Existing Market
I think that the next step after I start my housekeeping
service is to create a brand around it, some type of moat that calls the attention
of prospective customers and makes me stand out among other similar services.
It is very important that my company and my logo is present all the time in the
areas that I will be targeting (sort of advertising). I need students to be
aware of the service my company offers and that EZTime is the first name that comes
to their mind when they are struggling with chores at home. With this, will come
an expansion to towns with similar conditions. Non-metropolitan and a student-based
population.
I took the feedback as constructive criticism, since I did
not notice some of the things that my interviewees told me. For example, of
them (a person that is willing to use the service) told me that it is a great idea
to think about establishing a brand, but he doesn’t think that it will be easy
or quick for me to expand to other towns because of cultural differences and because
(as he made me realized) I have not done any research about those markets. The second
person shared similar insights.
In the other hand,
the only girl I interviewed is not willing to use my service, even though she
has the characteristics of my market segment. I guess that the only fact that
puts her apart is that she is economically independent from her parents (she is
19). She thought that the business was a great idea in paper, but that students
are not willing to spend money to clean the apartment. It made me realize that
I need to create a marketing campaign where I illustrate that the benefits of
using EZTime are not just a clean floor, but harmony in the apartment.
New Market
I am currently targeting students living in apartment complexes;
therefore, a radically different market would be office buildings. The
differences are obvious, students are mostly economically dependent, don’t spend
at much time at home, and they don’t really care about cleanliness. In the
other hand, in office buildings people spend most of the time in there, it is where
they make money and sometimes they receive clients in person (so they have to
keep a clean appearance).
After talking to a small law firm and a dentist office I got
to learn that it is a very competitive market. They said that they loved the
idea of my cost-efficient structure to target students in Gainesville, but it doesn’t
work the same with office. I was told that to be able to target offices I had
to adjust the structure, especially because schedules and load of work. I told
them about how I was planning to add a mobile car-wash, which idea they loved
because while the car is in the parking garage it could be wash and workers
wouldn’t even have to waste their time taking to the place to be washed.
In general, I learned many things. For example, students are
a very challenging market, even when you have a well thought, well-structured
idea, It is not a very competitive market right now for a reason and it is the
risk and low profit margins. In the case of targeting offices, the first
problem is the competition in the market and the difference in schedules and
reasons why the would request a cleaning service.
I think your opportunity for a new market would be apartment complex’s is very current because apartment complex’s have cleaning people but not for coming and ding your chores. I think a really great opportunity would be providing service for a party company that has house parties because there are think such as throw up, glass, and spills of all sorts usually at a house party. That would be an interesting niche.
ReplyDeleteHi Enrique,
ReplyDeleteAs a student constantly on a tight budget I would say that the hardest thing would be convincing me that it is more valuable for me to pay someone to do my chores for me rather than doing them myself. I would also say that I would have a lot of concerns about security having a strange in my home.