29A – Venture Concept No. 2

My Venture Concept 2.0 - Whidbey Coffee:

I am offering a new and innovative coffee selection on the University of Florida campus by opening up a Whidbey Coffee franchise on campus at the University of Florida. Whidbey Coffee is a well-known franchise within the Pacific Northwest. students and faculty. 

Whidbey Coffee offers varying product prices and new coffee products such as Frozen Mochas, Red Bull Spritzers, and more. As well as more seating availability in a relaxing and aesthetic environment. A typical Whidbey Coffee franchise incorporates at least one fireplace, open windows, and different types of seating like couches, chairs, and bar stools. Contrastingly, Starbucks facilities on campus either have no seating or just one to two small tables with little to no room to study, work, or relax. Starbucks has monopolized the prices for coffee on campus, and many individuals have this unmet need for lower prices, seating availability, and coffee variability on campus.

I'm offering this to students and faculty at the University of Florida - encompassing both coffee lovers and individuals who do not enjoy coffee but utilize it for increased productivity as well as a place to study or relax with friends. This would be a target market with individuals ranging from 18 years of age to approximately 45 years of age. All of my customers have location in common, that being the University of Florida campus. There are over 43,000 students at the University of Florida and over 5,000 faculty members.

I can continue to innovate on this company as well as the products and services in several ways. One of which is not only having a location on campus but including scooter parking to attract even more customers and interest. This is not an aspect I had considered previously do to the fact that the Starbucks facilities on campus do not have them. However, that doesn't mean I couldn't or at least strategically place my franchise in an area close to them. Moreover, I can innovate on how we market our business and products by utilizing and capitalizing on local companies and businesses. I can do so by asking to keep flyers, stands, and coffee bags in different and popular local businesses around town - and encourage them to support a young Gator entrepreneur. Moreover, as my company is able to grow later on, I could try and sell coffee bags within Publix stores. 

Secondly, incorporating a loyalty system especially within the first fews months of opening and operations. The loyalty system that the Whidbey Coffee franchise currently has and implements is a stamp card, once you buy 12 drinks you get one free. If you're a frequent coffee drinker or drink one a day, this can go a long way. It's also a much easier and less intimidating system in comparison to the Starbucks rewards program. You also have to spend far more money to receive awards from their program. This is an aspect of the business that I did know about, however; I didn't include it in my pitch or some of my assignments. So prospective customers and colleagues were unaware of my intention to incorporate this same loyalty program within the franchise at the University of Florida.

Lastly, capitalizing on social media platforms when the building begins for this business. Moreover, truly emphasizing the fact that I am a University of Florida student who is going the extra mile to provide ample service and products to the community and competing face-to-face with Starbucks.

My prototypical customer in my customer segment, which I have already identified and researched, is a woman between the ages of 18 and 23 but feels 25 with the stress of adulthood. She is also a student at the University of Florida pursuing an undergraduate degree. However, this age gap encompasses the ages in which students are pursuing their undergraduate degrees and potentially masters. She doesn't work, she has her family's financial stability as support. This woman has light brown long-hair and has a more relaxed look, as indicated below with the avatar wearing a sweatshirt. Although my prototypical customer can also be a male with the same identified characteristics - the female to male ratio at the University of Florida is 56% to 44%. 

After conducting many interviews for my venture concept, I believe the most valuable piece of information that I learned is the specific time in which two out of three of the individuals experienced this need, which is on weekday mornings in between class periods.  Also, it was exceptionally beneficial to ask what their first initial instinct was when they became aware of this need - many of which said either hike off campus or purchase an energy drink instead. I had never considered how many individuals on campus may prefer energy drinks over coffee before. However, the franchise of Whidbey Coffee specializes in a specific drink entitled "Red Bull spritzers" which include flavoring and Red Bull energy drinks.

There is a plethora of knowledge and opinions regarding the opportunity that I was unaware of before. Firstly, the importance of customer experience and atmosphere. Since this franchise would be on the campus of a University, customer atmosphere and seating are just as important as quality of coffee. Secondly, that many people had not tried frozen coffee before. This can be one of our unique and special qualities to sell to potential customers. They also all preferred iced coffee due to the hot weather in Florida, therefore; frozen mocha would be an easier sell. Thirdly, how customers value flavor options. This is a rather easy aspect to incorporate and can add variety in our coffee selection.

Based on what I know about this segment and what I learned when conducting my interviews, I would succinctly describe this segment in terms of the following.

• Alternative evaluation: Customers would rather go off campus to Dunkin' Donuts if they couldn't go to a Starbucks. Customers are less likely to prefer purchasing an energy drink. 
• Purchase decision: Customers within this segment are completing these transactions in-person with either cash or card. For both Starbucks and the alternative options. 
• Post-purchase evaluation: Customers care about location on campus, then quality coffee, then price. Aspects that help them determine is the purchase was a good idea were if it was quality coffee, close to where they needed to be, and if it was a quick purchase.

Feedback from Previous Venture Concept and What's Next Exercises: 

"I love your use of pictures in this blog post; that was really cool, adding an extra element to this post. I think by positioning yourself as a “place for relaxing” with a friendly atmosphere is unique to you on campus. I see this is a big opportunity to steal business from a similar place off-campus like Pascals! Thank you for putting time into this assignment!"

"I love the idea of adding a new coffee shop to campus with this type of relaxing environment. Right now no place like this really exists and you would have to go off campus to get this type of luxury, but it would be nice to have someone to go in between classes to have a coffee and just hang out with friends or study. Great post!"

"Overall, I liked your blog post, however, I have several questions about your new market. When I was reading about a new segment, I wasn’t expecting something so drastic. Are the coffee bags handed out by the car dealers a marketing campaign to sell more coffee? I’m confused if the ideas connect at all. This would be helpful to expound upon this more."

"I love how you want to add a list of a variety of different types of coffees for students that both love coffee and do not can select from. Although I do love Starbucks, you can get the same exact drink whether you are in the UF Library West or in the middle of New York City, so having a cute coffee shop with unique selections would be a nice change. Great Job!"  

Given the feedback I received from my initial venture concept, as shown above, the majority of the feedback was positive. However, a comment I received from my 'What's Next?' assignment as highlighted in the yellow above was eye-opening for me. I hadn't considered selling the franchise's products to other companies around Gainesville or on campus. I think this could be a great way to promote our company name and products especially as we are trying to establish a firm foundation within Gainesville. Therefore, I decided to implement this feedback within my venture concept. I did so by creating a marketing segment within my fourth paragraph which is focused on innovation, as shown above, with more details regarding how and when I would begin marketing the business and products within Gainesville and hopefully one day - outside of Gainesville and beyond.