29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity:

-       The culture of binge-drinking is becoming a popular description of college students especially during the Football season due to tailgates and Fraternity parties. 

-       This binge drinking phenomenon is not only including college students. Research has shown that people ages 18-34 are also participating in this manner of drinking the most.

-       I believe that young college students are in more of a desperate need for a solution because they are still relatively young at this point of their lives and do not have the experienced knowledge that other older people might have.

-       While college students are the ones who are experiencing the need, they are not my potential customers. Organizations led by affluent people that care about the safety of students are my target market. Organizations that fit this description are universities and Interfraternity organizations. These organizations are funded mainly by parents who send their kids to college and expect that these organizations provide a safe environment for them.

-       Geographically, the target customers will be in smaller college towns distributed nationwide within the US. However, bigger metropolitan areas are also within this opportunity window of customers.

-       Demographically, my customers are older white powerful males. Traditionally, those types of people are the ones that hold the authority to make this buying decision. However, my indirect customers (college-students) would vary depending on the region. Nevertheless, the general demographic would be more catered to young white males that belong to a fraternity or you white females that attend drinking festivities in frat houses. 

-       Currently my indirect customers are not doing anything in particular to satisfy this need. However, I know that my direct customers are trying to satisfy this need by increasing knowledge within students in my indirect target market. They do so by requiring students to attend hazing and drinking workshops, having the university police department more centralized in areas where binge-drinking occurs, and other tactics. 

-       This opportunity could be very big is the social message of safe-drinking is emphasized.

-       I believe that my window of opportunity will last many years, unless if for some reason college students suddenly decide that drinking isn’t cool anymore and abandon the hobby immediately. 

Innovation:

-       I’m offering my customers (businesses) the opportunity to create a safe drinking environment which would aid their public image by selling them a tool that allows their clients to not go over their limit. My product will possibly aid in the reduction of ER visits from clients with will be beneficial for businesses. My indirect customers (the alcohol drinkers) will be given the chance to maximize their partying experience in a safe way by having fun while playing the arcade game.

-       I’ve imagined a sort of ‘arcade game’ where people will insert money into an arcade machine and then will be required to place their thumbs on a keypad. This keypad will be a touch-based system that uses special technology to detect the level of alcohol in your blood. After a few seconds, the machine screen will tell you what your blood alcohol level is and depending on the quantity, it will give you certain statements. The machine will be programed to classify your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) into 3 categories: green(sober), yellow(tipsy), or red(drunk). Depending on your state, you will see on the monitor a set of tips that will either help you stay sober, maintain your tipsy, or get more sober. 

-       Ideally, people who use this product will have to insert some set amount of money or slide their card to play. The price will vary depending on expenses needed to make this device, but for the moment I want to make it semi-affordable for the regular college student. For the moment the standard price will be $3 a use. Additionally, my direct customers will have to pay me a one-time set amount for the machine in general. The direct customer who buys this from me should be able to gain their maintenance fees through the money that the indirect customers provide.  

Venture Concept

-       My product will provide indirect customers with the tools to make more educated responsible drinking decisions. If students make better safer drinking decisions, then the parents of these college students will be happier. Parents when kids go to college often feel powerless in helping their kids make safe decisions so they look toward the public administration of universities to help students. Universities are motivated to promote a safe environment for students because it makes parents happy and helps their public image. All of which help them because they in the long-term receive more profit. 

-       Therefore, my product is built to provide parents with an extra cushion of tranquility by targeting organizations that would be my customers. You can think of a flow chart to better understand this concept. 

-       I don’t think it will be very hard to get them to switch over because I don’t have any competition at the moment. Even though I don't have any competitors, it will be hard to get them to tart using the product since it's something new. 

-       The possible weakness of the product is that without a patent, it can easily be copied. 

Other:

-       I thought that my most valuable resource is my Social Capital- UF Greek Life. I can use my experiences and knowledge as a member of a multicultural sorority to build up my credibility and reap the most out of this troublesome social issue of college students ending up in hospitals due to binge drinking.

-       The next thing up after this venture will be to create a watch like a fit bit, but it will be able to tell you your BAC level. This would make my first original product less needed however, it will most likely be more profitable. My original venture will be the spark to this new brand of technology that will become extremely desired. 

-       For me, this venture serves as a baby step before launching an even bigger entrepreneurial venture. I see myself in 10 years after completing this venture, opening a café in a big city. 

Feedback 

- The feedback I received for my first venture concept was to include a price point for my product. I didn't receive much other feedback besides that.  Because of this feedback, I decided to include a price point on the innovation part of my venture concept. Coming up with a price was a tad difficult because I do not know what my expenses will be. This feedback though did make me think of what people are willing to pay for this service and realized it might be harder to get them to use it if it is not an affordable price.