the target segments evaluate different alternatives in purchasing their books for classes, how and where they actually buy the books, and how they feel about their purchases once they have bought the books.
In order to do this, I conducted three interviews with random students at the University of Florida that I met on campus. I asked them questions regarding all three of these factors and recorded their answers. After going back and reviewing the interview notes, I feel like I am able to gather some idea of how my target segment approaches their textbook purchasing decisions.
I asked the students about what matters most to them when they are deciding the best option of where to buy their books from. As I had suspected, the first thing all three said was price. This shouldn't be surprising because the entire reason I had this idea is because textbooks are too expensive so it's is only natural that the students would say that price was the biggest factor. After that, the next thing that is contemplated is what edition and what format is the book in? Some professors do not care what edition of the textbook the students have as long as it is not too old while others are sticklers for specific editions so this often affects where the students buy their books from. Students also care about whether the textbook is an online version or an actual textbooks. For students who truly prefer to have a physical copy of the book, this factor plays a part on where they buy their books from. The final factor that is evaluated is how soon do the students need the books and how soon would they be able to have the books. Certain classes will require books as soon as the first day of class so for students in such classes, time it takes to obtain the books is definitely a big point of evaluation.
These questions led me to asking them about where they buy their textbooks from and how they typically buy it. The most common answers were either the University of Florida bookstore or online, usually through Amazon or E-bay. As to what influences where the students choose to buy their books from, the above factors are what has led to these being the most common purchasing sources. The most common method used for purchasing the textbooks are a debit or credit card, along with some students being given stipends for textbooks that they are able to use as well.
Finally, I asked the students what they think of when they evaluate the purchase later on to see if it was a good or bad purchase. Across the board, they said that the first thing they think of is whether or not the textbook will provide any use for them once the class is done. Unfortunately, for the majority of students, the answer is no. This is why I feel like the online platform that gives students access to the books would be a great idea. The students are paying significantly less to access the books but that is okay because the students only need the access for usually one semester. It does not make sense to overcharge students for a commodity the majority of them have no use for after 3 months.
In conclusion, I would say that this exercise was helpful in learning more about the purchasing decision making of my target segment. I found that most of the segment is evaluating their purchasing options based on the same common factors such as price, edition, type of book, and time to obtain textbooks. The segment could do further evaluations of their purchasing options though. There are definitely more options to obtain books from besides just Amazon and the UF bookstore. Their final evaluation of the purchase once it has happened is based on primarily one factor: the utility they will have from the textbooks once the class is over. For the few that do have use for the books after class, they have less regrets on how much they spent for their textbooks. But the majority wish that they did not have to spend as much as they had to for books only used for a semester.
In order to do this, I conducted three interviews with random students at the University of Florida that I met on campus. I asked them questions regarding all three of these factors and recorded their answers. After going back and reviewing the interview notes, I feel like I am able to gather some idea of how my target segment approaches their textbook purchasing decisions.
I asked the students about what matters most to them when they are deciding the best option of where to buy their books from. As I had suspected, the first thing all three said was price. This shouldn't be surprising because the entire reason I had this idea is because textbooks are too expensive so it's is only natural that the students would say that price was the biggest factor. After that, the next thing that is contemplated is what edition and what format is the book in? Some professors do not care what edition of the textbook the students have as long as it is not too old while others are sticklers for specific editions so this often affects where the students buy their books from. Students also care about whether the textbook is an online version or an actual textbooks. For students who truly prefer to have a physical copy of the book, this factor plays a part on where they buy their books from. The final factor that is evaluated is how soon do the students need the books and how soon would they be able to have the books. Certain classes will require books as soon as the first day of class so for students in such classes, time it takes to obtain the books is definitely a big point of evaluation.
These questions led me to asking them about where they buy their textbooks from and how they typically buy it. The most common answers were either the University of Florida bookstore or online, usually through Amazon or E-bay. As to what influences where the students choose to buy their books from, the above factors are what has led to these being the most common purchasing sources. The most common method used for purchasing the textbooks are a debit or credit card, along with some students being given stipends for textbooks that they are able to use as well.
Finally, I asked the students what they think of when they evaluate the purchase later on to see if it was a good or bad purchase. Across the board, they said that the first thing they think of is whether or not the textbook will provide any use for them once the class is done. Unfortunately, for the majority of students, the answer is no. This is why I feel like the online platform that gives students access to the books would be a great idea. The students are paying significantly less to access the books but that is okay because the students only need the access for usually one semester. It does not make sense to overcharge students for a commodity the majority of them have no use for after 3 months.
In conclusion, I would say that this exercise was helpful in learning more about the purchasing decision making of my target segment. I found that most of the segment is evaluating their purchasing options based on the same common factors such as price, edition, type of book, and time to obtain textbooks. The segment could do further evaluations of their purchasing options though. There are definitely more options to obtain books from besides just Amazon and the UF bookstore. Their final evaluation of the purchase once it has happened is based on primarily one factor: the utility they will have from the textbooks once the class is over. For the few that do have use for the books after class, they have less regrets on how much they spent for their textbooks. But the majority wish that they did not have to spend as much as they had to for books only used for a semester.
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Halfway Reflection
Now that we are half way through the course, it is a good time to reflect upon the last two months of the course and evaluate what has been effective and what has not been.
2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. While this class is not meant to be difficult, it does require effort and time that needs to be dedicated to it. There have been times where I have given up or considered giving up but that is not sustainable if I want to succeed in this course. I feel like the biggest wall I ran into was when we had to give elevator pitches. The week of that assignment I had three exams and by the time I was done with all of them, I did not want to give an elevator pitch, record it, and submit it. I regret missing that assignment now because I still could have done it but the experience made me realize I cannot continue to feel demotivated and not work, I want to be successful and self-pity will not lead to that.
3) Three tips for becoming tenacious. The first is to always keep your goal in mind. If you always have what you want to achieve in the forefront of your thoughts, you become much harder to stop from achieving those goals. The second is be prepared for days that you don't want to do anything. No matter how diligent you are, you will face a period where you want to give up or not do the work required. How you handle this will determine whether you are able to achieve your goals or not. The third is probably most important: be prepared to fail. You will face obstacles and setbacks in life and in this class. You may struggle to find people to interview, you may be nervous about public speaking, you may not read all parts of a required assignment. The failures will happen occasionally and they do not determine whether you will inevitably succeed or not. That is determined by how you choose to respond to that that failure.
Reading Reflection No. 1
For my first reading reflection, I read Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson. I chose this biography because I had always been awed by the behemoth that Apple had become and I wanted to know more about the genius behind one of the most successful companies in the world. I also found out that this was the only biography on Jobs that was consented by him and Issacson was actually able to conduct over 40 interviews with Jobs for the book so I figured this would be the closest to a primary source that I could get.
What surprised me the most when I read the book was learning how Steve Jobs truly became a millionaire. Spoiler alert: Jobs' wealth was not earned from Apple but Pixar actually. He had become the majority owner of Pixar in 1986 and continued to invest millions of dollars in the company until it finally landed a contract with Disney and made Toy Story in 1995. The movie made $350 million and was the most successful movie of the year, leading Pixar's value to increase dramatically by the time Jobs decided to make the company public and have its initial public offering, making him the billionaire he became. I felt like what I admired most about Jobs was his ability to sell his vision to people. There were times when no one believed in Jobs's thoughts that Apple would become the most successful company in the world. He had countless encounters with his engineers who felt overworked and wanted to leave but he had to convince them that their work and effort was on verge of creating something monumental. Dealing with rejection is a huge part of life and business but Jobs became someone who simply would not. He would convince someone to believe in his vision of his company and do such a phenomenal job of it that that person couldn't believe they ever doubted in the first place.
What I felt like I least admired about Steve Jobs after reading this biography was that the man comes across very cold and uncaring at times. I know that being as successful as he was and being the genius that he was, forming meaningful connections with other people may not be worth the effort but I did feel like he could have been a more compassionate person. The book details incidents of Jobs telling his employees to keep working 10 hours after working already 12 hours on the programming of Macintosh computers. Jobs did not care about the complaints because he was driven by results. I would say that I admired his ability to overcome adversity. Most notably, Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985. This was probably the biggest challenge Jobs faced at the time and his response was what became Pixar. It is truly unbelievable that the man who gets fired from one emerging business giant turns around and simply develops a new one in a completely different industry. That is the kind of will power and cold determination that made Steve Jobs the titan of industry he became.
Steve Jobs had so many core competencies that made him who he was. He was a visionary who never saw limitations in the world around him, only ways to overcome it. He was someone who understood that the biggest ability a successful businessman needed was to be determined to succeed. Jobs had an intense work ethic and a razor sharp mind. He was a calculative decision maker who always knew what the next brilliant move to make was. I found that Jobs had trouble forming meaningful relationships as a child because of how he was given up for adoption. I did find it confusing how this came about because it seemed as if his adoptive parents were very loving people. This is shown by his early relationship with his first child Lisa, whom he initially denied was his child.
There are two questions I am really interested in asking Jobs if I had ever had the opportunity while the man was alive. It is evident from everything in this biography that Steve Jobs gave a hundred percent of himself to his work and his visions for success. This led to his family taking a back seat to his work and his dedication to what he was trying to achieve for Apple ultimately kept him from being an ideal family man. So my first question is, if you had the ability to go back and live your life all over again, would you still dedicate the time, commitment, and effort you did for your work or would you want to make sure you were more involved with your family? I want to know the answer to this because I have heard that to achieve the ultimate pinnacle of success, one must be willing to sacrifice everything. I just want to know if doing so and achieving that success is truly worth it in the end. My other question stems from the fact that Steve Jobs was very open about stealing ideas from other sources and improving them. In fact, one of his favorite quotes is " Good artists copy, great artists steal" which was claimed to have been said by Picasso. So as someone who felt like it was okay to borrow ideas from others and improve upon them, why were you upset with Bill Gates when Microsoft released the initial version of Windows software which seemed to have copied the Mac operating system? I ask this because I feel like one cannot justify stealing something and then feel betrayed when it happens to you.
If there is one safe take away from this biography, it is that Steve Jobs absolutely personified what hard work is. If you read this book, there are many criticisms to draw on Jobs because the man was truly a flawed genius. However, the one thing no one can dispute is Jobs' work ethic. He tortured himself working inhuman hours just like he demanded of his employees. He was willing to sacrifice anything needed to ensure what he did was of the highest quality and as close to perfection as possible. This led to working more intensely than most people ever should but then again, one cannot dream to build a multinational tech giant like Apple without putting in a few hours.
What surprised me the most when I read the book was learning how Steve Jobs truly became a millionaire. Spoiler alert: Jobs' wealth was not earned from Apple but Pixar actually. He had become the majority owner of Pixar in 1986 and continued to invest millions of dollars in the company until it finally landed a contract with Disney and made Toy Story in 1995. The movie made $350 million and was the most successful movie of the year, leading Pixar's value to increase dramatically by the time Jobs decided to make the company public and have its initial public offering, making him the billionaire he became. I felt like what I admired most about Jobs was his ability to sell his vision to people. There were times when no one believed in Jobs's thoughts that Apple would become the most successful company in the world. He had countless encounters with his engineers who felt overworked and wanted to leave but he had to convince them that their work and effort was on verge of creating something monumental. Dealing with rejection is a huge part of life and business but Jobs became someone who simply would not. He would convince someone to believe in his vision of his company and do such a phenomenal job of it that that person couldn't believe they ever doubted in the first place.
What I felt like I least admired about Steve Jobs after reading this biography was that the man comes across very cold and uncaring at times. I know that being as successful as he was and being the genius that he was, forming meaningful connections with other people may not be worth the effort but I did feel like he could have been a more compassionate person. The book details incidents of Jobs telling his employees to keep working 10 hours after working already 12 hours on the programming of Macintosh computers. Jobs did not care about the complaints because he was driven by results. I would say that I admired his ability to overcome adversity. Most notably, Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985. This was probably the biggest challenge Jobs faced at the time and his response was what became Pixar. It is truly unbelievable that the man who gets fired from one emerging business giant turns around and simply develops a new one in a completely different industry. That is the kind of will power and cold determination that made Steve Jobs the titan of industry he became.
Steve Jobs had so many core competencies that made him who he was. He was a visionary who never saw limitations in the world around him, only ways to overcome it. He was someone who understood that the biggest ability a successful businessman needed was to be determined to succeed. Jobs had an intense work ethic and a razor sharp mind. He was a calculative decision maker who always knew what the next brilliant move to make was. I found that Jobs had trouble forming meaningful relationships as a child because of how he was given up for adoption. I did find it confusing how this came about because it seemed as if his adoptive parents were very loving people. This is shown by his early relationship with his first child Lisa, whom he initially denied was his child.
There are two questions I am really interested in asking Jobs if I had ever had the opportunity while the man was alive. It is evident from everything in this biography that Steve Jobs gave a hundred percent of himself to his work and his visions for success. This led to his family taking a back seat to his work and his dedication to what he was trying to achieve for Apple ultimately kept him from being an ideal family man. So my first question is, if you had the ability to go back and live your life all over again, would you still dedicate the time, commitment, and effort you did for your work or would you want to make sure you were more involved with your family? I want to know the answer to this because I have heard that to achieve the ultimate pinnacle of success, one must be willing to sacrifice everything. I just want to know if doing so and achieving that success is truly worth it in the end. My other question stems from the fact that Steve Jobs was very open about stealing ideas from other sources and improving them. In fact, one of his favorite quotes is " Good artists copy, great artists steal" which was claimed to have been said by Picasso. So as someone who felt like it was okay to borrow ideas from others and improve upon them, why were you upset with Bill Gates when Microsoft released the initial version of Windows software which seemed to have copied the Mac operating system? I ask this because I feel like one cannot justify stealing something and then feel betrayed when it happens to you.
If there is one safe take away from this biography, it is that Steve Jobs absolutely personified what hard work is. If you read this book, there are many criticisms to draw on Jobs because the man was truly a flawed genius. However, the one thing no one can dispute is Jobs' work ethic. He tortured himself working inhuman hours just like he demanded of his employees. He was willing to sacrifice anything needed to ensure what he did was of the highest quality and as close to perfection as possible. This led to working more intensely than most people ever should but then again, one cannot dream to build a multinational tech giant like Apple without putting in a few hours.
Friday, October 5, 2018
Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1
Over the last few days, I decided to conduct further interviews with some people within my target segment for my online textbook platform. Since the target segment I had selected was college students, I interviews three students who are all in different years and majors at the University of Florida. I interviewed Vincent Castellano who is a fourth year accounting student, Boone Pham who is a second year biomedical engineering student, and Krishi Patel, an MBA student. I chose these three students because I wanted a sample of students across multiple demographics such as gender, age, and area of study.
Each of the interviews lasted about fifteen minutes and they focused on two primary topics: the general description of when they encounter a need for cheaper textbook access and what they do to gather information regarding a solution to this issue. What I was able to summarize from all three students was that typically, they encounter the need for cheaper textbooks at the beginning of every new semester. This is when they get assigned their new required textbooks and have to debate whether they are going to spend hundreds of dollars on books or try and get by without the books. The students told me that every time a textbook is assigned, they would check the price of the book at the UF bookstore and realize it is way too expensive to purchase or even rent in some occasions. Once the students have encountered the problem, the next step is to Google the cheapest option for that textbook online. Usually Amazon or Ebay will have a cheaper alternative that is usually half the price that the bookstore sells the books for. The students make sure that it is the same edition or the closest edition of the actually assigned textbook and then purchase it. The decision to buy the cheapest alternative is usually made by the students themselves and there is no external consultation from parents or friends unless they are debating just not buying a book at all.
My biggest conclusion about this target segment of college students is that they are able to acutely assess the fact that they should not have to pay exorbitant prices for textbooks. They look for cheaper alternatives and have been successful in finding cheaper options to their textbooks from other vendors but there still is no perfectly cheap and convenient alternative in my opinion even now. When relying on companies like Amazon to deliver the books, students often have to spend the first few weeks of classes without their books. Even some of the online prices are relatively expensive even though it is marginally cheaper than the university's bookstore. Therefore, the opportunity I found to provide an online platform with cheap textbook access is very much present and must be exploited.
Each of the interviews lasted about fifteen minutes and they focused on two primary topics: the general description of when they encounter a need for cheaper textbook access and what they do to gather information regarding a solution to this issue. What I was able to summarize from all three students was that typically, they encounter the need for cheaper textbooks at the beginning of every new semester. This is when they get assigned their new required textbooks and have to debate whether they are going to spend hundreds of dollars on books or try and get by without the books. The students told me that every time a textbook is assigned, they would check the price of the book at the UF bookstore and realize it is way too expensive to purchase or even rent in some occasions. Once the students have encountered the problem, the next step is to Google the cheapest option for that textbook online. Usually Amazon or Ebay will have a cheaper alternative that is usually half the price that the bookstore sells the books for. The students make sure that it is the same edition or the closest edition of the actually assigned textbook and then purchase it. The decision to buy the cheapest alternative is usually made by the students themselves and there is no external consultation from parents or friends unless they are debating just not buying a book at all.
My biggest conclusion about this target segment of college students is that they are able to acutely assess the fact that they should not have to pay exorbitant prices for textbooks. They look for cheaper alternatives and have been successful in finding cheaper options to their textbooks from other vendors but there still is no perfectly cheap and convenient alternative in my opinion even now. When relying on companies like Amazon to deliver the books, students often have to spend the first few weeks of classes without their books. Even some of the online prices are relatively expensive even though it is marginally cheaper than the university's bookstore. Therefore, the opportunity I found to provide an online platform with cheap textbook access is very much present and must be exploited.
Idea Napkin No.1
1.) You: I am a 4th year Information Systems student which I feel like definitely influenced the business idea I have come up with from my opportunity assessments. Because of my major, I have been fortunate enough to acquire both technical skills such as computer programming and designing systems, as well as the soft management skills needed to operate a successful business. I hope that if I were to start my online textbook platform service, I would be able to provide a very popular and cheaper alternative to expensive textbooks. What I would hope is that the business is able to gain popularity across college campuses, become larger and more profitable of a platform for me to be able to focus on that solely rather than another career.
2.) What are you offering to customers? What I am offering customers is a cheaper, entirely online platform that can be used to access textbooks. This platform could be used across various devices, including mobile devices so that students would not have to carry around their books but can always access their books when they need it. Students would be able to download a online PDF ver sions of their textbooks also and save it to their personal devices.
3.) Who are you offering it to? This service is most useful for the demographic of college students because they are expected to spend hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars on their textbooks. These students usually do not have as much disposable incomes to allocate to their textbooks so a cheaper alternative is imperative.
4.) Why do they care? Students care because they do not have as much money as adults with higher paying jobs. Many students are either working part time for meager hourly wages or are unable to work at all because of classes. They would want to find a cheaper alternative to buying their expensive textbooks, especially when many of them know they won't use the books once the semester is over, which is a huge waste of hundreds of dollars. So a cheaper online alternative would absolutely be better than that and students would be willing to pay a fraction of the price they would otherwise have to.
5.) What are your core competencies? I believe my biggest advantage is that I tend to be overly analytical which, while it does cause making decisions a more lengthy process, I am able to come up with sound decisions. This is essential when starting an entirely new business venture like this. Additionally, I am very driven by tangible results meaning that I do not just want projections and estimations. I want to see actual efforts of my labor and I will continue to work until I do.
I truly believe that all of these elements come together to form a cohesive and functional business concept. The fact that I am analytical and result-oriented, along with the existence of a very prevalent need among a large demographic means that this is an opportunity that can be successfully exploited. Due to the fact that my service is an online portal and I have a background in Information Systems will also be advantageous to my business goals.
2.) What are you offering to customers? What I am offering customers is a cheaper, entirely online platform that can be used to access textbooks. This platform could be used across various devices, including mobile devices so that students would not have to carry around their books but can always access their books when they need it. Students would be able to download a online PDF ver sions of their textbooks also and save it to their personal devices.
3.) Who are you offering it to? This service is most useful for the demographic of college students because they are expected to spend hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars on their textbooks. These students usually do not have as much disposable incomes to allocate to their textbooks so a cheaper alternative is imperative.
4.) Why do they care? Students care because they do not have as much money as adults with higher paying jobs. Many students are either working part time for meager hourly wages or are unable to work at all because of classes. They would want to find a cheaper alternative to buying their expensive textbooks, especially when many of them know they won't use the books once the semester is over, which is a huge waste of hundreds of dollars. So a cheaper online alternative would absolutely be better than that and students would be willing to pay a fraction of the price they would otherwise have to.
5.) What are your core competencies? I believe my biggest advantage is that I tend to be overly analytical which, while it does cause making decisions a more lengthy process, I am able to come up with sound decisions. This is essential when starting an entirely new business venture like this. Additionally, I am very driven by tangible results meaning that I do not just want projections and estimations. I want to see actual efforts of my labor and I will continue to work until I do.
I truly believe that all of these elements come together to form a cohesive and functional business concept. The fact that I am analytical and result-oriented, along with the existence of a very prevalent need among a large demographic means that this is an opportunity that can be successfully exploited. Due to the fact that my service is an online portal and I have a background in Information Systems will also be advantageous to my business goals.
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