25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market. 

Step 1: What I think is next for my venture is to develop the product to offer any additional uses than just simply a food delivery app for public events.

Step 2: I interviewed three customers who are already a part of my target market and asked them what they believe is next for my venture. The first customer told me I should be working on contacting the owners of sports stadiums, movie theaters, and arenas to ensure securing the deals necessary that they sponsor the use of my app so that it’s available at their venues. The second customer told me to focus on marketing efforts and getting a lot of customer support for my product. The third customer said I should offer my product’s services to private events as well. She mentioned how last summer when she went to her older sister’s wedding, due to the amount of people who went, the lines for food and drinks at the banquet were often long and a lot of the popular foods were wiped quickly before her and any younger kids go to get any. She would like to see how this product could expand to private events that use public seating or venues.

Step 3: What I think makes the most sense for my Seat-Eats venture is making sure it continues to expand. Expansion occurs not only with my product and its services but also my market and my company’s staff. I would want my product to always offer the best services possible that ensures customer satisfaction. I want my customer’s needs to be a massive priority and if those needs are not being met, my product has to always be able to be updated and adapt with any major feedback received. I want my product to be available to as many potential customers as possible. To accomplish this, the first customers of public venue events would likely come sporting events, and then eventually to movie theaters, stadiums and arenas for non-sporting events like concerts and festivals. Then, possibly expand the product to other markets who could benefit from its services.

Expanding the company’s staff and instituting an organizational structure is also important for the future. I would need to set up different departments each with their own functions. A tech department that specializes with the app’s software and customer tech support, a marketing department, a sales and finance department, and operations management department. I would want an organizational culture that prioritizes hard work but also has fun, loves their job, and has a passion for our company’s mission and what we want to accomplish. I never want to have a culture where people are miserable at their job or we’re not living up to our expectations, communication and feedback is important just as it is with customers.

New Market.

Steps 1 & 2: Customer 3 from my existing market gave me a great idea of a new market I could target with my product. The new market would be for private events. A private event may be subjective but the vision I’m seeing with this would be for events such as weddings, ceremonies, banquets, and school functions such as homecoming and prom. How this can create value was described by that customer’s experience at her sister’s wedding where they were way too many people making the lines too long and eventually some of the food eventually ran out. Same can be said for the other described events where the lines were too long because there were too many people, so they don’t get their food, similar at public events like football games and movies. If my product was available at private events, this issue would be eliminated as they can order from their food at their seat or table.

Step 3: The two people I interviewed were the parents of an old classmate of mine. His parents were managers of one of the local country clubs in our hometown that was a popular venue for private events such proms and wedding banquets. I asked them about my product and how it can help customers like them, and they were in favor of my idea. They told me about how this product could’ve helped an issue they had last year when one of the proms they held had an issue with the food banquet and catering where some students complained about long waits for their food, their food would get delivered to different students’ tables, and how badly it was managed. They would use my product if it were expanded to private event venues. After hearing their feedback, I think it would be smart to enter this market.

Reflection: I was surprised to know that my original idea can be tailored into smaller, private event venues. I didn’t consider them in my original concept because I assumed because their private, they have their own specialized workers, caters, and food delivery services so my product wouldn’t be of need in that market. From my interviews, I learned that my assumptions were wrong and this market experiences the same issues that public venues are experiencing.

            This market does appear to be as attractive as my existing market. I do believe it can be exploited but regarding seat specifications with this market will be a lot more challenging than with public venues. With stadiums and movie theaters, you can provide ticket information with a designated, previously chosen seat to deliver the food to but there’s rarely any designated seating with private events. The best way to incorporate designated seating to know where the workers would have to deliver food to would be to add a feature for the customers to sign in from what seat or table they are at.