Assignment 12 - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Choosing a segment: 

For this assignment I chose the segment of students who are interested in a healthier lifestyle. For the interviews, I chose my friend Naomi who has been trying to maintain her health with working out and eating healthier. She is a Psychology major in her last year of undergrad and hopes to be a double gator for her Master's. Second, I interviewed a peer from one of my classes, Marcel, a student from Denmark who is here for a semester and is a student focusing in Finance. Finally, I spoke with my roommate, Emily, who is an Anthropology major who is looking to be pre-med and finds it difficult to balance work/school life with health.

Interviews:

Out of the interviews that I conducted, two of the three interviewees agreed that they would be interested in the app. Marcel stated that growing up in Denmark, it was not hard to afford healthy food regardless of the amount of money you make. His parents were not wealthy by any means, but they always had fresh food on the table and were able to buy things like fruits and vegetables with little issue. However, being here he has seen the difference in food quality that many people consume and he believes that there is a market for the app in the U.S. Naomi was the only one who said she would probably not use the app, because she has been going to the gym and watching her food intake for a while now. She said that the app probably would work better for those just getting into health. Emily also had interest in the app and mentioned that she would probably find something like it helpful for her daily life, because it provides many options that she felt would be good for students with busy schedules.

What I learned:

I learned that not everyone who I believe would be interested in my product would necessarily have need for it. Not all students want to eat healthy, and many have already maintained a healthy diet and routine for a while. That being said, I do agree that ReFresh probably would be best marketed to those who are interested in being healthier, but find it difficult or are not sure where to start.

How I would describe this segment:

This segment would be best described as beginning health enthusiasts. ReFresh would be good for those who have interest in being healthier for various reasons but feel they can't afford healthy food, or don't know where to start on their health journey.

Assignment 11 - Idea Napkin No. 1

• Who am I?
• My name is Arielle Bloom, a 4th year Business Marketing student at UF. I also have a huge passion for food, whether that cooking, baking, or just eating. That being said, I love coming up with creative ways to make healthy food taste amazing, and that was a large part of my inspiration for the app concept that I have created, ReFresh. 
• What am I offering to customers?
• Within the app I am offering a database of healthy food recipes that take under 30 minutes to make and cost $20 or less for 4 serving sizes. I also plan to offer a map feature which uses the users locations in order to direct them to the closest quick eating locations that have cheap, healthy food options. Each location will then offer options based on calories, macros, vegetarian options, and overall "clean" eating options. This will give people who are on a budget but looking to eat healthy a good range of options based on what they want with their diet. 
• Who am I offering it to?
• My product will be marketed towards those on a lower or tight budget but are looking to have healthier options than just eating at fast food or frozen meals. 
• Why do they care?
• The app that I am suggesting has a pretty good range of offerings for people who do not want to cook or do not have time for it. However, they will also have access to an array of recipes that could provide them with easy, quick, and healthy options. Most apps for health food do not specifically cater to people who are looking to stay within a certain budget. ReFresh provides users with a budget-friendly experience for people looking to change their lifestyle.
• What are your core competencies?
• As explained, most health apps do not have budget-conscious users in mind. ReFresh is extremely budget friendly and works with many different preferred diet plans, making it extremely versatile.

• I believe that I do have a pretty good foundation for my app idea, but I do need to still work out some kinks. For instance, if the app will be free to users with some features that would be a small monthly fee or if we should charge a small fee initially.

Assignment 10 - Elevator Pitch No. 1

Assignment 9 - Testing The Hypothesis, Part 2

Discussing the interviews:

• I was able to speak with five people for this portion of the assignment. My good friend's mother is a stay at home mom, and rarely eats out or has need for eating healthier because she is able to cook at home. Second, my single friend who works a 9-5 shift every day and has weekends off. Third, a nutritionist/personal trainer who keeps healthy for a living. Fourth, a college student who has their groceries paid for by their parents and finally, a wealthy man living in Miami that has someone prepare his meals for him. All of these people make more than the average lower or middle class worker, and/or have opportunities that people in my previous set of interviews did not have. Due to this, they are able to keep a good monitor of their daily diet and make sure that the majority of food that they eat consists of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, unprocessed carbs, and other aspects of what generally makes up a healthy diet. As expected, none of them was particularly interested in the product, because what the app would do is not as helpful to them. The guy in Miami and my single friend both expressed that they liked the idea and thought it would be useful to many people, but both said that they personally would not need it. 

Who:

• The main targets for my product were lower and lower- middle class people within the United States. Here lies an opportunity, I believe, to provide them with knowledge and accessibility to healthier foods for themselves and their families.
• People who fall outside of the boundary of this need include the upper class, and many people that fall within the wide middle class. Many people that make larger wages typically can afford to eat healthier without as much struggle or planning.

What:

• Everybody has a need for healthier food, but many people in poorer areas lack the same resources or education about what is healthy.

Why:

• Overall, all people have the same need for healthy food to fuel their bodies. The difference is that many people who make less wages believe they cannot afford healthy food, so we would like to show them that they can.

Inside the boundary:
Who: people with low wages who believe they cannot afford healthy food
What: eating healthy, having options for "healthier" restaurants and fast food, plus simple, cheap recipes
Why: healthier lifestyles and a better quality of life

Outside the boundary:
Who: those who have more time to cook & make more money
What: do not need help finding cost affordable healthy options
Alternative Explanations: other people simply have no interest in eating healthier

Assignment 8 - Solving the Problem

Selected Opportunity:

The opportunity lies with those who are lower and middle class income-wise within the United States. Due to busy schedules and low pay wages they often find themselves eating what they believe are their only cheap, quick options that are close by.

Solution:

I propose creating an app specifically for healthy food options, organized by location and price. I think that it should also include nearby grocery stores and maybe even a database of quick, healthy meal options that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less, possibly including ingredients that are on sale nearby. This could really help families that are in a time crunch but want to provide healthier meals for their kids, or even for themselves. It is not that eating healthy is impossible with a low budget, but it does take time, planning, and effort. All of these things might not be doable with someone who works many hours on a small income, so basically I would like the app to do as much as possible for the app users. Even if they really do not have time or are just too tired to cook that day, I want to be able to show them that there are healthier, cheap options that they can choose from at some fast food places or take out.

Assignment 7 - Testing the Hypothesis

• Many people in the U.S. who make under a certain amount of money do not have ready access to healthy, nutritional food for themselves and their families. This is partially the reason why we have such a high obesity rate in our country.
• The who: Lower/middle class Americans and their families
• The what: They lack access to healthy food, like fruits and vegetables
• The why: The wages that they make cannot afford them these options
• Testing the who: As mentioned, this mainly affects lower/middle class Americans, but it can also affect many students who feel like they do not have time to balance working and studying.
• Testing the what: It may not affect all people in this category depending on where they live, local prices, and if they have access to fresh produce some other way (if they have a garden, etc.)
• Testing the why: I believe that the majority of people who have this need may blame the minimum wage, which would make fresh foods inaccessible. However, for other people it may also have to do with lack of time to cook healthy food due to long work hours or something similar to this. This still normally ties back into wages, however. If they are working long hours to make better money, this would give them less time in the day to provide meals for their family. 
• Interview #1: Melony
• Melony is my roommate and has been for the past two years. She not only grew up in a low-income household, but has had to support herself independently since she has moved to Gainesville for college. To afford rent, food, car payments, and more, she has has to work full time throughout her entire college career in addition to being a full-time student. Not only does she find that her budget is still tight even with her less healthy, processed diet, but she is rarely home to make healthier meals for herself. She does not have the time to eat healthier because of her income. 
• Interview #2: Natalie
• Natalie is one of my friends that I met in class almost 4 years ago now, and she has some support from her mother as far as money. However, her mom cannot provide her with much due to being a single mother. Natalie works part time and is a student at UF, and her mom bought her a meal plan knowing that she is usually either on campus or at work. Natalie feels that most meal plan options could be healthier, and she frequently finds herself eating fast food because of convenience and affordability. 
• Interview #3: Jacqui
• Jacqui is my boss at my place of work, and has been a manager for 2 years now. She luckily makes decent income for someone in her upper 20's, but she has a large family back home that she has to help provide for. Not to mention, she is usually in the office from 8 am to 7pm. She tries to go to the gym after work, but then arrives home at around 8:30 - 9 PM, leaving her exhausted after her 13 hour day. The financial stress that she has having to support other family members leaves her with these long work days, after which she has less money and time to provide herself with healthy options. 
• Interview #4: Ryan
• Ryan is a manager at a local fast food restaurant that is in his low 30's. He is going back to school at Santa Fe, but also has a baby and a girlfriend that he provides partial funding for. With the cost of classes combined with the expenses of a young child, as well as a spouse, he finds it very difficult to plan healthy meals for everyone. He usually ends up eating pre-packaged foods, or fast food when he is at work. 
• Interview #5: Marco
• Marco is a maintenance serviceman at my apartment complex. He works long hours, often being on property at 7am and leaving at 6pm. He lives an hour outside of Gainesville with his wife and kids, but makes $35,000 a year. This living wage does not provide for feeding five people healthy food on a daily basis, so he frequently gets his kids cheap fast food and things like Lunchables. 
• I have found that people's situations are often more complicated than it just being how much money they make. The lack of nutritious food in their diets is often related to food and time, but each person usually has their own situation which is unique to them. 

Assignment 6 - Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic Opportunities

1. The growth of the Chinese population is slowing, while as of now there is no foreseeable slowdown for the Indian population. This is partially due to the limitation of one child per couple in China, unless you pay a large sum of money. I saw this opportunity partially because I have a Chinese exchange student that lives at home with me and my mom back in Orlando, and it is also something that has been mentioned in my International Business class. This provides us with a unique opportunity to partner with India in the future to further our industry. We, the American people, will be the customer in this exchange, because if we position ourselves correctly we could benefit from this greatly. Insofar, we have had mostly good relations for trading with India. The only issues that we have come across are the lack of regulation in many aspects of industry for the country. This could present some difficulty for safety of workers, etc. but I do not think it will deter the future of the opportunity.

2. We have an economic opportunity in the United States which we have been denying in many ways over the past decade. We have been in denial about the usefulness of being multilingual, and still our school systems have language systems that do not in any way promote teaching children a second language. If the majority of people did know a second language, it would benefit us greatly with doing business internationally. While many people recognise this as an issue in the U.S. education system, nothing has been done about it. I did not even realise the importance of knowing multiple languages until I had the opportunity to travel to Denmark for 3 months during the summer between my senior year of high school and my first year of college. Most people in Europe know at least two languages, and it is not uncommon that they know three or four (in my personal experience). They have been able to understand the importance of this because their countries are smaller, and so they more frequently have to do business outside of their country. However, if we were to engage in the same behaviour it could improve our opportunities in countless ways as well. It would take work to fix this issue with our school systems, but it is doable if we are dedicated to it.

Regulatory Opportunities

3. The regulation and taxation of weed could greatly benefit the U.S. in many ways. Ultimately, a large percent of the drugs that the population of the United States consumes comes from across borders and fuels drug cartels, drug lords, and the violence that they pursue in countries like Mexico and Colombia. Not to mention, in the process of bringing the drugs over to the United States this also creates unwanted immigration from possibly dangerous people. These people are not the majority, and give a bad name to other immigrants who just want a better life for their families. I became aware of this because of the many Colombian and Mexican friends that I have telling me about their experiences with the drug cartels. After that point, I decided to do my own research and find out more. Again, the U.S. population could possibly increase safety for the country, while also creating new sources of revenue.

4. More regulation for water could improve failed water sources and prevent future crises from happening that would be similar to the Flint Water Crisis. Everyone in the United States deserves to have clean, safe drinking water for their families. I became aware that this was not necessarily the case due to the crisis in Flint, Michigan around 2014. Only recently, as I saw on the local news channel the other day, have they proceeded with the criminal trial regarding the issue. They claim that the issue has been fixed, but the results of the crisis have still affected the whole community and brought awareness to similar situations in the United States.