Idea Napkin No. 2

Who you are- I am Eric Frank and I am graduating from the University of Florida in May with a degree in business administration. I will be starting dental school in July. I have experience in the food industry as I had a summer internship working pricing and sales for the largest privately owned food importer in the country. I understand what goes into the food industry and the logistics behind making sure you have the best food quality possible. If I were to truly start this business, it would have to be my number one priority and be a big part of my life.

What are you offering to customers- My idea is to open a grocery store where groceries are randomly given out for free to encourage more people to shop at the store. Originally I thought every 50 customers was a good number, but through the peer reviews I am starting to think that maybe every 100 customers is a better idea. I will still make sure that the food is of great quality, and with all else being equal to the top grocery stores in town, I think customers will choose my store for the chance of winning free food.

Who are you offering it to- Since everyone buys groceries this is pretty much useful for anyone. I think this store will be popular in college neighborhoods because students are always looking for the best deals. However, after thinking about it more I feel as though the store will be most popular for the people buying large amounts of groceries such as parents who are shopping for their families. If people are spending 150 dollars at the grocery store, I believe they will choose my store because there is a chance they won't have to pay anything. 

Why do they care- Customers will choose my store because there is a small chance that they do not have to pay anything. If my store is next to a Publix and I make sure that the food quality and customer service is the same, I expect the customers to choose my store just because there is a chance at free groceries.

What are your competencies- It is obvious what will set my store apart from other grocery stores. We just have to develop a system of randomly generating who wins to make sure people are not taking advantage of the system. At the end of the day, one in every 100 people will get free groceries, however, it will be randomly scattered throughout the day so people can't count themselves.

Summary

I think these aspects fit together. The toughest part is to make sure that the quality of food and prices match everyone else. This plan will only be successful if all else is equal or better. I think people will really like shopping at the store and if they win once they will be a guaranteed customer in the future because they know that they can actually win. I would have to do more research, but I am confident that the amount of customers we bring in will off-set the cost of giving away free groceries. We will have to make rules such as not being allowed to return items at the cashier just because you don't win. We will also have to develop a random generator to make sure the winners are random and consistently 1/100 customers. When doing my interviews for the other assignments people had their concerns about this plan. If I want to make it successful I need to sell the idea in a better way for people to understand and to take their feedback seriously.

Feedback Memo: I did not change a whole lot from my first Idea Napkin assignment. The feedback was generally positive and they seemed to like the idea, at least better from when I first introduced it. The main thing I changed was who I am targeting. I explained above how I used to think college students was the perfect group of people to target, but now I think parents shopping for their whole family is a much profitable market to focus on.