Concept Narrative

We would like to create an app for the iPad that would occupy, entertain, and educate children. Our target customer would be iPad-equipped parents, especially mothers, of young children ages 12 months to 5 years old. We would like to create a simple sound storybook designed exclusively for the iPad that children can navigate with our without their parents’ assistance. We would like to sell our app in the iTunes store. We would not create any revenue through direct sales because our app will be sold for free. We would like to form a key partnership with Project Gutenberg, a volunteer-based organization that creates an online digital library of literature considered to be in the public domain. Project Gutenberg would provide us with the texts and assist in condensing or modernizing the vernacular.

Customer Segments

We will be targeting iPad-equipped parents, especially mothers, of young children ages 12 months to 5 years old. According to an MRI Plus Fall 2010 product study of electronics, 117,804 women own a laptop, notebook, or tablet computer at home. Based on the study’s high index (140) of women participating in postgraduate studies and another high index (130) of women attending college, we have concluded that the female tablet computer or iPad user has higher education levels than most. We will be targeting women ages 25-34 because this is a common age range for women to either begin having children or have their second, as well as the fact that the MRI study showed that this age group had a high index (124) for ownership of tablets. We will target workingwomen, especially those in professional and management, business, and financial operations because they also showed high indices for tablet ownership. According to the MRI report, our ideal female customer will most likely enjoy a household income of over $60,000 or more. It appeared in the MRI study, that there was a slightly higher propensity for female tablet ownership in the West, but we will target all geographic areas of the U.S. equally. According to the MRI study, engaged and married women make up about 58% of female tablet ownership; we will also target this audience group because they are at a higher likeliness than their unmarried counterparts for having a child under age 5. Female iPad users have displayed their tendency to use their iPads quite commonly for reading, especially magazines and news sources online. This demonstrates that our target user views her iPad as a reading device. Psychologically, we would like our target customer to be a user that is looking for a chance to share meaningful interactions with her child. We anticipate that our target user wants to read her son or daughter a book that she views as wholesome, entertaining, and educational. We believe that our target user has memories of reading books with her parents, and she wants to impart similar memories with her children. Finally, we imagine that our target consumer likes reading on her iPad but she isn’t looking for gimmicky animations or noisy graphics; our target consumer is looking for quieter, more traditional enjoyment derived from reading a book that looks and feels like the modern reincarnate of the sound storybooks of her childhood.

Name: Bethany KohoutekAge: 30Customer Relationship to Product: Bethany has a 1-year-old child that she reads books to on the iPad regularly. Email Address: Bethany.kohoutek@meredith.com

Questions:1. How many children do you have? How old are your children? One child, a

son, 15 months old2. Do you read children’s books to your kids on an iPad? If not, would you

ever? Yes, we do. We love Alice in Wonderland and a couple of the cool, interactive bedtime books.

3. Would you use a children’s storybook app designed to look and feel like the sound storybooks like this: Yes

4. How old do you think children using this app would be? 12 months to 5

years5. What additional features would you expect a children’s sound

storybook app to have? Strummer seems to respond most to simple, graphic, bold interactivity—easily identifiable buttons, things he can move simply, things that have an obvious cause-and-effect. Since he’s so young, his manual dexterity requires features to be pretty clear-cut and intuitive.

6. The app that we are currently planning has feature that will play a recorded reading of the book. Is this a feature that you would like to see? We LOVE e-books and book apps that have a narration option. It’s nice for the car or for when we’re preparing dinner or out of the room.

7. Do you think you would be willing to pay for a children’s storybook app? If so, how much? We’ve paid as much as $10 for REALLY great book apps, but most of what we download is less than $5 or free.

Takeaway from the interaction: Children as young as 15 months enjoy reading books on the iPad. The iPad book needs to have easy-to-identify buttons and simplicity for younger users. Narration is a great addition to the app. Customers are willing to spend money on this type of app because they believe that they will get significant use from it.

Name: Kathy BarnesAge: 41Customer Relationship to Product: Kathy is the mother of three children that are under the age of 10. Email Address: kathy.barnes@drake.edu

Questions:1. How many children do you have? How old are your children? Three

children. Ages 9, 6, 32. Do you read children’s books to your kids on an iPad? If not, would you

ever? Do not read on an iPad/do not own iPad. We would if we purchased an iPad.

3. Would you use a children’s storybook app designed to look and feel like the sound storybooks like this: Maybe. My two older kids have outgrown these types of books. Youngest child would find this fun. 

4. How old do you think children using this app would be? Ages 4 and

younger5. What additional features would you expect a children’s sound

storybook app to have? Would be great to have other learning functions -- mapping / geography if relevant to title, simple math / counting, vocabulary "touch and tell definitions, ABCs... touch the tree and it says "tree starts with letter T" and pulls up an image of letter T. Phonetic awareness... "Chicken starts with the letter blend 'ch.' Letters C and H make the CH sound."

6. The app that we are currently planning has feature that will play a recorded reading of the book. Is this a feature that you would like to see? Yes

7. Do you think you would be willing to pay for a children’s storybook app? If so, how much? Yes, price depends on how many titles would be available in this format. Value matters. Also, it would be fun if there were more Early Chapter books and Young Adult titles. Imagine if the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and like titles were available. My early elementary age kids would go crazy for that. 

Takeaway from the interaction: Kathy believes that children utilizing this app would skew a little younger. She was more interested in seeing educational aspects

incorporated into the iPad book that would assist with reading development. She would like to know that the books were part of a series, as well.

Name: Kimberly MetzAge: 37Customer Relationship to Product: Kim is the mother of two very young children that are under age 4. Email Address: kimberly.metz@msn.com

Questions:1. How many children do you have? How old are your children? 2 kids; 4

year old son, 2 year old daughter2. Do you read children’s books to your kids on an iPad? If not, would you

ever? Yes, we have several iPad books, and I am always looking for more quality interactive books. My kids love them.

3. Would you use a children’s storybook app designed to look and feel like the sound storybooks like this: Yes

4. How old do you think children using this app would be? 18 mo-6rs (You

would be surprised how young kids learn to use these books. My 18-month-old nephew can run an iPad)

5. What additional features would you expect a children’s sound storybook app to have? Kids love interactive features. For example click on the apple to see all the apples fall from the tree. There is a great Grover book called “There is a monster at the end of this book,” which my kids love because they get to knock down a brick wall and untie some ropes and other interactive features. They also have a few books that have things you collect as you go along—like ghosts that randomly appear in a Halloween book they have and at the end you see if you collected all the ghosts. They love books with puzzles attached or coloring pages that go along with them. I should clarify that I don’t always “expect” a children’s sound storybook to have these features, but there needs to be one feature other than just the story to keep the kids interested. The books with more features are the ones that they will read over and over again.

6. The app that we are currently planning has feature that will play a recorded reading of the book. Is this a feature that you would like to see? Yes, it is great for car rides, traveling and times when I can’t actually read the book to my kids, but they still want to hear it.

7. Do you think you would be willing to pay for a children’s storybook app? If so, how much? I am willing to pay a small fee—$.99-$1.99 for a children’s storybook app, but it needs to have some worthwhile features, i.e. be entertaining and engaging.

Takeaway from the interaction: Kim stressed the importance of interactivity. For an iPad book to appeal to children, it needs to offer more than just words and pictures. She thinks that the more features the app has, the more that her children will be prone to use it. She also really loved the idea of narration and is willing to pay for a storybook app.

Value Propositions

Value Delivered to Customer: 1. Newness

a. The Three Little Pigs sound storybook for the iPad looks reminiscent of the old Golden Sound Storybooks but with a modern twist. Children and parents alike can enjoy our traditional storybook presented through a clean, easy-to-navigate iPad version.

2. Customizationa. The Three Little Pigs sound storybook is created exclusively for

children ages 12 months to 5 years old. Designed for young children, the storybook is easy-to-navigate with its swipe to turn the page format and easy to see simple cause and effect with its large audio buttons. The storybook is also nostalgic for parents because the iPad storybook reminds them of the storybooks that they used to read when they were growing up.

3. Designa. The Three Little Pigs sound storybook is well designed. It boasts a

nostalgic feel for parents with its audio buttons, but with its fun illustrations and buttons to push it keeps children entertained. The book features the perfect amount of interactivity for young children, too.

Customer’s problems/needs that will be solved/satisfied:

a. The parent wants to keep their child occupied while they are driving, cooking, etc. The child needs to be able to play with something that it will be able to navigate on his or her own. In addition, the parent needs to find something that will be able to hold the child’s attention.

b. The parent wants to entertain their child. The parent wants their child to get more enjoyment out of reading a simple storybook. The parent wants the child to find reading fun by being able to push buttons or listen to a vivid narration.

c. The parent wants to be able to educate their child. The parent wants the child to be able to pick up the basic moral of a story. The parent wants the child to be able to identify animals or actions and the sounds that accompany them. The parent wants the child to be able to read or follow along with the words of the story as a narrator reads them.

Channels

1. Raise Awarenessa. Our company will raise awareness about its products and services first by

using its website. We will post specifics about the upcoming launch of our application, as well as information about the apps many features. We will include in our company email newsletter information about the upcoming app’s launch, too.

In addition, we will provide mom bloggers and parenting websites that have large followings like babble.com with free demos of our app. They will hopefully review our app on their blogs, and all the mothers that read the blogs or websites will be prone to at least learn more about our app by visiting our iTunes page in the App Store.

We would also provide family or parenting magazines, such as Parents, Parenting, and American Baby, with free demos of our app with the hopes that they would write a review about our app in their print publication or on their website.

We would offer to feature our business on Parents’ Parents Deals website. In exchange for being featured as one of the deals of the week, we would put the app on sale for a limited time.

2. Evaluation of our Value Propositiona. Our company will have a survey available on our website that parents

will be able to use to provide feedback about our new app. The survey will be brief, but it will include an area for optional comments. We will also feature the link to our survey on our iTunes page.

We will also pay close attention to the customer ratings and reviews that our customers will be able to leave directly on our iTunes page.

3. Purchasea. Our app will be available for purchase in the App Store within the iTunes

store. Our app will be under the category “Books.” The Three Little Pigs sound storybook app will be free for download. We set the price for free based on the shorter length of this title, and our intention to produce many other titles that we would intend for our customers to also download.

4. Delivery a. Our app is easily downloaded from the App Store within the iTunes store.

Once our customers arrive at our page, they can simply click ”Free App.” They will then follow the easy Apple purchase steps and within minutes

they will have downloaded our app to their iTunes for easy syncing to their iPad.

5. After salesa. In our iTunes page, we will have a link that will take redirect app users to

our customer support page on our website. From here, we will have navigational information about every title we produce. Users can click on the specific title to learn more specific information. At the book page, we will have a breakdown of what each button means that is presented on all the various pages. If our customers are still in need of assistance, we will have an email and a 1-800 number where they can contact us with their concerns.

Social media frameworkWe will have a Twitter account under our company name that we will use to interact with customers. We will tweet about upcoming title releases to the Apple store, any publicity that we have received from bloggers or websites, any deals that we are running, any significant rankings in the iTunes store, and establish rapport with customers.

We will also create a Facebook account under our company name that we will use to gain customers and interact with them. We will similarly post updates and interact with customers.

User testing information

User 1 Comments:Adrea Holler, 22. adrea.holler@drake.edu. Adrea babysits for a family with two little boys, ages 3 and 5. She commented on the story itself. She said that she had read versions of the story where the pigs weren’t eaten up, but instead they ran to the next house. She said this didn’t bother her though because she’d heard both. She said that the illustrations weren’t super detailed outside of the main part of action. She said there was a lot of writing on some of the pages. She thought that the navigation between the pages was really easy and very intuitive. From my observation, she knew how to use the app immediately and didn’t ever waste her time looking for additional features.

Changes: We have worked on trimming down the text on each page so that it can be bigger. We also have changed the illustrations since making them more detailed.

User 2 Comments:Emily Hanson, 22. emily.hanson@drake.edu. Emily teaches Sunday school of pre-school aged children.She liked the graphics and the print. She noticed that there was a little glitch in the way that it loaded. She didn’t like the turnips page that much because it seemed

pretty blank. She thought the font was easy to read and fit nicely in the blue sky for easy readability. She thought that children would really enjoy it. She thought it would be good for kids under 6.

Changes: Our programmer already figured out the glitch in the book. We ended up cutting the turnips page because we used a different version of the story that did not include it.

User 3 Comments: Jennifer Field, 21. jennifer.field@drake.edu. Jenn is majoring in elementary education.She thought it was very easy to read. She thought the sections broke up nicely. She thought the pictures accompanied the text well. She thought it was short and sweet and to the point. She thought it was a lot like reading a real book. She thought it would be a little difficult for children because of the length of some of the text.

Changes: We chose a different version of the story that has shorter text on each page that should make the reading level easier for young children.

User 4: Christina Aldrich, 20. christina.aldrich@drake.edu. Christina Aldrich is an aunt that routinely interacts with her young nieces and nephews.She really liked the illustrations. She thought the pigs were cute. She sometimes thought that there was too much text on the pages. She thought it might be easier to have less text and bigger text to make it easier for kids to read. She really liked the colors. She thought it held her attention well.

Changes:We chose a different version of the story that has shorter text on each page. The text is also bigger and now a serif font, which should make it easier to read for children and more resemble a children’s book.

Marketing text for our iTunes pageDescription

When the Three Little Pigs leave their mother’s house, they each receive an unwelcome visit from a hungry Wolf. Will the Three Little Pigs be able to outfox the hungry Wolf?

The traditional tale of the Three Little Pigs is back and better than ever in an interactive sound storybook format made exclusively for the iPad.

Features: Professional narration

Easy-to-push sound buttons Colorful illustrations Large, easy-to-read font Simple navigation with a table of contents

Customer Relationships

We intend to establish and maintain a customer relationship based on the premises of self-service and when necessary, personal assistance. We believe that our customers are primarily self-sufficient during the purchasing state. We do not anticipate them having issues purchasing our app from the iTunes store. There is a prescribed process for purchase, and we believe that our customers are either familiar enough with making purchases from the iTunes store that they will not have any problems or be capable enough to solve any problems through the proper Apple channels. After purchase, if the customer has any problems with understanding how to use the app, they can utilize the iTunes’ support page, they can leave a comment for us in a rating on our iTunes page, or we will direct them to our customer service page on our website. At this page the customer will select the title from a list for personalized information. The webpage then will explain what all the various buttons on all the various screens do. If, after following this logical flow of steps the customer continues to have problems, we will offer additional, more general support at our website’s Frequently Asked Questions page or personal assistance through email correspondence with one of our customer service representatives.

We will also maintain more informal customer relationships through the use of social media. We will answer any customer questions and engage in discussion with customers on Twitter. We will also communicate with customers through Facebook. Maintaining a self-service relationship in the primary stages of our customer relationships will have no cost outside of the initial set up of the customer service page on our company website. However, maintaining a personal assistance relationship will have some cost associated with it, but we hope to reallocate these new responsibilities under existing employee positions.

Revenue Streams

Our customers are willing to pay for our app because it provides them with an interactive age-appropriate sound storybook that will occupy, entertain, and educate their children. These parents are willing to pay for the app because they know that it contains fun additional features that children will enjoy, such as narration and sound buttons. Based on perspective customer interviews, our customers stated that they are accustomed to paying anywhere from $.99 to $10 for a book. However, the perspective customers stated that if they pay for a children’s book it needs to have entertaining and interactive features. Favorite features included in some of their favorite titles include narration, coloring pages, puzzles, and collecting or moving items in the book. Current customers are paying for these apps through their accounts in the Apple iTunes store.

Our product will generate revenue in the short and long term from asset sales to our target customer. Even though perspective customers said they would spend anywhere from $.99 to even $10 on apps, we decided to make our app free. Because our app does not include as many interactive features as other iPad books and because it is a shorter title, we will sell the app for free with the intention of creating more titles that our customers would also want to read. As we add more titles to our collection and build a “hooked” audience, we will eventually start to charge a minimal fee of $.99 for downloads. The titles we add to our collection will also be fairytales or folktales that were provided to us from the Gutenberg Project. We hope to create a classic series of fairytales and folktales made exclusively as sound storybooks for the iPad.

Key Resources

Our company has all the physical resources necessary for the development, launch, and maintenance of our application. We have laptops with access to graphic design programs, coding software, and the Internet. In terms of human resources, we have a graphic designer, journalist, and computer scientist on staff with ready access to experts in the field.

In terms of acquiring customers and retaining them, we each have professional networks within our respective fields of study of journalism, graphic design, and computer science. In these professional networks, we would be able to gain customers and maintain them. In addition through one of our social clubs, we have access to a babysitter network. We would have access to large amounts of our target customer group. As for retaining our customers, we believe that we would be able to do so by introducing new products systematically. If the child were to grow tired of one of our storybooks after a few weeks, we would plan to introduce a different title soon.

Key Activities

ProductionOur production phase included substantial work. We have worked intensively to create a story, illustrations, sound buttons, a narrated reading, a fully functioning code, a business plan, and marketing text. We need to purchase a license and get approval from the Apple Store.

Problem SolvingTo find solutions to customer problems, we put the app through four rounds of user testing. After the user testing, we made significant changes to the app, especially in regards to the text and how it was displayed. The app is now more easily readable. In addition, we have created extensive help networks to ensure that if the customer has any difficulties navigating the app, they will be directed to the proper channels for help or are put in contact with a customer service representative.

Platform/NetworkWe would need to continually grow our company with the publishing of more children’s sound storybooks designed for the iPad.

Key Partnerships

Key Partners Project Gutenberg

o Project Gutenberg is a volunteer-driven online organization that digitizes and archives “cultural works” considered to be in the public domain in a free digital library. Because we believe that it is important to continue to pass down these stories and because Project Gutenberg provides a plethora of story material that is readily available, we believe the organization would be an ideal business supplier. We would receive story material as a key resource from Project Gutenberg. Our partner, Project Gutenberg, could assist us in finding the best texts for storybooks and even contribute writers or editors that would help us condense the often wordy or archaic text into more modern vernacular.

Cost Structure

Our graphic designer worked approximately 20 hours, our computer programmer worked approximately 15 hours, and our marketing manager worked approximately 10 hours to make this app come to fruition. Combined, our efforts total over 45 hours of work. Our work is worth approximately $20 per hour, meaning that our app is worth about a total $900 of work. In addition, it would cost us approximately $99 per year to purchase an Apple developer license. Drake’s mobile app development class cost each employee $545 for enrollment and additional technology fees per person cost $57. The staff did not need to purchase any additional programs to make this app.

To bring our app to market, we would need to acquire intellectual resources, specifically brand creation and information about patents, copyrights, and proprietary knowledge. This deficit would best be filled by allocating a portion of the budget to pay for services provided by a copyright lawyer. According to payscale.com, the average hourly rate for a lawyer with one to five years experience is about $70 per hour. We would need to pay three employees for their time in developing the app and one copyright lawyer for his work by the hour. Not including our copyright lawyer’s hourly work, we would need at least $2,805 to meet our initial costs. To be truly profitable based on later app sales in which we charged $.99 per title, we would need to sell over 3,000 books. In order to pay our human resources as well as launch our app, we would need significant financial resources. We would need to gain a large influx of cash or buy extensively on credit, especially since we do not intend to charge clients for downloading at least our initial titles. Our partner, Project Gutenberg, would probably not be able to support us financially because it is volunteer-driven, but it would be able to relieve some of our financial stress by ensuring that we don’t have to pay for rights to our future stories.