19A- Idea Napkin 2

1.      You- I am a 19-year-old from south Florida.  I love sports, traveling, and trying new things.  I am very organized, determined, and am proficient in time management skills.  I have worked a variety of different jobs which has taught me how to balance my finances.  I see opportunity in the business concept I created of a way to prevent sand from sticking to the skin because I see this as a potential need.  Growing up in south Florida my family and I often attended the beach which has given me experience on how to address this need.  Additionally, while reviewing peer reviews the people from south Florida agreed that there is a need to prevent sand from sticking to the skin.  I value this feedback because it has proven there is a need.

2.      What are you offering to customers- At this point the product I am trying to offer to customers is an idea that needs to be developed.  I want to create a spray on product that would be used at the beach to prevent sand from sticking to the skin.  I have no experience creating such a product so as of now this is just an idea.  One of the feedbacks I got said my product would be successful if I had a patent.  I do not have the knowledge or understanding of that process right now but I agree that a patent on this product could be very beneficial to differentiate my products from others.

3.      Who are you offering it to- This product would be most useful for people located near the beach.  Originally, I was narrow minded and put that this would include most Florida residents because of the location near the beach. I agree with the feedback I got that this product could be used by all people who frequently attend the beach which could include people worldwide as there are many beaches around the world.  I still conclude that the target customers would also be mainly adults both male and female in the age range of twenty-forty as they are the ones most likely to go to the beach and use this product.  This product would be ideal for people of middle class income with families as opposed to adults who are always working and have no or desire to go to the beach.

4.      Why do they care- When going to the beach, there are ways to attempt to wash and wipe away sand.  These options may be the use of a towel or the local showers provided.  The people who gave me feedback agreed that these options do not typically do a good enough job to get all the sand residue off.  This has reassured me that a spray that prevent sand from sticking has value because it’s an added way to prevent the irritation and annoying factors associated with sand including the main reason of getting sand in the car. 

5.      What are your core competencies- With the feedback I have gotten from this assignment I think a patent on my idea would be able to set this idea apart from others.  This would allow my product to be unique, so other competitors could not replicate it.

I think the five items fit well together for the overall concept of solving a need with the introduction of a product or service.  Using my experiences with the beach and sand I was easily able to link all the answers to fit together.  Additionally, talking to people about their potential needs has helped me answer the questions for the idea napkin.  At first, I was not sure how to differentiate my product but with feedback can see that getting a patent would make this product unique as it could not be replicated.  Without a patent, anyone could create this product if it were to become popular.

Feedback Memo-

Overall, I found the feedback for my idea napkin very helpful because I had five people respond to my post.  One point that I think really helped me was that the majority of the people who gave feedback enjoy going to the beach but agree that sand can be annoying.  This feedback was helpful because it shows there is a need for opportunity which is one of the first questions that needs to be answered as an entrepreneur.  The second feedback I got that I thought was helpful was the idea of considering a patent.  I don’t know how this would be done but this idea would help make my product unique so it could not be replicated.  I used the feedback on this assignment to further my ideas on the idea napkin.  This included going into more depth on what the product is and who I would target.  I appreciated all the feedback I got.