The first business owner I spoke to was a veterinarian. Her target customers are "friendly, long-term clients with one or two family animals". From a needs perspective, she said there is a current trend she's seeing where travel for animals internationally often requires too much time for travelers and they end up boarding instead, even though they intended to travel with their pets. She finds customers through light advertising on her website and through word of mouth. Her target demographic is domestic pet owners in the middle class to upper class who can afford top tier veterinary services. Her customers typically find veterinary services through word of mouth.
The second business owner I spoke to was an interesting Digital Marketing agency owner. His target customers are "Fortune 1000 customers embarking on transformation changes in their Digital presence". He set an unmet need for potential customers is the gap between the people who can handle the technology and the people who understand the business. He finds customers through "Requests For Proposals" (RFPs) and through the clients he already has. Customer demographics for him are Fortune 1000 companies. His target customers read the Forrester and Gartner reports as well as popular Digital websites to find agencies to work with.
The third business owner I spoke with assembles bicycles for companies like Walmart. His target customers are large resellers of bicycles. The need he sees is "ready-to-go bicycles in bulk". He finds his customers through the reseller network he has. The demographics vary greatly for him, from lower income to high income customers buying specialty bikes. His customers read the reseller materials to find the bikes that he assembles for them.
Is it just me or does "embarking on transformation changes in their Digital presence" sound like he's making things up? He’s not wrong about the unmet need, though. There are so many businesses that I love whose websites, Yelp profiles, or Facebook pages are … let’s charitably call them ‘in need of some TLC.’ They understand the business, their customers’ needs and how to meet them, but modern technology and how to interact with it and use it to drive business (slick sites, user-friendly and nuanced apps) are really beyond their skillset.
ReplyDeleteHey Warren,
ReplyDeleteNice job on the assignment. You didn't film anyone, but you did find three business owners to speak with. I unfortunately couldn't find even one person to interview. So I had to skip this particular assignment. No extra link to attach. For your first business owner you jumped right into the demographic they serve but don't say until the end that the business is for pet boarding. Say that a little earlier on and it will make that paragraph a lot more clear to your reader. The other paragraphs about the digital marketing agent, and Bicycle assembly were fine. Over all nice job.
Hey Warren, although you didn't film the people it was cool how you were able to get into contact with a diverse group of business owners. However, the main point of this assignment was to compare the viewpoints of the business owner's target audience with that of the business owner him/herself and see where the differences lies. If you could find these people and get their opinions, it would really help you get the gist of this assignment and learn more about how we should understand our target audiences ourselves to further our own entrepreneurial interests. Here's my blog if you want to see what I did: http://ent3003anneperry.blogspot.com.es/2016/02/the-twenty-percent_28.html
ReplyDeleteHi Warren,
ReplyDeleteAlthough you didn't take the assignment where I felt it was designed to go, great job on finding three different business owners to talk about. I appreciated your explanation on each, but you were lacking any real interviews in my opinion. I really wish you had also had the interviews of those in the discussed demographics.
Hi Warren,
ReplyDeleteEven though you did a decent job at getting feedback of three different business owners in regards to their 20 percent (I would have liked to obtained the names of the entrepreneurs and the business names), I believe you missed the whole purpose of the assignment.
The assignment required us to analyze just one entrepreneur (the interview did not have to be recorded; in fact my interviewee didn't want to be recorded too). The second part of the assignment was to record interviewees with customers that the business sees as their 20 percent. I believe you failed at fulfilling the assignment requirements.
Here is my post: http://juansesoto.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-twenty-percent.html
Hello Warren,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job on this assignment. I especially like how varied the businesses were as well. I don't have a link to share, just because I didn't find anyone willing to be video or audio recorded, though I may think I will just have to start typing out transcripts of conversations. People are willing to talk, but being recorded appears to be too much of a request from a stranger. I think you did a great job with the parameters of the assignment and again, I found it interesting reading about 3 very different business owners with 3 very different target groups of customers. Keep up the good work!