+

Creative inquiry

Choosing a target market

+An overarching guide to your project

Depends a lot on the “what” and “why” that we discussed last week These will help you narrow down your market

However, your final market will help dictate the development of your project – “Have the end in mind”

You might find that the final user will be completely different that you initially thought

+What specific features set it apart Need a unique characteristic to gain attention

Amazon Fire Phone

Large processing and computing abilities Possibly directly to company who specializes in solutions

Customizable and has a large amount of user interaction Millenials

Durability and consistency This product might have industrial uses

+Is the market saturated?

If similar products/companies have a stronghold, it might not be needed in that market Ex. FedEx and UPS Maybe directly provide your service/product to UPS or

FedEx – it could be very similar but have a few tweaks

+Know your competition

Understand what they offer

Who do they sell to

What do they charge

Will you compete with them directly – or will you find a niche market to thrive in

Examples Dollar Shave Club Wal-Mart

+Market Research

A specific field that people specialize in

Companies outsource this work or have employees in-house to help with this

Important for product developers to work directly with them when generating new ideas

Hard data is very useful for determining what paths to take and what items to create or tweak – takes some “guessing” out of the picture

+Ideas for when you choose your

market

+Similar products to gain customers You may create two products that are similar

An iPad has many similar attributes and core technology as a MacBook but in general, they are targeted at somewhat different types of consumers

Can you name any other examples?

+Multi-tiered offerings

Helps capture a larger portion of the market

Very similar products but when you pay more, you get more

Simple example: Pay $9.99 a month for 2 users on Netflix, $12.99 for the ability for 4 people to log in on the account

Other examples?

+CPSC Students

As you are being split into your teams, think about who will purchase your product in the long run. Start to think of how this will shape the decisions that your team will make this semester. You will need to report these thoughts and ideas to your “manager” and discuss it with them before core development begins.

+Business Students

Find a successful technological product or service and write a one page paper discussing what the target market of the item was. With this in mind, detail what aspects of it might have been focused on or rigorously tested due to the final user. Lastly, think about what other segment of the population may have a use for that product and what the company who makes it would have to do in order to sell it.

+Questions?