Assignment 23A

Assignment 23A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage 

1. Connections with people that work with Disney

V: It is important to have connections with the people that you are designing your product for 

R: Not everyone has the opportunity to have connections with people inside the business 

I: It is imitable but it would take time to be able to build the connections and use them 

N: There is no substitute for connections that have been made already 

2. Very accessible product

V: The product already exists, it is very easy for the customer to attain the product

R: The product is only available at Disney Parks and its retailers

I: It has the potential to be imitated by Universal Studios or other amusement parks

N: There is no substitute for this item at any of the parks 

3. Education: Business Admin major with a minor in Entrepreneurship 

V: Being able to apply the knowledge that I have into selling the product 

R: It's not rare, but in some cases, people are not able to get a higher level of education

I: It is imitable, people are able to attend college and pick my major

N: People don't necessarily have to go to college to learn the ins and outs of a business 

4. The product is user-friendly

V: People already purchase magic bands and they don't have to do anything to it

R: I haven't seen a product that offers a GPS system in any amusement park

I: Once the product came out, other parks might be able to imitate it 

N: There would be no other product that offers the GPS in the park 

5. Financial Capital from a company as big as Disney
V: To be able to create the GPS device and install it into the magic band it requires a good financial standing to back it up
R: To have good financial backing from a company this big would be rare
I: Only someone with big financial assets would be able to imitate the product
N: The financial support from Disney would be non substitutable

6. Marketing/Advertisements
V: Magic bands are a product that people already want to buy and Disney's marketing techniques are very well made
R: Its not rare to have a good marketing team but its a big company so they can do things quicker
I: Not imitable because no one else has this product to market
N: No other company would be able to do what Disney does since its their product

7. Technology
V: This product is based on creating a GPS so a good tech team is required
R: Its not rare to find someone that is experienced and would be able to create the system
I: Imitable because already a lot of GPS systems exist
N: This would be no substitutable because the GPS needs to work and needs to be accurate

8. Lack of competition
V: I haven't seen anything like this product yet, hopefully would attract more people to it
R: Its rare because a lot of companies start by imitating or producing a product that's similar to someone else's
I: If the product does well it would most likely be copied
N: As of now there is nothing that would be able to substitute the product

9. Motivation
V: This is valuable because in order to get my product out there I need to stay motivated no matter how many times it gets rejected or the product doesn't work out
R: Motivation isn't rare
I: A lot of people are motivated so its imitable
N: This quality may be interchangeable with others but I think its more important

10. Team Player
V: This quality is valuable because I would not be able to get the product out there by myself
R: There are some people that are not able to work well in a team setting
I: This is imitable
N: I don't think there is a substitute for this quality

I think that my most important resource is that this product is very accessible. For a product to succeed, customers must be able to buy the product anywhere they would like. It is easy for them to purchase it while they are at the park. It is also sold online and they ship internationally so this makes it easy access for everyone.

Assignment 22A

Assignment 22A- Elevator Pitch No. 3 

The feedback I received from my last elevator pitch was very positive. I only received one piece of constructing criticism. I found myself in the last video as the person mentioned, shifting my weight a lot because I was nervous to film again. With this pitch, I found myself being a little less nervous but I still don't feel comfortable enough to film more than what was asked. I tried to not move too much in this pitch to indicate that I felt more comfortable with filming. 

Assignment 21A

Assignment 21A- Reading Reflection No. 2

Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of this book was to showcase how technological advances have changed how the market works. It showed that products that are smaller can now boost their sales by exposing themselves to selling them online. It also talked about how the diversification of products has been changed because of how many online retailers can offer a lot of different products in the same category. It compared sales in the old days to now, saying that even though there are a lot of products in the market today nothing sells in the way that it did before. Now things are more spread out equally between all of the different products because of all of the options offered. 

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
This book connected with what we are learning in this class because it showed how as entrepreneurs we have to keep track of what is going on in the market of our specified service or product. Since a lot of people have much more options now, entrepreneurs need to find a way to market the product in such a way that it is preferred above others. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?  
Based on this book I would design an exercise that would focus more on the market aspect of things. I would maybe try to find a product that is similar to mine and track how well they are doing in the market. From there, try to make my product more appealing and do a market performance test to see how well it would do against the main competitor. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?
I don't think that this book differed much from my expectations because now that we have more technological advances, people are always going to find a lot of products that are in the same category. Before, you only really had the option of buying a few select items because things weren't as readily available as they are now. 

Assignment 20A

Assignment 20A- Growing Your Social Capital 

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry.

Andres Aleman has a start-up business called shake and share media. He works with photo booths and is constantly finding new innovative ways of appealing his product to the customer. He would be filling my domain expert position because he is constantly finding different ways to use the technology that he is given. He had to differentiate his product from all of the different photo booths that are in the market right now. He has had to prove to different companies that his product is different from others. He has worked with a lot of different major companies ranging from Google to Colgate. I found this person because he is my uncle and it was very easy to reach him. He told me that he liked my idea and that the thinks he would be able to help me show Disney that there is value in this product. He has worked with a lot of different companies so he knows how to navigate reaching and talking to higher-ups in companies. There were no favors exchanged for reaching out to him and he would help make this product come to fruition. 

2) One person must be an expert on your market.

Paola Guevara currently works for Disney World. She has been working for the company for a while now and is currently a manager of one of the hotels at Disney. Paola would be filling the market expert position, she would be filling it because she has been working for the company for a long time. She had to work hard for her current position, starting as working as a character for the park. She had to interact with people from the park and also had to work with people that were higher up in the company. Since she works as a hotel manager now she knows what people enjoy and what makes them tick. I found this person through one of my friends that goes to ucf, she was her sorority sister. I spoke to her about my idea of implementing the GPS tracker into the magic band and she said it would be a great idea. Since she works at the hotel she told me that they give out magic bands to the guests. This would help my product be spread around quicker since a lot of people stay on property when going to the parks. There were no favors exchanged with this idea and her help would be to promote the product to customers. 

3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry. 

The third person that I talked to, Stephanie was a current animator for Disney. She designs a lot of the products that Disney sells in stores. She would be filling my supplier position because she currently works for Disney in the design aspect of it. She has had to communicate with a lot of people in the product development area because she designs some of their products. This would be helpful when it comes to the distribution of the magic bands because she would be able to come in contact with the people who make the product. I found her through my aunt who is friends with her. I spoke to her about implementing the GPS into the magic bands and she thought it would be a great idea. She said that she would be able to put me in contact with people who would like to listen to the idea of this product. There were no favors exchanged but she said she would be able to help me come in contact with people who would probably want a favor in exchange. 

Reflect. 

This experience was out of my comfort zone because it pushed me to communicate with people that I had never talked to before on the phone and ask them for a favor. I am somewhat of an introverted person and I am very shy when it comes to meeting and talking to new people. This networking experience was different for me because I almost never have had to contact someone on a one on one basis. 

Assignment 19A

Assignment 19A- Idea Napkin #2

You: I am currently majoring in Business Management as well as minoring in Event Management. My skills include being able to communicate and work well with others, as well as time management and organizational skills. I've had a lot of volunteering positions where I have had to delegate tasks to people and make sure they are getting their work done. I try to be as organized as I can and make sure that everything gets done in time. I had the opportunity to work at several events where I had to work with a team and complete the tasks at hand. My aspirations if this business idea would ever take off would be to work for Disney. This would play a major role in my life because I would be able to achieve one of my goals by working for that company.

What are you offering customers?: What I'm offering customers is a chance to find their friends and family in an easy way. It provides an alternative to having to depend on your phone while you are at the park. It would cause no inconvenience because the product would already be in the magic band, which is what you would use to get into the park. It would be a product that you could use every single time you went to the park and you wouldn't have to purchase a new one every time. It is also convenient since Disney already has an app and on top of that has machines around the park where you can scan your magic band.  

Who are you offering it to?: I am offering this product to children starting from 6 years old to older ages. My target audience would be families and big groups of people, especially people who have multiple children in their party. 

Why do they care?: Customers using this product would care because they would want to know where their friends and family are in the park. If the can't locate them through calling them, they have an option readily available for them. The longer they stay at the parks, the higher the chances are that the battery on their phone dies. It is very easy to lose a small child at this park when they become distracted and parents would most definitely care to find where their child is. 

What are your core competencies?: What sets me apart from everyone else is that there is no set system in place to find people at Disney. The only "competitor" I would have would be the cellphones that people carry with them. However, not everyone has a cell phone especially tourists that are just coming to visit. 

I think all of these elements fit together because they all complement each other. The people that I would be offering this product to cares about the well being of others. They would want to find their family members and they would want to know they are safe. The demographic for this product complements this as well because it applies to all ages. There are also weaknesses with this such as the product itself and how well it would work in the parks. Price would also be a concern because Disney may raise the prices to apply the GPS to the magic bands. 

Two main points I took away from the feedback was my target audience and the price of the device. I need to make the product available for people at a price that they are willing to spend for the band. I also had to change my target demographic because it was too broad. 

Assignment 18A

                                         Assignment 18A- Create a Customer Avatar 

My customer avatar is not just one person, its multiple people that range from ages 6-18+. Ideally, my avatars are families or groups of friends. Families and friends all have the typical hobbies: from watching movies to attending soccer games or just a simple activity of going to dinner together. They all like going out during the weekends and planning different activities during the day. My avatars love to collect magic bands and taking a road trip to Disney World to go to their favorite park, Magic Kingdom. Families, of course, drive the typical Honda minivan and play music that ranges from old 90s music to current pop charts. Friends drive all different types of cars but my avatars like to drive the Volkswagen Jetta. They all like to listen to old songs from their childhood as well as music from their favorite artists. Families, as well as friends, love watching Netflix shows and talk about their favorite characters. The show that the family likes to watch the most is the Ellen show and the friends love to watch gossip girl or vampire diaries.  

I have more in common with my customer avatar that are friends. They enjoy taking road trips as well as watching shows on Netflix and listening to the current pop charts. I don't collect magic bands but I do like to buy them. I don't think its a coincidence that I have things in common with my avatars because I also enjoy going to Disney and doing all the things listed above. 

Assignment 17A

Assignment 17A- Elevator Pitch No.2

The feedback I received from my last elevator pitch was very helpful. One of the comments I received was that my lighting was very dark as well as I kept looking down on my computer. I also received a comment saying that they would like to include an example of how the product might help the customer. It didn't surprise me to get this feedback because I agree that my lighting was not the best. I also agree that maybe by making the pitch more relatable to the costumer they will grasp the product more. 

What I changed from my last pitch was mainly my lighting and location situation. I think its clearer to see me now. I also made an effort to memorize my pitch, that way I didn't have to look down on my computer.