What's Next?

Existing Market

My current market is homeowners in their 30s who find themselves lost when dealing with a broken appliance (they don’t know whether to fix or replace an item).

After conducting three interviews with people in my target market, I have realized that my next steps would be to develop a clean and user-friendly way of organizing all of the features that the app offers. When first listening to the idea, interviewees are quite satisfied with everything the app has to offer but are just concerned with the complexity of it all. They want to ensure that it is clear and easy to use, doesn’t take long to get the hang of, and really saves people time.

In terms of growing in my existing market, it will be critical that I am able to create an easy-to-understand way of displaying all of the benefits, so that it is appealing to the potential customers. They need to know that they are truly saving time and money by using this alternative. Not only will creating the app in this manner be key, but also promoting it in a way that forms customer loyalty.

New Market

Given my current market is targeted to more tech savvy individuals (millennials), a radically different market to reach out to will be the older generation that may not be so tech inclined. They may see great value in the app but could feel intimidated with the way it is presented. Additionally, given the pandemic, older individuals are more at risk, so this virtual side of the app could be of great interest. I also think that as the app becomes more popular in the US, a new market to reach could be other second or third world countries. This, of course, would be very much in the future (5 years ahead).

After conducting interviews with senior individuals, I found that their initial reaction was to reject the idea. They tend to run away from things that sounds too technical or complicated from a software/technology standpoint. They wanted to understand how the system would distinguish between a repair or replacement, and also struggled with the idea of having to take a picture (how do I know I took the picture correctly, one person asked).

Once further explaining the concept, interviewees were in agreement that the app would solve a huge problem, especially with everything going on in the world. One senior from Miami said that she would need my help learning how to use it, but that she liked the idea. Another senior said that we should offer a phone number to call that could quickly connect them to a handyman so they could explain the problem directly to them. He said he was more comfortable talking on the phone than doing it through the app.

Reflection

I think that with the responses I got, it is clear that this new alternative market could have some potential. It would have to be positioned in a different way, so that it attracts the new type of customer. Maybe creating two versions of the app, one that is really simple and only has three buttons, and the real more complex version. The simplified version would have the following buttons: Call, Rent, Upload Picture/video. This way it will be very easy to use. All they have to do is click the call button, explain the problem, and upload a picture/video of their broken appliance and a representative will send someone over. If they opt for the ‘do it yourself’, then they click the rent button to get the tools/parts they need, as well as a person who will guide them in the process virtually.

That being said, I believe that promoting to this new market will be quite costly and I would much rather focus on my original stereotypical customer. While I was not surprised with the responses I got, it did provide some insight on how I could potentially sell to that new market (I came up with the simple app method).