Adaptability
After an initial period of selling, Austin changed the way in which he branded his product. In the Week 3 Discussion, you introduced your Value Proposition. Now you are going to take this to the next level.
Use the Assumptionator PowerPoint Tool in your Weekly Materials to reexamine your previous assumptions about your product or service. Then answer the questions below:
- What are the key actions you need to take to deliver your Value Proposition to your Customers?
- What have you done to test your Value Proposition?
- What will you do if it turns out that your original Value Proposition is not resonating with your Customers?
NOTE: Refer back to your previous Discussions to help you with this week’s topic.
Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.
Adapting Your Idea
An entrepreneur’s initial idea is just that: a starting point. Important factors that impact the brand as it evolves are industry trends, consumer demands, and input from investors and partners. This week, in the Tio case, Austin talks about how he refined and adapted his idea to the point where his business plan would appeal to a large, global funding partner such as General Mills.
Whether you are an intrapreneur or entrepreneur, it is very beneficial to develop your own business plan. This tool enables you, the innovator, to systematically work through the challenges and requirements for building your business or venture. It covers such topics as opportunity and threats, company or team structure, financial support, resources needed, marketing and branding, and many more.
This week you will:
- Learn how to analyze your idea and adapt it to the market
- Understand the benefits of writing a Business Plan
- Explore your assumptions to identify needed adaptation
Tio Gazpacho: Adapting the Product to Market
The move from early adopters to reach a broader market is a challenge for any new product. Initially Austin envisaged his product as a functional beverage, to be displayed alongside juices and coconut waters. He believed that his customers wanted a healthy, organic drink in a single-serve bottle and would pay accordingly.
By the time his business gained funding support from General Mills, Austin’s thinking had shifted significantly. Tio was now branded as a meal replacement, designed to satisfy hunger, not thirst; therefore, it was displayed with other food items. He let go of the idea of an organic product, since it made his product too expensive to compete. Instead, he promoted Tio as a healthy, tasty, and convenient single-serve meal option. Refining his product idea required Austin to have an open mind and be willing to reconsider his assumptions
1 classmate to respond to
Dear Dr. A And Fellow Classmates,
The key actions needed to deliver the value proposition to the customers.
The key actions are being done at the moment on the herd maintenance end of the company (Byers, 1) by doing their quarterly stool testing, medicating them with the proper external and internal dewormers. While still developing property the CEOs can start evangelist the alpacas at state fairs, introduce themselves to the local 4-H clubs (Kawasaki, 2). The CEOs need to start identifying the valuable alpaca fiber that has been collected in the past couple of years and decide on a reputable textile factory to turn it into yarn to sell and to make ends products for myself and customers (Kawasaki, 2, p.92).
The testing that has been done on the value proposition
The customer/pet-loving audience has been tested on my personal Instagram and Facebook pages had great sharing and liking on both social media platforms (Sutton, 3). The CEOs also does local herd maintenance and shearing in the alpaca and llama communities which they do word-of-mouth marketing for us on social media community boards which, occasionally sends people to contact us on herd issues (Heyward, 4, p.4).
The adaption will be taking if the original value proposition does not resonate with the customers.
The arts and crafters (Byers, 1) are not satisfied with the quality of the micron counts from our herd (Alpaca, 5.) two solutions could happen can stop selling yarn to the public and have it all processed at the textile factory into end products that resellers can move faster for me (Kawasaki, 2, p. 92). Lastly, starting to find out the deficiencies in the alpacas (such as minerals, low protein levels) and finding proper pellet feed to enhance their fiber to meet customers needs. If there is lacking knowledge in certain areas for the CEOs that are not known by most alpaca owners the CEOs will have to do more research and discussing with a proper educational institution or, may have to hold a seminar on the topic at Boomer Ranch LLC (Kawasaki, 2, p. 198).
References
- Byers Breanne. July 21, 2021. JWI 575: Week 3 Discussion. Results:
- Kawasaki Guy. 2015. The Art of the Start 2.0. Portfolio/Penguin.
- Sutton Mary-Rose. June 10, 2021. What is Product Development? Learn The 7-Step Framework Helping Businesses Get to Market Faster. Results:
- Heyward Emily. July 23, 2020. So You Want To Be An Entrepreneur? Results: Harvard Business Review.
- Alpaca Owners Association Inc. 2021. Alpaca Fiber. Results:
2nd classmate to respond to
Hi all,
Please see the following week 6 DQ post.
What are the key actions you need to take to deliver your Value Proposition to your Customers?
In order to deliver my value proposition, the following key actions will need to be taken:
1. Obtain Human Resources It will be vital to the success of the business that we are able to identify sales and analytics resources to effectively obtain customers and deliver the services. Importantly, these resources must possess the key competencies and values that will be required to be a part of a start up business. In addition, developing these team members will be a critical component to long term success and ensuring we are able to leverage design thinking along every step of the customer interaction (Toka, 1).
2. Develop a marketing plan In order to persuade customers and sell my product, it will be crucial to develop a robust marketing plan that leverages storytelling and empathy (Godin, 2). Primarily, the marketing plan should be able to underscore product differentiation and value as these are key elements to evangelizing (Kawasaki, 3). Ultimately, I believe this can be completed initially through social media in order to target the defined customer segment. Im setting an initial target to obtain 20 customers within the first quarter which I believe is conservative enough to workout any issues but also provides an opportunity to gather feedback and test repeatability (JWI, 4)
3. Financing Financing the operation will be critical in order to launch the business. I do believe that I will be able to bootstrap the initial operation as my model requires low-up front capital, focuses on recurring revenue through subscriptions, and maximizing cash flow will be a key focus (Kawasaki, 3). However, once the business grows I will require additional capital to scale and seeking outside equity investment will be necessary (Bussgang, 5).
What Have I Done to Test my Value Proposition?
Testing the value proposition is essential to understand if the business model will have any legs or if will require altering to maximize the utility for customers. To date, Ive completed comprehensive research speaking directly with small businesses, reviewed industry whitepapers and competitive offerings to understand the landscape (Sutton, 6). As a result, there is a high degree of confidence that small businesses are seeking a cost-effective, simple data analytics solution. An important next step will be to develop a prototype to ensure it meets the test of being deep, intelligent, complete, empowering and elegant (Kawasaki, 3).
What will you do if it turns out that your original Value Proposition is not resonating with your Customers?
If the value proposition is not resonating with customers, we will leverage continuous improvement methods to modify the offering to specifically meet the customer needs. As a reminder, a differentiator for my product is to incorporate design thinking along every step of the way which is a customer centric approach to product design (Brown, 7). Further, the entrepreneurial spirit is a vital characteristic of start ups that shouldnt be squandered and I think its prudent to leverage that to be agile and pivot as needed until you have a product that sticks. In other words, well be fearless to try new things and to learn from our failures.
Regards,
Marco
What Is Your Value Proposition?
In this week’s Tio video, Austin talks about his belief in his product as a new type of savory snack meal that could appeal to busy Americans. Here he is discussing his value proposition for the customer segment he serves.
Read the definitions below for Market (Customer) Segments and Value Proposition, and think about how they apply to your new idea:
MARKET (CUSTOMER) SEGMENTS: Defines the different groups of people or organizations an enterprise aims to reach and serve.
VALUE PROPOSITION: Describes the bundle of products and services that create value for a specific Customer Segment.
