Assignment 19A: Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?
                   My name is Matthew Walsh, and the classes and experiences I've had has allowed me to sharpen my writing and public speaking skills as well as quick problem solving and the ability to work in groups effectively. My aspirations include graduating with a business degree at UF while having gained enough skills to excel in the field of work that I decide to pursue after my college education. One of my goals would be to start up a successful business and should I choose to continue working on my business idea, I would put all my time and energy into it to  either ensure its success or know that I gave all my effort into trying to make it work. If I did decide to start my own business, I would be all hands in and make it my top priority.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 
                       My product idea is a breathalyzer attachment that would be able to be installed into any vehicle and would require a successful use of it in order to actually start the vehicle. This would only be necessary at certain times of the night, possibly 10 PM to 4 AM, in order to make this seem less of a nuisance to safe drivers and to make it more practical to buy. Drunk driving deaths are a major problem all over, and a product like this has the potential to severely dwindle those annual drunk driving related deaths.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?
                           I have two main target segments in mind when I think about marketing this product. The first one would be those who are actual threats to drink and drive, this may be those with an extensive nightlife or repeat offenders of driving while under the influence. These are the people that need a product like this most but I assume many of them would not buy this for themselves. If there were a way to implement a program where someone charged with a DUI can have the option to purchase this product so as to minimize the charges against them would seem like the optimal way to reach this market.
                         My other target segment, the one that seems more likely to purchase and most of the feedback I've received have supported this segment, are concerned parents of high school and college aged kids that have a car. Parents want to make sure their kids are safe and make the right decisions, and this is a solution for parents of young drivers and teens that go out a lot. What these customers all have in common is their desire to not have themselves or someone they care about ever involved in a drunk driving incident or in a situation where they are vulnerable to making a poor decision. This product eliminates the option of driving while under the influence for you.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 
                            There are many reasons why a product like this is valuable to a purchaser. For those that have been charged with a DUI, preventing a second DUI could save themselves the trouble of losing their license or their car, but most importantly, this product can prevent people from injuring or killing themselves or other innocent people.  Most parents believe that above everything else, the safety of their kids, their family members well-being, is the most important thing, and if this product can lesson the chance of something bad happening and prevent poor choices being made that can endanger their children, parents will buy it. 

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 
                             When I thought of this product, I looked it up to see if anyone was selling it already and it turned out there were a few things similar to this available. But I had never heard of a company that sells these, and everyone I talked to had not seen this in stores or even known about the existence of a product like this that was readily available to buy. What I can do differently is market this product a different way. I would appeal to the right market segments, get this product in retail stores available to everyone, and I would ensure that my product was the best, making it easy to use and attach, and compatible with any type of vehicle. If I were able to accomplish these goals, people would be aware of this product, understand its benefits, and be compelled to buy it.

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others. 
                               What fits together of these business elements for me is who I am offering it too, and why they should care. Whether you are a risk of drunk driving and want to avoid legal trouble and protect yourself or others, or whether you are a parent looking to make sure your kids are safe behind the wheel, this product has value to both these market segments. Both of these market segments have problems that can be solved with this product which makes it valuable to them. What does not fit in my business plan is that these two market segments are vastly different groups of people for the most part. It would be difficult to display two different messages to two different demographics, I would need to find a way to have one consistent message that appeals to both parties and maybe people that fall outside these two defined groups of people in order to maximize sales. 

Feedback Memo
                            The feedback I received included points made about including government support for this product and the price and making sure it is affordable. I thought it would be an excellent idea to try and incorporate government support into the product so I decided to add a proposed system into my idea napkin that included a way to have those charged with a DUI given a minimized sentence or fine for getting this attachment installed into their vehicles. This way, those who have driven under the influence are heavily encouraged to buy this product, and it can dwindle the number of drunk driving occurrences.
                            Being able to work an affordable price while making this product higher quality than other products like this is trickier to answer. I cannot say for sure right now how I would be able to build this and ensure it is a price low enough so that people will buy it, but what I can offer is high amounts of advertisement and marketing to the right segments so there is increased awareness of this product, and if people knew this existed, they would buy it anyway, because the safety of their children has no price.