25A – What’s Next?

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market. 

Before interviewing the three people I didn’t actually have an idea as to what would be next for my product in terms of a new market. I think I was burnt out and needed a fresh set of eyes to look at the services. I feel like the interactions really paid off and I am happy with the ideas. 

The first individual I interviewed was a mother of four with no time. She currently exists in the market for meal plans and diet education. She Would love the opportunity to learn what she needs to be eating but faces an issue that can not be fixed just by reading meal plans. She thought that it might be beneficial to incorporate a way for consumers to have the food prepared for them and delivered. This reminds me of Blue Apron which offers meals delivered for individuals and families. I asked her if she has heard of the company and she said yes. However, she feels that the company is too expensive and only offers 3 meals per person meaning she will have to prepare meals for 4 days out of the week or just eat out. 

The second interviewee thought it would be a good idea to start a chain of healthy food prep kitchens where people could stop by at their convenance and pick up farm grown organic products that are already packaged for individual meals. I think this could bed a neat trend to start and it could even disrupt the market but I think it will be very hard to get recognized and compete against local grocery chains and meal services that already exist. You could make this product interring to consumers by offering meals that are customizable. For instance, one customer can opt to have three meals a week for a family of 2 or 8, while another customer might need 7 meals a week for a family of 3.  The meals would have to be respectfully proportional to the quantity with discount incentives. 

Third person wanted the demon love child on Lulu Lemon, dicks sporting goods, and a fresh food market. The fast one stop place where you can purchase everything health related, even foods.  Although this idea is neat, I don’t believe it will service in a market that has established online convenience. I suppose if the company started online and them moved to a heavy populated city, it would become trendy and popular. The more I think about the shops the more enjoyable of an idea it becomes. Imagine like a community center that promotes nothing but community engagement and health.  

Based on the feed back I received I have a feeling that my company can really grow and expand into many different markets. I see a lot of different strategies that can be implemented here and a lot of workable business plans. For me, I think expanding the market in the nature discussed by the interviewees will be very demanding and difficult. My biggest concerns are the disruption in the market. Will the company require a major adjustment to move from a social media platform to a physical market. Obviously there are a lot of variables to be weighed here and further research must be conducted before I can actually say “yes, these are viable options for the business.”

New Market.

Meals that are prepped and ready, sent to consumers or available for pick up. 

This might be difficult to enter the market, especially Because it’s a lot of upfront costs. I think it would be worth while to create partnerships with companies that already exist in the market and work with that company to offer discounts to consumers. I’m not interested in completely entering the market but I’d be interested in working with a company that already has some consumer presence.

Additionally, meal preparation is often times geared to a specific lifestyle type of person. Assuming that the average American spends $15 on a meal is great but what about consumers that face financial hardship and eat unhealthy foods because its cheaper. At Mcdonalds you can purchase an entire meal for less than $8 so why would you buy meals for $15? Different purchase levels would need to be established to allow customers to purchase meals that cost anywhere from $3-$25, meaning that the product would need to be prepared in bulk so that the company doesn’t lose money. This obviously yeilds a high waste rate because It’s never guaranteed that a consumer will purchase all of the food being sold. For instance, If you are selling meal kits to consumers and if you’re advertising $5 a meal, you’d have to purchase product in bulk so that it only cost you $3 a meal to make. Purchasing things in bulk can be a huge risk because it means that there is a specific shelf life. 

I’ve began to realize that this market can be unpredictable and can yield high productivity costs. The induction into this new market can be very costly and destructive for a company if they’re not ready. 

I had a hard time identifying three people in this market because I couldn’t connect with anyone who uses meal delivery services. So unfortunately I must do additional research before I can locate the people on this market. The person I interviewed in the first round for existing market said that she was interested in the market but she had not explored it.