General Background/Trends
About 1/4 of the total population in Korea reside in Seoul city. Thus the density for the population is extremely high which makes it a very active city. A lot of competitions take place as getting into inner-city area. That’s where most of businesses take places with some being successful or failing if unlucky. The unstable economy in Korea where the wages are low but the expensive standards of living make a lot of lives extremely tired and exhausted. The hard standard of living has been too usual that when people greet helloing each other, this is often asked as a gesture for hello “how is your life going?” People in Korea are really sensitive when it comes to money. Because when it is lost, it is extremely hard to back it up. But at the same time, huge amount of people are very ambitious for money in order to end the hard standard of life they deal with. Therefore, well planned thoughts are put into the business that leads to very competitive market in the city. However, there is one thing that Koreans typically do often for generations. That’s alcohol that most people enjoy with in order to get rid of stress they get from the hard life. This is where our business plan comes to place. We believe that opening a bar will bring the least risk with a bar because the demand for alcohol doesn’t seem to decrease even when economy is falling at a certain time.
Competitive Challenge/ Marketing Objectives
The most challenge we will be facing is that there is not only us who think to this. We all know that there are a lot of competitors who are ready or even with far better plan to start this business. Thus, as we are not very experienced and professional in this area, we need to get a spot away from inner-city where a lot of competitors come to challenge. Plus, there are not many bars in suburb area where it gives quite and comfortable atmosphere. Almost every house in Seoul city is a form of high constructed apartment where there are a lot of residents. So as mentioned above, such high density of population will give a lot of potential customers even in suburb area. And to go out and have a drink will have to deal with hitting roads to the inner area. Therefore, it is thought to work if there is a bar in such area where people can come to visit after work at ease without having to take time getting out to the inner area. Lastly, it also gives a good marketing strategy because, there won’t be many bars that will provide quite atmosphere with appropriate music, and the design (image provided in presentation) of the bar will appeal an image of a bar that is like one in inner area. Such design of the bar will make it a good spot for a date, relaxation or a friend talk. Words will spread out easily because it will be located near a apartment town with high amount of residents, has a lot of potentials.
Main Target
The business will target people with age of mid 20 – 40s. Since the bar is to give comfort and rest area for the people who have a job, it will be necessary to target customers with those ages. college students are also welcomed as well. Since the bar will provide a quite small atmosphere, it also makes a good spot for a date. However, generally it is open for everyone who wants to come to enjoy and have fun to get rid of the stress.
Budget (Operation)
- Profit
Expected revenue per a month $ 13.000
Total cost $ 8,200
Expected profit per a month $4,800
- Pay out
Rent per a month $3,000
Utility $200
Employees $3,500
Raw materials $1,500
Total coat $8,200
The deposit for the rent is $10,000 and the cost for the designing the bar is estimated to be $30,000. The fund for the buying goods for service is expected to be $7,000. So in total $47,000 is needed for the business.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Deliverable #2 (Nornazira, Farah Abdullah)
Market Analysis
Marketing Strategy
Target Market: Our target market for this fitness club and healthy club proposal is at the suburb areas where most of the residents work near the main cities. In this project proposal, we decided to locate our center at Shah Alam. Shah Alam is listed one of the most growing population cities with rising numbers of residential projects. According to its official city council, there are 584, 340 residents as in year 2006. In addition to that, numbers of colleges and universities are located in Shah Alam.
Market Trend: Most of the fitness center located at the main cities. By locating fitness gym at the suburban area, this will fulfill the urban community to have a healthy lifestyle. The established fitness center like Celebrity Fitness and California Fitness operate their fitness service center at shopping complexes. Due to Malaysia tropical climate where it's hot and rain all year round, fitness center will be an ideal indoor place to stay fit.
The need: To alleviate the Malaysian healthy lifestyle. The Malaysians food taking are usually contain high level of cholesterol where contribute to high rate of health problems such as obesity and diabetes. According to World Health Organization (WHO), Malaysia is ranked sixth among in Asian countries.
Current and Prospective customers:
Our current customer will be healthy conscious people while our prospective customers include college students, office workers, adults and also senior citizens. Along with other organizations promotion in increasing healthy lifestyle awareness, this will be a great opportunity for us to fulfill their need.
Uniqueness
A healthy café under the same roof will be our main attraction besides the gym. We’re planning to serve nutritional food which has low calories and carbohydrate. For example, milkshakes, smoothies, cereals, wraps, omelets, and salads.
Marketing Strategy
Advertisement
· Internet
We will be using online social network such as Facebook to introduce our fitness club and to inform our customers on any promotions we have. We will also create a website which provides all information on the fitness club such as the location, equipment, fees, promotions and classes offered.
Cost estimation: USD2000
· Health Magazine
We have identified two most popular magazines which are Mingguan Wanita and Maskulin which have a target audience of female between 20-50 years old and male ranging from 18-39 years old respectively. We believe that these magazines have covered the target group of people we are trying to reach.
Cost estimation: USD3000
· Branding
We will sell products such as t-shirts, mugs, fitness equipment, etc. which will carry our club name and logo as a method to spread the words. In order to make the logo looks attractive to people, we are planning on hiring professional to design our logo and give consultation in promoting our brand.
Cost estimation: USD3000
· Sponsorship
We will sponsor and support any health-related activities such as marathon, sports carnival and any health campaign organized in the city. We believe this is the best way to inform people about us as well as the best way to reach our target group because those who participate in this kind of event should be interested in joining our fitness club.
Cost Estimation: USD10000
Ambassador/Spokesperson
We are currently searching for icons or ambassadors who will promote our fitness club. These ambassadors would be selected among famous artists and sports figures who live a healthy lifestyle and can be icons to attract people to follow their footsteps.
Cost Estimation: USD5000
Promotion
· Student Price
Students will get special price when they present their student id. In this way, we hope to educate young people to live healthily and encourage them to exercise and be active.
· Free Session
We offer a free admission for our first time customers to allow them to try our equipment and see if they suit them. We will also have a free session of our fitness classes to those who interested and want to check them out.
· Membership
We have three types of membership which are platinum, gold and silver offered to our customers. Platinum members hold a year membership and can join any fitness class as they wish for USD50 per month. For gold members, they will be charged USD60 per month and hold a year membership but they will need to pay for any fitness class they participated. As for the gold members, they will need to pay USD80 per month, hold a 6 months membership and will need to pay for any classes taken.
Deliverable #2 - Omar Muasher, Mehmet Cankiri
The Company
The company we will start is called Fresh. It is a start-up business that specializes in healthy alternative vending machine products. Fresh will penetrate the vending industry with innovative, first to market, high-quality vending machines. With the establishment of one strategic alliance with a national brand name, Fresh expects to easily exceed the financial forecasts, which will be discussed later.
Mission
Fresh’s mission is to penetrate into the vending market by adapting to the growing need of healthy living by supplying healthy vending machine products. Through the utilization of social networking sites, health conscious magazines and local advertisements, awareness on this product will be raised. This will add value to the community as well, promoting a healthier alternative to traditional vending machine products.
Target Markets
After conducting a survey to obtain market research on launching our new product we were able to narrow down our target market. The three most important demographic aspects that came to us were age, gender and life style:
§ Age – We aim to target the age group between 18-44 years old. This target market may be large however with the great amount of young being becoming more health conscious it represents the appropriate range. It targets this range, as these people are the more active group that would stop at a vending machine and buy a product.
§ Gender – According to the survey the question that asked if whether people looked for healthy products for their food choice showed 32% of women answering always compared to 13% of men. This shows us that women are more health conscious and advertisements may be more effective if targeted to women’s magazines.
§ Life-Style – With the growing trend of healthy living we were able to notice that many people are becoming more health conscious. Our survey shows that 81% would purchase a healthy product if presented well. Even though the data may be misleading it still underlines the fact that people are more interested in new, healthy and good tasting products. Fresh targets people maintaining a healthy diet who are constantly on the move. This will be the image of the brand; an innovative, fresh new way of vending.
Positioning
Fresh will position itself in Toronto, Ontario. With the great amount of students and young health conscious people it will serve as the leading healthy vending machine distributor in the area. It will place its vending machines in the Toronto subway as well as public universities and corporate offices. If this proves to be a success it will expand its market. Fresh will compete on price in addition to quality. Prices would range from small items such as fruit to larger items such as sandwiches and be priced at a slightly lower price at first to attract more customers. Quality of the product will be proven with properly refrigerated items such as meats, cheeses and fruits. Showing quality and performance, Fresh will solidify the brand in the market.
Marketing Objectives
1. Achieve gradual increases in market penetration each year - The Fresh business will gradually increase their penetration into the traditional vending business of both food products and beverages and on a lesser scale, other fast food options. Fresh will attempt to achieve this by increasing its brand awareness through its advertising plans.
2. Create A Buzz – Since the vending machine business is not a very large one, it relies on word-of-mouth. By showing Fresh advertisements in local newspapers and social networking sites the company will be able to create positive publicity for the brand. Also it is necessary to attend to vending trade shows to help get the name out.
3. Increase Promotion – Placing stickers on the back of products in the vending machine for the chance to win prizes is one option we plan to implement.
Financial Objectives
A budget of $100,000 will be needed to start up the business. With a break-even of 2-years the company will double the return-on-investment in 4 years. To gauge investor’s interest the following areas will be monitored to gauge financial performance:
1. Increase profit margin by 0.5% for first year – The Fresh business aims to achieve increases in gross profit margin through increases in production efficiency. This will show investors the company has a favorable pricing power.
2. Achieve break-even within 2 years – The expenses put on advertising, promotions and fixed costs plan to be offset in two years. With 30 machines at a price range of $2000-3000 in addition to labor and maintenance will also be paid off within this time frame. (Vending Machines Catalogue)
3. Decrease variable costs – Through increased mechanization and buying in greater volumes at a discount the company will be able to cut down on variable costs.
Customer satisfaction
§ Customer surveys- To help measure customer satisfaction we will send out yearly customer surveys to receive feedback and use that feedback to hopefully help make a better product.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths:
There is a large selection of healthy snacks compared to what most vending machines offer. They offer quick and convenient way to obtain food or drink on the go. Vending machines do not require a great amount of expenses to run its business. Other than providing maintenance and someone to fill the machines on a regular basis there is no other expense put into the product.
Weaknesses:
The product may prove to be difficult to market since our products are mostly impulse purchases. There is also low brand awareness since it’s a brand new company. We would also need to establish estimated inventory levels due to uncertain demand for products.
Opportunities:
There is a high growth possibility for this company due to the low percentage of healthy vending machine companies in the current market. This provides for possible expansion towards other health products if our brand becomes established.
Threats:
The consumer taste may not suit health conscious foods disenabling us to turn a profit. New competitors may emulate our success in the future. There is also a low barrier to entry in the vending machine business so many competitors are able to compete
Deliverable #2- Zhaoyi Wang, JiHyun Byun and Zhao Huang
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What is SMART car?
SMART car is suitable for urban life style, because of the compact and small size. It is easy to drive through or to find a parking space. Our main target is upper-middle class especially singles or women who live in a city. We will not promote to families, because it only has two seats. However, we will promote it to a single people or women for their personal use. China has traffic and parking problems, thus this car can attract urban people easily. Furthermore, Chinese young people not only use their car as transportation but also use as to express their personality. Therefore, we will focus on our product as a fashionable and trendy designed vehicle to attract young peoples’ interest.
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About Current Market
Currently, Beijing has USD134.46 million amount market size and shares 16.6% of car sales in China. There are 18million people and more than 65% of labor force. In 2010, 0.92 million of cars were sold only in Beijing. In rough estimation, there were 0.81millions of cars increased in this year if we subtracted the scraped cars. Therefore, we can assume that our possible market size is 0.81 million of smart cars in a year.
Our possible competitor would be Mercedes-Benz, Daimler. Since Daimler released their smart cars much earlier, they already have a certain amount of brand recognition for Beijing citizens. However, their smart cars are still not recognized widely because they do not have enough distribution channels.
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About the Company
SMART car is a microcar which is produced by Daimler in Europe 1997. It is only available for two people but very funnel-saving and easy to find a parking space. The first smart car was released in China at Beijing Auto Show in 2008 by Mercedes-Benz, Daimler. Since 2009 Daimler began to sell their smart cars through dealers to let more people get connected to their products. Although Chinese domestic manufactures have been already selling vehicles similar to smart car, they expand their sales based on its brand.
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Why Do You Choose SMART?
Since Beijing has large population and our Smart car is different from other ordinary cars; the smart car can grab people’s attention easily, therefore, people will also get information by word of mouth. We want to inform the customers that they can benefit from smart car more than ever. To convey this message to the customers, we will show the strengths of Smart car in our propagandas. Our Smart car can save their time in the crowded busy downtown area by its small size, so they do not need to suffer from traffic jams anymore. No more early birds and they can go to work on time. Also, the small size saves the parking spots; basically, two smart cars can share one spot. There are so many styles that you can choose, customers may also DIY their own look. Last but least, low air displacement automobile can save your money and also reduce the air pollution.
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Promotions and Advertisements
Generally, we need a really impressive commercial to let customers know about us. We are going to have commercials on the most popular TV channels for a month which will cost $150000; propagandas in the downtown plazas and shopping malls: let people try the Smart car for free, which will cost $ 6000 and advertisements beside the roads and online will cost $70000. Plus, if you do not like your SMART car anymore; the first one hundred customers could get a chance to exchange a new car for free. We will spend about half a million dollars on advertising and promotion in the first year because most Chinese are not familiar with Smart car. In the 2nd year, we will cut the 20% off the expense and 50% off in the third year.
Parker, Philip M. The 2009 Report on Smart Cars: World Market Segmentation by City. Rep. no. 2369268. MarketRearch.com Academic. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.
Deliverable 2 Final- JUNSUP LEE, JING JIANG
General Background
Hong Kong is well known as a shopping and eating paradise throughout the world and this impression has been settled in the minds of local people and foreign visitors. With its strategic location and special culture, tourists are expected to shop and enjoy the food. A lot of people visit Hong Kong annually for their vacations.
Trends
Frozen yogurt is becoming very popular these days with rising health consciousness. People does not want to eat junk ice creams rather they want fresh and healthy ones. This provides a great opportunity for us since consumers would prefer purchasing freshly-made alternatives.
Competitive Landscape
Nestle Hong Kong Ltd has already continued to lead sales in Hong Kong for many years. This company offers products in a multitude of categories which are well-known among the general public. Besides Nestle Hong Kong Ltd, there are many other kinds of dessert stores and ice cream stores in Hong Kong. They are not able to launch marketing campaigns and product innovations, but they also contain their special advantages, such as store style, special menu and secret formula.
Prospects
Demand for ice cream will continue to be stronger over the period because of two major reasons. The first one is the weather condition in Hong Kong which is a city that consumers purchase ice creams all over the seasons. Sometimes in winter, it is a great period for sales promotions. For example, during the winter of 2009, food service players including Haagen-Dazs offered an all-you-can-eat promotion. Launching new and special flavors can be also great idea during the winter months to draw attention of consumers. The second one is the appetite of people in Hong Kong. Hong Kong people like sweet products much better than other snacks. Because of these two reasons, we expect that our business has a lot of potentials.
Economical Condition
The economic recovery helps most categories in food service departments gain huge growth over the previous years. Besides local consumers, tourists from all over the world will also carry great optimism towards the economy. Hong Kong is one of the largest tourism cities in the world, and eating is one of the most important components for every individual tourist’s plan.
Main Target
Our main targets will be people who are at shopping centers. Since there is a no specific age range who loves healthy ice creams, we are expecting all the people at shopping center can be our potential customers. We don’t think that people just come to shopping centers to eat our ice creams. Rather, those who are at shopping centers will find ice cream stores to eat. Therefore, we are going to focus on getting attention from people who are at shopping center.
Competitive Advantage
There are many ice cream stores, and there are a lot of ice creams we can buy at supermarkets. We are going to target customers who concern about their health and food they eat. Since our ice creams are all natural and nonfat, our item will get a lot of attention from the customers. Also, customers will only pay the amount of ice creams and fresh toppings as they want. Therefore, customers who want small or large portion of ice creams will love our stores. Also, we will provide customers enough sitting spaces to take a rest after their busy shopping.
Promotion
Since we are going to start as a small business, we do not have strong economic background to support expensive promotion programs such as TV advertising. However, we will post some advertisements in some magazines especially in fashion magazines. This is because potential customers are shoppers who are more likely to read fashion magazines. We will also design our own website with different coupons to advertise our store and encourage sales. We will put our brochures, which have discount specials for example, at shopping centers so that shoppers can take a look and come to our store. In addition, we are going to launch our customer retention program to make long-term and loyal consumer relationship with our customers.
Slogan
“Not all ice cream are made equally” “You deserve a better dessert treat”
Hong Kong is well known as a shopping and eating paradise throughout the world and this impression has been settled in the minds of local people and foreign visitors. With its strategic location and special culture, tourists are expected to shop and enjoy the food. A lot of people visit Hong Kong annually for their vacations.
Trends
Frozen yogurt is becoming very popular these days with rising health consciousness. People does not want to eat junk ice creams rather they want fresh and healthy ones. This provides a great opportunity for us since consumers would prefer purchasing freshly-made alternatives.
Competitive Landscape
Nestle Hong Kong Ltd has already continued to lead sales in Hong Kong for many years. This company offers products in a multitude of categories which are well-known among the general public. Besides Nestle Hong Kong Ltd, there are many other kinds of dessert stores and ice cream stores in Hong Kong. They are not able to launch marketing campaigns and product innovations, but they also contain their special advantages, such as store style, special menu and secret formula.
Prospects
Demand for ice cream will continue to be stronger over the period because of two major reasons. The first one is the weather condition in Hong Kong which is a city that consumers purchase ice creams all over the seasons. Sometimes in winter, it is a great period for sales promotions. For example, during the winter of 2009, food service players including Haagen-Dazs offered an all-you-can-eat promotion. Launching new and special flavors can be also great idea during the winter months to draw attention of consumers. The second one is the appetite of people in Hong Kong. Hong Kong people like sweet products much better than other snacks. Because of these two reasons, we expect that our business has a lot of potentials.
Economical Condition
The economic recovery helps most categories in food service departments gain huge growth over the previous years. Besides local consumers, tourists from all over the world will also carry great optimism towards the economy. Hong Kong is one of the largest tourism cities in the world, and eating is one of the most important components for every individual tourist’s plan.
Main Target
Our main targets will be people who are at shopping centers. Since there is a no specific age range who loves healthy ice creams, we are expecting all the people at shopping center can be our potential customers. We don’t think that people just come to shopping centers to eat our ice creams. Rather, those who are at shopping centers will find ice cream stores to eat. Therefore, we are going to focus on getting attention from people who are at shopping center.
Competitive Advantage
There are many ice cream stores, and there are a lot of ice creams we can buy at supermarkets. We are going to target customers who concern about their health and food they eat. Since our ice creams are all natural and nonfat, our item will get a lot of attention from the customers. Also, customers will only pay the amount of ice creams and fresh toppings as they want. Therefore, customers who want small or large portion of ice creams will love our stores. Also, we will provide customers enough sitting spaces to take a rest after their busy shopping.
Promotion
Since we are going to start as a small business, we do not have strong economic background to support expensive promotion programs such as TV advertising. However, we will post some advertisements in some magazines especially in fashion magazines. This is because potential customers are shoppers who are more likely to read fashion magazines. We will also design our own website with different coupons to advertise our store and encourage sales. We will put our brochures, which have discount specials for example, at shopping centers so that shoppers can take a look and come to our store. In addition, we are going to launch our customer retention program to make long-term and loyal consumer relationship with our customers.
Slogan
“Not all ice cream are made equally” “You deserve a better dessert treat”
Deliverable 2 - Mohammed Zulkernine, Yerzhan Konysbayev
Nowadays, online shopping is developing very fast. Almost every well-known company sells its goods both in stores and online. Online stores like Amazon, eBay are earning hundreds of millions every year. Taking all this into account, we decided that opening online store in a country, where online shopping isn’t developed yet, is a really good idea that will bring a lot of money. Our company’s name will be “MY.COM”, which stands for Muhammad & Yerzhan. Also, MY.COM is really easy to memorize. We chose Kazakhstan as place for our new business because of its political stability and rapid economic development. Since 2000 Kazakhstan’s economy grows nearly 10% almost every year and according to experts’ predictions, Kazakhstan will enter top 5 exporters of oil in the World in this decade. However, it is a developing country and the online shopping is not so popular there. It’s kind of a new concept. People are mostly buying their desired product by going to shopping mall. But things are changing day by day, and we are lucky to have this opportunity and we should definitely take advantage of it.
Our company will make shopping convenient for the people. People won’t have to go to shopping mall to buy products any more. They will be able to purchase desired items online. Moreover, the prices will be lower than in shopping malls, because the products won’t be taxed, and unlike malls, we won’t need salespeople and managers. In addition, our customers will save time and gas. In our business we will work as intermediaries. We won’t have to have inventories and storages but we will just mediate orders from customers to manufacturers. Hence, we need an office for our programmers and operation system. Rental of office will cost us around $10’000 per month. When we grow bigger we can rent a more spacious place but so far a building with this rent is alright.
Our target market will be all the people who hold credit or debit cards. Luckily, in Kazakhstan government obliges all employees and government entities to use transactions to pay people salaries, pensions and monthly scholarships for students. Basically, our potential buyers are whole population of Kazakhstan except for children of 18 or less. Since we target such a large consumer segment, we will have to provide variety of products for people of different generations, genders and preferences in general. Students will be buying books and electronics products, housewives will be buying household products etc.
People’s limited experience with the online purchases will probably be the biggest problem we face. So, we will have to spend money on increasing customers’ awareness about both online shopping and our company. In order to achieve better and faster results, we decided to use television and internet advertisements. For television advertisements, we picked the most popular channel “Khabar”. Average price for a minute of commercial here is about $3000. If we buy 3 minutes of commercial per day, it will cost us around $270’000 monthly. Fortunately, internet advertising is so much cheaper and in total it will cost us around $5000 per month.
The slogan of our company will be “fast and easy” which illustrates the biggest advantages we have, and it also persuades consumers who are skeptical about online purchases to start their shopping with us.
There are other companies which sell products online in Kazakhstan. But they are little bit different. They allow companies to upload their products and sell them online, and they get commission. Some companies sell their own manufactured products but the problem with those companies is they can’t offer varieties of products and that’s why they aren’t popular. Our company will be unique in Kazakhstan because we will work as online dealer for other manufacturing companies. We will talk to different manufacturers of different products and will try to get a good negotiated price from them and sell them online. This kind of method is still unique in Kazakhstan.
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Deliverable #2 - Jongyoeb Kim (JK), Zhining Hu
Estimated initial investment varies from $331,100 to $488,600 (average of $409,850). And the average annual sales (average unit volume) would be $522,580, in which we can make even more if we have a good year. The cost of franchising also includes franchising fee of $35,000 (for the first year) plus 6% gross revenues on royalty rate and 4% of advertising fund.Hence the expected annual net income would be,
The material costs, labor costs and maintenance cost are all estimated according to the current situation in Shanghai, China. Since we are just opening up a small 35m2 store, we assume that we will hire 4 workers at wages of 2000 Yuan per month each person. Hence, the expected gross revenue will be around $398,580 and therefore the net income (which would be 90% of gross revenue) will be approximately $358,722.
Initial investment $ 331,100.00
First year real net $ 27,622.00
Similar to the starting of restaurants, we would not make huge real net income for the first year, but we expect that with our unique marketing strategies and huge potential of Shanghai consumers, we would make more than the average Red Mango franchise earnings of $522,580. In addition, the franchising fee will decrease from $35,000 to $30,000 after first year, which would boom our gross revenue and net income by $5000 and $4500 respectively. Hopefully, as our store gain recognition, the annual sale will also increase. And the initial investment of ($409,850.00) is just for the first term, and therefore for the second year, the real net income will be much higher.
Marketing strategy:
Idealize location (Targeting College students)
Location is perhaps the most important factor for a Red Mango shop. The store location is chosen in Wujiaochang City Center where there are lots of shopping malls and most important of all - very close to the University City. The several universities around the store location provide a promising amount of consumers. College students like to hang out and chat in somewhere with a clean and relaxing environment near their school after class. Red mango is also the ideal place for school clubs in the college to hold social gathering during weekends. Students, especially girls, who are on diets and looking for healthy non-fat desserts will also be greatly attracted by Red Mango.
Targeting Foreigners
Red Mango already made a huge recognition in many countries, especially in South Korea. There are about 65,000 Koreans are living in Shanghai, in which we can target special advertisement for them to taste Red Mango as they would taste in their hometown. For example, we can translate our menu and the pamphlet in different languages such as Korean, Japanese and English to attract foreigners. And we can also put workers who can speak in other languages for the foreigners’
convenience.
Targeting “new” customers
As Red Mango is not there in Shanghai, many of them might not know what exactly Red Mango sells and is different from other yogurts. The biggest unique characteristic of Red Mango is that yogurts are made of all natural flavors. Hence, to increase the reputation of Red Mango in Shanghai, we will post the writings about the difference of our products from other existing yogurts and train our store’s servers to explain the difference to the customers, and recommend certain products considering customers’ individual preferences. This is the first step we have to take to build our image.Efficient use of space: avoid limited seats
Charge cheaper price for customers who is willing to take our yogurts and eat outside the store. When the store is crowded, some customers will just leave to avoid waiting for a seat. Hence, to save some seats for customers who are willing to eat yogurt seating down and relaxing andchatting with friends, we might be able to charge lower price for those who are willing to save some money and eat outside walking down the street. This can also be used as one of the marketing strategies. Other people would be able to see people walking and eating our yogurts, and hopefully get attracted by it.Self serve
When facing the decision of choosing to open a traditional store or a self-serve one, we recommended the self serve store. This will allow our customers to create their own unique swirls in any amount they prefer. Therefore, they will walk-in to Red mango more frequently as they have much more freedom in customizing the amount and type of yogurt they want. They can keep changing flavors and the amount of topping they like and never get enough of frozen yogurt. In addition, they are free to make frozen yogurt a substitute for a meal or just a small after-meal dessert.Monday, April 18, 2011
Deliverable #2 - Ken Jeong & Sam Song
There is a big Korean wave among the nations in Asia and especially in Japan. Due to this Korean wave, we were thinking of promoting the advertisement of Korea by opening a Korean restaurant. We will be opening a traditional Korean restaurant that promotes the well being of the customers and also letting the people know about the true traditional Korean restaurant. There are 127,560,000 people living In Japan at the moment, consisting of 125,646,600 (98.5%) Japanese, 637,800 (0.5%) Koreans, 510,240 (0.4%) Chinese, and 765,360 people from other ethnicities. Japan is a wealthy country having a GDP 5,458,872 millions of US dollars every year, which makes them the third richest country in the world. It is found that 90% of the Japanese population claim that they belong to the middle class in its socioeconomic standing. Out of the 90% claiming that they belong to the middle class, 70% believe that they belong to the upper-middle class in the socioeconomic standing. As we are mainly targeting the upper-middle class of the society, the market size for our business is more than half of the whole population.
The unemployment rate in Japan is only 5.1% of the population, which is fairly low compared to other countries that exceed this percentage. It shows the wealth of the people and evidence show that the market trends are consistent, but on the rise. In fact, the Japanese market is one of the world’s most profitable markets for the majority of businesses, attracting investors to the country. One website cites that “early entry into the Japanese market can be one of the most profitable business decisions you ever make - late entry into the Japanese market can be one of the worst. If you are in a fast moving market (and these days which market is not fast moving?) then you need to achieve first-mover status especially in the Japanese market if you want to succeed.” (Venture Japan) It serves as evidence for a profitable business.
Our business will be targeting upper-middle class family, elderly, and employees. It will provide these different people with comfort and well-being food that promotes the health of the people. Thus, it will provide pleasure to the eyes and the mouth. For families and elderly, it will be the perfect place for a family dinner or lunch, providing the best and the most traditional food of Korea. In addition, the modernized, luxurious, and spacious interior offers a hygienic and a delightful experience to fulfill the hunger and loosen the tension one experienced for the day.
We will be competing against other restaurants by the taste and the original tradition of the restaurant. Our managers, waiters, and waitress will be providing services in Gae Ryang Hanbok, which is a casual version of the Korean traditional clothes. Every dinner time, there is a Korean traditional performance upon the request of the customer performing the traditional music of Korea using the Korean instruments such as, gayageum, hegeum, and geomungo.
The location of the restaurant will be at the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills in Tokyo. It is a place that concentrates the upper-middle socioeconomic class people. The Mori tower is 54 floors high and houses museums, hotels, restaurants, cafes, stores, and clinics. The cafes, restaurants, hotels, and clinics are targeted for the upper-middle class in the society. It also has a Hyatt Hotel right next to the tower, which is a five star hotel attracting mainly the upper socioeconomic class. The income per month will be roughly 600,000 US dollars. The rent for the restaurant at Roppongi Hills is roughly 150,000 US dollars. We are planning for a net income of 200,000 US dollars. The remaining 250,000 US dollars will be paid for the servers, chefs, and fresh ingredients. It will be 150,000 US dollars for the best and the most fresh ingredients and 100,000 US dollars for the workers at the restaurant.
We will not be focusing on advertising the business to keep the high standard of the restaurant. The main source of advertisement will be the customers themselves. If the restaurant pays off for the price, the need for advertisement is minimal.
The unemployment rate in Japan is only 5.1% of the population, which is fairly low compared to other countries that exceed this percentage. It shows the wealth of the people and evidence show that the market trends are consistent, but on the rise. In fact, the Japanese market is one of the world’s most profitable markets for the majority of businesses, attracting investors to the country. One website cites that “early entry into the Japanese market can be one of the most profitable business decisions you ever make - late entry into the Japanese market can be one of the worst. If you are in a fast moving market (and these days which market is not fast moving?) then you need to achieve first-mover status especially in the Japanese market if you want to succeed.” (Venture Japan) It serves as evidence for a profitable business.
Our business will be targeting upper-middle class family, elderly, and employees. It will provide these different people with comfort and well-being food that promotes the health of the people. Thus, it will provide pleasure to the eyes and the mouth. For families and elderly, it will be the perfect place for a family dinner or lunch, providing the best and the most traditional food of Korea. In addition, the modernized, luxurious, and spacious interior offers a hygienic and a delightful experience to fulfill the hunger and loosen the tension one experienced for the day.
We will be competing against other restaurants by the taste and the original tradition of the restaurant. Our managers, waiters, and waitress will be providing services in Gae Ryang Hanbok, which is a casual version of the Korean traditional clothes. Every dinner time, there is a Korean traditional performance upon the request of the customer performing the traditional music of Korea using the Korean instruments such as, gayageum, hegeum, and geomungo.
The location of the restaurant will be at the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills in Tokyo. It is a place that concentrates the upper-middle socioeconomic class people. The Mori tower is 54 floors high and houses museums, hotels, restaurants, cafes, stores, and clinics. The cafes, restaurants, hotels, and clinics are targeted for the upper-middle class in the society. It also has a Hyatt Hotel right next to the tower, which is a five star hotel attracting mainly the upper socioeconomic class. The income per month will be roughly 600,000 US dollars. The rent for the restaurant at Roppongi Hills is roughly 150,000 US dollars. We are planning for a net income of 200,000 US dollars. The remaining 250,000 US dollars will be paid for the servers, chefs, and fresh ingredients. It will be 150,000 US dollars for the best and the most fresh ingredients and 100,000 US dollars for the workers at the restaurant.
We will not be focusing on advertising the business to keep the high standard of the restaurant. The main source of advertisement will be the customers themselves. If the restaurant pays off for the price, the need for advertisement is minimal.
[Deliverable Two] Yu Gu & Suizi Xiao
DNA Tribes Genetic Ancestry Analysis is a service that uses genetic material inherited from both maternal and paternal ancestors to measure a person’s genetic connections to individual ethnic groups and major world regions. Top ranked results indicate places where a person blend of ancestry is most frequent and where her/his genetic ancestors left the strongest traces.
The paternal ancestor analysis is based on the Y-chromosome DNA test. The Y chromosome consortium has established a system of defining Y-DNA haplogroups by letters A through to T, with further subdivisions using numbers and lower case letters. A human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by differences in human mitochondrial DNA. Haplogroups are used to represent the major branch points on the mitochondrial phylogenetic tree. Understanding the evolutionary path of the female lineage has helped population geneticists trace the matrilineal inheritance of modern humans back to human origins in Africa and the subsequent spread across the globe.
Our company would provide both Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA tests, and membership to provide further information relevant to genetic knowledge, updates, and activities. In addition our website would include forums for both members and visitors.
Although DNA Tribes Analysis is very common in North America and Europe, it is not well known in China, so that we are going to develop a brand new market in this field. Our head quarter would locate in Beijing, China. However, we are open to every person requested our services on-line. Generally, highly educated people and men are more likely to consume the services. The costumers tend to be history funs also. Historically, the northern Chinese and the people of southern provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan have a culture, which emphasis ancestor and historical background. These places would be our main targeted markets. To attract their attentions, we would try to provide the connections between our costumers’ ancestry information and historical events/figures. One thing that becomes a new upsurge among Chinese young people is called “Chrono Cross”. We can take fully advantages of people’s curiosity and this recent phenomenon, and help young people to get close to their imaginary ancient times.
There is one more problem that we may only catch window shoppers’ attention at fist. Since Chinese people are relatively conservative and lack of exploring spirit, they might be hesitate to firsthand experience this DNA test. For this reason, we need to provide many certifications, such like of safety guaranty. Meanwhile, people who subconsciously believe this test would cost a lot of money. Actually, it’s only about one thousand RMB for each consumer, while the one could share the result with all other family numbers; it’ absolutely above the money’s worth.
To let the potential customers aware of our product, we would try to find a related TV program (such like Discovery Channel and Documentary Channel), provide sponsorship, and put advertisings during the show. One of the popular TV program is called “Approach the Science”; it focuses on such kind of new creative technique. We are thinking about cooperation with it, and to reach the win-win objective for both. Beijing as the cultural capital of China, there are many national treasured museums, which would definitely assemble most travelers around the China. People who visit there may also interest in history and ancient culture. Therefore, we could reveal our company’s paradigm there as a vehicle of propaganda. It could also offer professional credibility for our service as well. On the other hand, we would try to put advertisings and in formations on renren.com (similar to Facebook), the most popular Chinese social media among students and college graduates. We may need to pay about 20,000 yuan at the first quarter of a year. As long as we could stimulate the masses’ enthusiasm, it won’t cost much at later stages.
The human genetic science is developing in a very fast pace. We expect there would be major foundlings about how personal DNA affects one’s health, expectance of life, even personality or job performance. New services will be added according to new development in the genetic field. To sum up, we believe our DNA Tribes Genetic Ancestry Analysis can create a new profitable market, and help people gain knowledge in many kinds of academic fields.
The paternal ancestor analysis is based on the Y-chromosome DNA test. The Y chromosome consortium has established a system of defining Y-DNA haplogroups by letters A through to T, with further subdivisions using numbers and lower case letters. A human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by differences in human mitochondrial DNA. Haplogroups are used to represent the major branch points on the mitochondrial phylogenetic tree. Understanding the evolutionary path of the female lineage has helped population geneticists trace the matrilineal inheritance of modern humans back to human origins in Africa and the subsequent spread across the globe.
Our company would provide both Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA tests, and membership to provide further information relevant to genetic knowledge, updates, and activities. In addition our website would include forums for both members and visitors.
Although DNA Tribes Analysis is very common in North America and Europe, it is not well known in China, so that we are going to develop a brand new market in this field. Our head quarter would locate in Beijing, China. However, we are open to every person requested our services on-line. Generally, highly educated people and men are more likely to consume the services. The costumers tend to be history funs also. Historically, the northern Chinese and the people of southern provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan have a culture, which emphasis ancestor and historical background. These places would be our main targeted markets. To attract their attentions, we would try to provide the connections between our costumers’ ancestry information and historical events/figures. One thing that becomes a new upsurge among Chinese young people is called “Chrono Cross”. We can take fully advantages of people’s curiosity and this recent phenomenon, and help young people to get close to their imaginary ancient times.
There is one more problem that we may only catch window shoppers’ attention at fist. Since Chinese people are relatively conservative and lack of exploring spirit, they might be hesitate to firsthand experience this DNA test. For this reason, we need to provide many certifications, such like of safety guaranty. Meanwhile, people who subconsciously believe this test would cost a lot of money. Actually, it’s only about one thousand RMB for each consumer, while the one could share the result with all other family numbers; it’ absolutely above the money’s worth.
To let the potential customers aware of our product, we would try to find a related TV program (such like Discovery Channel and Documentary Channel), provide sponsorship, and put advertisings during the show. One of the popular TV program is called “Approach the Science”; it focuses on such kind of new creative technique. We are thinking about cooperation with it, and to reach the win-win objective for both. Beijing as the cultural capital of China, there are many national treasured museums, which would definitely assemble most travelers around the China. People who visit there may also interest in history and ancient culture. Therefore, we could reveal our company’s paradigm there as a vehicle of propaganda. It could also offer professional credibility for our service as well. On the other hand, we would try to put advertisings and in formations on renren.com (similar to Facebook), the most popular Chinese social media among students and college graduates. We may need to pay about 20,000 yuan at the first quarter of a year. As long as we could stimulate the masses’ enthusiasm, it won’t cost much at later stages.
The human genetic science is developing in a very fast pace. We expect there would be major foundlings about how personal DNA affects one’s health, expectance of life, even personality or job performance. New services will be added according to new development in the genetic field. To sum up, we believe our DNA Tribes Genetic Ancestry Analysis can create a new profitable market, and help people gain knowledge in many kinds of academic fields.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Criteria for Deliverable Three (Presentations)
- Professionalism: Is the student well-dressed, speaking articulately and professionally, building a strong sense of their own expertise and demonstrating an understanding of their chosen business area in the allotted time without too much reliance on distracting notes?
- Enthusiasm: Does the student reflect enthusiasm for their project that attracts attention and creates interest in their proposed business?
- Information: Does the student concisely but comprehensively include all relevant information, including business description, potential market, competitive advantage, profit potential, leadership qualifications, and anything else a potential investors might need to know?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Nornazira-Response 5
This is a very interesting venture by two men. I consider them as creative and innovative throughout their story in realizing the idea of bacon salt. The story may be seen as "Lucky" and fortunate, by experiencing the bourbon whiskey with fried bacon and later meeting people who follow Kosher diet but without being creative and observant, they would not come up with this brilliant idea to serve the bacon lover consumers.
If I have a hundred thousand dollars, I would definitely invest in this product. I don't eat bacon (upon my religious diet) but I would love to taste the bacon without having the real use of bacon in my diet. With this advantage, this product can attract Kosher (Jewish) and Halal (Muslim) diet community by emphasizing the ingredient is vegetarian. Another fact that make will venture in this investment is the consumer prospect where I think Americans do love bacon in their food. Besides that, this product can also be commercialized with variety of flavors.
Zhaoyi Wang--Response 5
1) The biggest luck they get is that they ordered bacon dishes and get the idea that people can taste bacon in whatever dishes they want. In addition, it is very surprising that they reached the idea to provide the bacon taste to dishes with salt. Usually, in my mind, if I want the bacon taste wherever I want, I will consider recipes for that. However, since they got the idea to make a tasted seasoning, they skipped this step.
2) Yes, I will invest the money to Bacon salt but I will not invest to bacon salt itself. I will invest its R&D to create more various types of tasted salts. The most creative idea in this product is that people can enjoy salt not only in the taste of salt itself but various types of other tastes, just like dressing. For example, chicken salt, fruits salt and whatever taste people want. The technique of making salt have other tastes is worth to be invested.
This case, I think, is very similar with the case of “Ajinomoto”, one of the seasoning making dishes tastier. Ajinomoto is a type of chemical seasoning widely accepted in Asia. The inventor tried to figure out what makes people feel tasty. He did the research and found the formula of it. Nowadays, this formula of chemical is not only used as a seasoning but also as the ingredient of sports drink.
I’m not sure about the side effect of the technique of tasting salt, but I’m sure that there is a certain market for tasted salt and it has the possibility of diversifying its usage. That’s why Bacon Salt is worth to be invested.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Project 3: Kwanbin Lim, Jun Kwon
Your team member names
Kwanbin Lim, Jun Kwon
What the business will be doing/selling (be as specific as possible)
The business will be selling Smartphone application. We will offer translation program and sell translation application. These days, most of people use smart phones or tablet PCs. Smart phones and tablet PCs are crucial method of communication between people and businesses. Communication through Smart Phones and tablet PCs are simple and comfortable. Due to increase of usage of Smart Phones and tablet PCs, different companies developed variety kind of applications for Smart Phone and tablet PC users. This translation application would help people studying foreign language and help in global businesses.
Where will the new business be located (anywhere but the US)?
We are planning to open our first market in East Asia part including South Korea, Japan and China. Opening a first market in East Asia will be a good choice because countries in South Asia have variety of businesses with foreign country and people in those countries think learning foreign language is mandatory education. After we start this business in Asia, we are planning to extend our business globally. Our final goal is to expand our product to worldwide.
Are there existing businesses like yours already? How will you set yourself apart?
There are similar kinds of applications are already available in the app store, however those applications are often too expensive or remain at naïve level, often useless for most people.
To set apart from Google and many other linguistic companies, we are planning to make this app as an open source. Local users will be able to edit and shape it into more commonly used phrases, which may not necessarily grammatically correct.
What do you think is the biggest challenge you will face in getting this business started?
Finding large number of user base is critical for open source applications, such as this mobile application we are developing. Free applications are already flooding the app store, but it doesn’t guarantee the success. Rule of thumb of successful business is approaching to its customer with quality product/service with appealing price point; both needs to be well balanced. Our primary goal is create and offer high quality translation app for free to any smartphone users. And generate profit from the in-app advertisement.
Kwanbin Lim, Jun Kwon
What the business will be doing/selling (be as specific as possible)
The business will be selling Smartphone application. We will offer translation program and sell translation application. These days, most of people use smart phones or tablet PCs. Smart phones and tablet PCs are crucial method of communication between people and businesses. Communication through Smart Phones and tablet PCs are simple and comfortable. Due to increase of usage of Smart Phones and tablet PCs, different companies developed variety kind of applications for Smart Phone and tablet PC users. This translation application would help people studying foreign language and help in global businesses.
Where will the new business be located (anywhere but the US)?
We are planning to open our first market in East Asia part including South Korea, Japan and China. Opening a first market in East Asia will be a good choice because countries in South Asia have variety of businesses with foreign country and people in those countries think learning foreign language is mandatory education. After we start this business in Asia, we are planning to extend our business globally. Our final goal is to expand our product to worldwide.
Are there existing businesses like yours already? How will you set yourself apart?
There are similar kinds of applications are already available in the app store, however those applications are often too expensive or remain at naïve level, often useless for most people.
To set apart from Google and many other linguistic companies, we are planning to make this app as an open source. Local users will be able to edit and shape it into more commonly used phrases, which may not necessarily grammatically correct.
What do you think is the biggest challenge you will face in getting this business started?
Finding large number of user base is critical for open source applications, such as this mobile application we are developing. Free applications are already flooding the app store, but it doesn’t guarantee the success. Rule of thumb of successful business is approaching to its customer with quality product/service with appealing price point; both needs to be well balanced. Our primary goal is create and offer high quality translation app for free to any smartphone users. And generate profit from the in-app advertisement.
Yae Sam Song - Response 05
1)The first luck they faced was when they had trouble working with the bar code. Both of them had no idea how the bar code works or how to use the bar code productively. However, it came out to be that someone just came up to them and asked whether they needed help with the bar code. The person wanted to help specifically in operating the bar code. This is a fortune because they were both stuck with the bar code problem. However, the right person gave them a hand at the right moment, which solved the problem of figuring out the bar code problem. If they had not known that person at the right time, it may be possible that they were still stuck with the bar code issue. Another consequence of that could be that they were still not able to sell the product.
2)Although the product, Bacon Salt, seem to be a well developed product, I would not invest my hundred thousand dollars in Bacon Salt. Bacon Salt is developed by the help of many professionals in the field of Food and Science and it may be a healthy product compared to other seasoning products. However, I do not think that it would make a lot of profit because it is something that can not make a constant profit. It could be that one makes a lot of profit as soon as the product is released, but whether this product will be sold consistently is very questionable. Another reason is that I am not really interested in food products, because in the food market only the product that dominates or monopolizes make the most profit. Other similar products will not make much profit. Another reason is that it is a product targeted in a narrow market. It is something not everyone can use to eat because countries like Asia and Africa do have French fries in their regular meals.
2)Although the product, Bacon Salt, seem to be a well developed product, I would not invest my hundred thousand dollars in Bacon Salt. Bacon Salt is developed by the help of many professionals in the field of Food and Science and it may be a healthy product compared to other seasoning products. However, I do not think that it would make a lot of profit because it is something that can not make a constant profit. It could be that one makes a lot of profit as soon as the product is released, but whether this product will be sold consistently is very questionable. Another reason is that I am not really interested in food products, because in the food market only the product that dominates or monopolizes make the most profit. Other similar products will not make much profit. Another reason is that it is a product targeted in a narrow market. It is something not everyone can use to eat because countries like Asia and Africa do have French fries in their regular meals.
Yae Sam Song - Response 05
1) The first luck they faced was when they had trouble working with the bar code. Both of them had no idea how the bar code works or how to use the bar code productively. However, it came out to be that someone just came up to them and asked whether they need help with the bar code. The person wanted to help specifically in operating the bar code. This is a fortune because they were both stuck with the bar code problem. However, the right person gave a hand at the right moment, which solved the problem of figuring out the bar code problem. If they had not known that person at the right time, it may be possible that they are still stuck with the bar code issue. The consequence of that could be that they were still not able to sell the product.
2) Although the product, Bacon Salt, seem to be a well developed product, I would not invest my hundred thousand dollars in Bacon Salt. Bacon Salt is developed by the help of many professionals in the field of Food and Science and it may be a healthy product compared to other seasoning products. However, I do not think that it would make a lot of profit because it is something that can not make a constant profit. It could be that one makes a lot of profit as soon as the product is released, but whether this product will be sold consistently is very questionable. Another reason is that I am not really interested in food products, because in the food market only the product that dominates or monopolizes make the most profit. Other similar products will not make much profit. Another reason is that it is a product targeted in a narrow market. It is something not everyone can use to eat because countries like Asia and Africa do have French fries in their regular meals.
2) Although the product, Bacon Salt, seem to be a well developed product, I would not invest my hundred thousand dollars in Bacon Salt. Bacon Salt is developed by the help of many professionals in the field of Food and Science and it may be a healthy product compared to other seasoning products. However, I do not think that it would make a lot of profit because it is something that can not make a constant profit. It could be that one makes a lot of profit as soon as the product is released, but whether this product will be sold consistently is very questionable. Another reason is that I am not really interested in food products, because in the food market only the product that dominates or monopolizes make the most profit. Other similar products will not make much profit. Another reason is that it is a product targeted in a narrow market. It is something not everyone can use to eat because countries like Asia and Africa do have French fries in their regular meals.
Zhining Hu - Response 05
1) Justin came up with the idea in 2006 and in 2007 he was lucky enough to mention it to Dave who was just as passionate about it as he is. Dave was bacon lover as much as Justin is. In addition, Dave was somewhat upset that he has come across some great ideas such as Vitamin Water in the past and did turn those into action. Thus, some other people besides him had the chance to make a fortune out of it years later. Therefore, Dave was sure that he will not miss the next great idea that was presented to him no matter how crazy it is. I think that this is also a form of “luck” as the hardest part is to have a strong passion to start the business and not be doubtful and unsure about the idea. There are a lot of smart and creative people coming up with great ideas every day, but few really give it a second thought weeks after and even less of them are confident enough to put it into action. So Justin definitely choose Dave as the right person to listen to his idea at the right time.
2) No, I will not invest in Bacon salt. This is not because Bacon salt does not have a good market, but because I feel that with a hundred thousand dollars I can invest in something else more profitable than a seasoning.
Project #3 Nornazira, Farah Adilah
- Your team member names
Miss Nornazira & Miss Farah Adilah
- What the business will be doing/selling (be as specific as possible)
We are proposing to open a fitness club together with a healthy cafe under the same roof. The fitness club is built to help the community to stay healthy, strong and fit while at the same time educate them on the importance of eating healthily. There will be basic cardiovascular and strength equipments in the gym and personal trainer service will be provided for customers who need an intensive one-to-one session.
- Where will the new business be located (anywhere but the US)?
- Are there existing businesses like yours already? How will you set yourself apart?
There are two well-known established gymnasium centers, Fitness First and Celebrity Fitness. However, these fitness centers are located in the big cities like Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. Besides, these two companies are not originally from Malaysia and are basically established outside of Malaysia. We seek the potential places like in suburban areas because a lot of people who work in the big cities usually lives in these small cities. We feel that by having the fitness club near them would make it more attractive and affordable since they could save on traveling cost. Our fitness club will also have a healthy cafe which provides nutritious food and beverages and will also provide information on nutrition and healthy lifestyle to our customers.
- What do you think is the biggest challenge you will face in getting this business started?
The biggest challenge is definitely to attract customers since a lot of the people are lack of awareness on exercise and healthy lifestyle. Hence, we will try to promote to the locals by doing promotions through community centers, electronic medias, and universities. Another challenge would be time constraints since people are usually busy working during the day and free only on weekends.
Mohammed Zulkernine: Response 5
One needs to find right people at the right time to attain success in life. There were many instances in the lives of the inventors of bacon salt where they had thought of an idea that eventually brought millions and millions of dollars to other people who has actually executed the idea. For instance, one of the inventors had thought of making vitamin water, but unfortunately before that plan could ever take place in reality someone else had already thought of that idea and sold the vitamin water plan to coke. In this case (bacon salt), luck favored them. Dave (one of the inventor of bacon salt) submitted the video that he taped with his son playing outside to the America’s funniest home video and obtained five thousand dollars from it. They used that money to make all the ingredients and raw materials required to make the bacon salt. Also the usage of internet helped them a lot. They advertised about their product on internet and micro blogging sites such as face book, MySpace and the news spread quickly and created a buzz in the society. Within a very short span of four and a half months they managed to sell a lot of bottles of bacon salt to many parts of the world also outside of United States. Moreover, all the information that they required in order to make the product was provided to them by the Google search engine in the internet. If they had not used the internet as a medium to advertise their product or the money they obtained from uploading the video, it would have been extremely difficult for them to spread Bacon Salt to the household of people.
Yu Gu - Response 5
The radio is about “Bacon salt”. It is a kind of salt having a taste like bacon. The inventor got the idea from the bacon restaurant. He is a bacon lover. So the idea to have something make everything taste like bacon came up. Even if he did not go the restaurant, I think he would still have the idea, because he is the kind of innovating person. To be successful, I think he should have some business expert to help him, because beside the product there are lots things to do to provide and sell them.
I would not invest to the product. First, the trend in food industry is organic foods. More and more people are considering a healthier eating style. I do not think there are much potential for manmade foods. Second, there are millions kinds of foods in this world. Most people just try everything as they can. The market is pretty competitive.
I would not invest to the product. First, the trend in food industry is organic foods. More and more people are considering a healthier eating style. I do not think there are much potential for manmade foods. Second, there are millions kinds of foods in this world. Most people just try everything as they can. The market is pretty competitive.
[Jun Kwon] - Response 5
Bacon salt, as we can interpret from the name, it is not just another product. There is some attractiveness that is appealing some bacon enthusiasts will give at least a second look when they shop at grocery store. Many brilliant and creative ideas that has such potential as Bacon salt comes in our mind time to time. However we often miss an opportunity to develop further or pass it onto the "right hands". The inventor of this product refers them self as being lucky. I agree with them because they were there together to think about and moved on to action required.
As most investors do, I would be interest in looking at numbers first. How large is market demand, production line costs, investment return, and their ambiguity. I personally skeptical about those “never seen before” products. Just like “As seen On TV” products. Ideas are good, but product is far from conventional products that people are questioning about the product. I’d rather invest on premium imported sea salt for high class people, who actually spends money for such products.
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