Assignment 4

Beginning point: I have a supposition that an opportunity exists.

Describe your belief: The unmet need is that people buy or own several home exercise apparatus but there isn’t a sleek, compact, and organized way to store them. The people that would have the need are those that exercise or who are thinking about exercising at home and enjoy a tidy/pleasant looking environment.

Currently, people generally purchase apparatus as needed rather than in a bundle. They leave them in a box, basket, drawer, closet or maybe they have a shelving unit that takes up more space. The need has always existed, but maybe people don’t think of a better solution for compactness/continuity or think the benefits don’t justify the potential costs. I was thinking about a step-up or plyometric box that had compartments to fit some of the most common apparatus in (e.g. pushup handles, medicine ball, etc.).

There could be a step-up/plyometric box that has all the apparatus included as a bundle for the new home exercisers. Everything would match; therefore, one wouldn’t have to take multiple trips to purchase each apparatus as needed, and the continuity of brand/color would be more visually appealing. Or there could one that simply has empty compartments for those that already own exercise apparatus to put their stuff in. I am about 30% sure that this opportunity exists.

Mid-twenties male.

-        Do you consider yourself an organized or neat person? I do not consider myself organized or neat in any sort or fashion.

-        Do you own any exercise apparatus (e.g. pushup handles, medicine ball, etc.)? I have a few items; pushup handles, pullup bar, medicine balls, and dumbbells.

-        Do you have all of your apparatus from the same company? What color(s) do your apparatus have? No, they are not from the same company. They are black, white, and red.

-        Did you intentionally color coordinate your equipment? I didn’t intentionally color coordinate, I just picked whatever I like that was available that was the best value.

-        Do you care about having your apparatus from the same brand or with similar color? Not for workout equipment, maybe for other things such as tools or gaming equipment. Only for technical things or things that I really care about. I’m more of a functional over form person.

-        How/where do you currently store your apparatus? In the closet.

-        Are you satisfied with your solution? Do you feel that there could be a better way to organize your stuff? I’m satisfied with my current solution. Everything has its own spot, it’s not just thrown in there for the most part.

-        If there were a better way to organize your apparatus, would you consider evaluating or purchasing the product? In my current situation and with the amount of space I have, I have everything I want assorted accordingly. But in a different circumstance (e.g. more stuff in the same amount of space OR same amount of stuff in less space), I would be interested if it were necessary. I’m a fan of compartmentalizing, grouping things together rather than every single item having its own place.

-        You said you’re a fan of compartmentalizing. In the right circumstance, would you be interested in a plyometric jump box that was bundled with the most common apparatus and had compartments to store all of your apparatus in a more compact fashion? I’m not interested or disinterested, I would purchase it if the circumstance requires it and I deem it 100% necessary. I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase just to maybe have a better option for organization. However, peer pressure and rave reviews from friends may make the product seem more “necessary” even if I don’t require it, but the product would be proven to work making it not so much of a risk.

I would purchase the plyometric box bundled with the apparatus if I didn’t have any prior apparatus. I see the value differently there.

Reflection: Key takeaway: my idea would probably be best suited as a bundle for a new home exerciser rather than having a product with hollow compartments. People may already have organizations of things that they are keen to, and they don’t want to mess up the organization that they already have. There can also be a learning curve from where you used to put something and if you put it somewhere else, which I’m sure most of us can relate to. Being organized/neat can have a different meaning between different people. I consider this person to be organized, but he didn’t consider himself to be. Word of mouth would also be very important, esp. with social media and with a direct-to-consumer business model.

University senior, female.

-        Do you consider yourself an organized or neat person? Sometimes. Usually more for responsibilities like school. Not so much for personal.

-        Do you own any exercise apparatus (e.g. pushup handles, medicine ball, etc.)? Currently, only a few dumbbells, which is located in the laundry room. I want to buy more if I have the money when I move out on my own.

-        Did you purchase the dumbbells yourself or did someone else? My father did.

-        In the future, when you expect to purchase more apparatus when you move out, do you think you’ll purchase them from the same company and with similar colors to color-coordinate, or will you simply go for whatever’s cheapest? Probably the former.

-        Where do you think you would store those apparatus? If I can afford it, I'd really like to have a small gym room. If not, maybe in the corner of the bedroom or a little corner dedicated to it.

-        Would you care about the arrangement of the stored apparatus? I.e. would you take care to organize them in a certain fashion or would you pile them up or throw them somewhere and just dig through them later for whatever you needed? Organized. I don’t think I’d enjoy picking out every weight to get to that one thing at the bottom and have to put everything back.

-        Assuming that you don’t have any prior exercise apparatus when moving, would you consider evaluating and/or purchasing a step-up or plyometric jump box that bundled with common exercise apparatus? The step-up or jump box would have storage compartments to store all of the included apparatus. Yeah, sure. Especially if it came cheaper bundled and I was on a budget.

-        Would there a difference in your answer for the last question depending on whether you had the whole gym room or just a corner available? (e.g. maybe with the full room, you wouldn’t feel the need to have such a compact unit, but with only a corner, you would.) Depends probably. If it was cheaper than buying all the common things individually, I'd still probably get it just for the items rather than the purpose of compact storage. If I didn’t have much room, I'd more likely buy it. If it's more expensive than buying all the items individually and I'd have a whole gym room, then I probably won’t.

Reflection: Some people may prefer purchasing the product for price rather than functionality. This person is a college student so maybe college students could be considered a demographic that would focus more on price. The product could be marketed more as a compact storage unit or as a cheaper bundle that includes everything (color-coordination would just be an extra benefit) depending on the demographic.

Male college freshman.

-        Do you consider yourself an organized or neat person? I consider myself to be a little more organized than most, but I am a slob at times.

-        Do you own any exercise apparatus (e.g. pushup handles, medicine ball, etc.)? I do not have any exercise equipment mostly because it’s very expensive. Going to a gym is worth it. By going to the gym, you have access to a wide variety of equipment that can benefit you more.

-        Do you go to a university gym or an independent gym somewhere else? Maybe both? I prefer going to a gym outside of the university because it has a better environment.

-        What’s wrong with the environment at the university gym? What does the independent gym do better than the university gym? The university gym is too laid back with very few people there (at least when I go). It’s too quiet and there aren’t machines that I want to use. The gym I mainly go to has a ton of people that are filled with energy to get bigger or stronger. The workers are friendly and know their stuff. It overall has better equipment and much better competition.

-        Would you say the gym is organized with their equipment? Do the people put back things where they’re supposed to go? In the one I go to, most of the time it’s neat. Everyone puts the weights back but sometimes it can get messy.

-        You said earlier that you didn’t exercise at home because of the cost of equipment. If cost wasn’t an issue, would you consider exercising at home or would you prefer going to the gym? That’s kind of tricky for me. If cost wasn’t an issue, I would definitely be working out at home but for me I would probably go to the gym once in a while. Working out alone can be boring and distracting. It really depends on what I would be feeling that day.

-        Would you stick with a similar form of training from the gym with barbell or dumbbell movements and just do them at home instead of at the gym or would you do other exercises such as bodyweight exercises with pushup bars, core sliders, bands, etc.? Me personally, I like sticking to the gym equipment as much as possible. I will only do bodyweight exercises if I have to.

     Reflection: Even though this person would not have been a prototypical customer since he doesn’t work out at home and he most likely values the gym more than working out at home due to current price comparisons, I still learned a lot from this interview and therefore including it. I learned that another market of my idea could be the gyms rather than just direct B2C. However, gyms have larger amount of space so maybe there’s less of a concern about using the gym’s space effectively. Also, the gym would have to have some sort of functional fitness area for the idea I have, it wouldn’t probably work for heavier dumbbells, just simple exercise apparatus such as pushup bars, core sliders, bands, etc.

Overall reflection: I expected to ask similar questions to all three interviewees, but I had to change the scopes of my questions accordingly to the answers they provided. I have expanded my supposition’s market potential to not include just home exercisers but to gyms as well. Also, I learned that even if people aren’t directly in the market you are looking for, talking with them could still provide valuable information or a different lens to look at something. I realized that perhaps my idea would be more marketable to women rather than men as men may generally have heavier weights at home and would simply simulate exercises they would do in the gym. Women may be a better target market for the step-up/plyometric box since they may do more bodyweight exercises, use more of the simpler exercise apparatus (e.g. core sliders, bands, etc.) and weights that aren’t as heavy such as light dumbbells and wrist/ankle weights.

Surprisingly, I would say that there is an increase in chance that the opportunity exists to 40%. This is because I expanded my horizon after doing these three interviews. I would definitely say that after this exercise, my opportunity is more accurate than when I started.

Additionally, I believe that It’s important to listen to customer feedback and be adaptable as an entrepreneur, but it is important to note that you won’t be able to please everyone unfortunately. One must adapt to new changes in the marketplace (e.g. the transition from analog technology to digital technology) but one shouldn’t constantly switch directions or consumers won’t know what the company’s goal/vision/mission is or what to expect. Perhaps a decent rule of thumb would be to focus on the feedback of the 20% of people that give you 80% of revenue.