29A

Saving lives one day at a time with the WAVE

Opportunity:

·             The forces that allow this issue to occur in our environment is lack of awareness, taking advantage of people who are not strong enough to defend themselves, and a lot of victims don’t report the incident because they are embarrassed and ashamed.

·             This market can be anywhere geographically people get kidnapped/ sex trafficking all over the world. Demographically it is usually young adults being used for sex trafficking but people can be kidnapped for a variety of reasons which leaves the demographics pretty open.

·             There really isn’t a satisfactory solution for this need. There are some alert techniques but I don’t know how valuable they are to actually stop people from getting kidnapped. It is hard to prevent unless the person is aware of their surroundings.

·             This opportunity is a huge one because finding a product that could help catch kidnappers and find the people who are kidnapped is a big deal. This is usually a very difficult situation but with my product, you could help the situation from escalating and rescue the person.

·             This window of opportunity is open right now and will probably be open for a while because kidnapping is a continuous thing that happens all over the world.

Innovation:

·             This product is a piece of jewelry (ring) that has a secret button on it that you push when you are in danger.

·             The way it works is by sending a signal with your location to all of your emergency contacts and first responders. Once they have your location they can track you to the location and rescue you without the kidnapper even knowing that you sent a message to be rescued.

·             The way this product will be sold is in two different ways. This can be sold to parents to get for their kids or adults can purchase it for themselves. Payment can either be a flat out payment of $300 or it could be a payment plan. It also depends on how long you plan on using the product for example on vacations, a certain amount of months, or years.

Venture Capital:

·             Customers would switch to this product because it will have several designs for different personality types or for males and females. The appearance will be sleek and it will be small so it doesn’t annoy you or draw attention. The point is for it to blend in and not be spotted out. It will not be hard to switch because they could do a payment plan if they wanted or just pay a flat fee.

·             The competitor is called the NIMB. However, my product is a better version because more people can use the product and it will be smaller, sleeker, and have a better appearance. There is also two payment options instead of just one.

Price points:

·             I will try to make the price less expensive than competitors but just expensive enough to make a profit. Since it helps with safety I feel that it can be priced a higher price.

Packaging:

·             The packing will be modern and will focus on the dangers of kidnapping and sex trafficking. I want to include motivational quotes and pastel colors so that it draws people’s attention. In addition to this, I want the packaging to be small rather than big. Because it is a piece of jewelry I feel that I can make the packaging very elegant and modern. I don’t want the colors to be too strong so I feel that pastel will be better for a sensitive topic. 

Distribution:

·             I will start in college towns where there are many young adults to spread the word. Then I would like to start distributing to parents and other businesses who like the idea.

Customer service:

·             Since this company is extremely important and saves lives customer service will be 24 hours because if the product doesn’t work then it will not save people from dangerous situations. I will have many customer services operators that will learn scripts and help people with activating the product and any issues that occur.

 Unfair advantage:

·             Sex trafficking and kidnapping are very sensitive topics in our society so to have connections with police and publicity will help this product's success tremendously.

 What's next?

·             I want safety to become a norm in our society and hopefully one day everyone will have fashionable jewelry that can send out alert warnings.

 For me:

·             I want to find a new business idea that can help people in a different way. I think that saving lives is important but I would be open to other sensitive topics in society and to look into ideas to help this process.

Feedback:

All of my feedback was positive. One person commented that “Great job going into depth on this assignment specifically on the forces that cause the issue, the ways the product is sold, and the description of customer service. “They also explained how we had similar ventures because they were both aiming to save more lives. Since all of my feedback was positive I decided to read through my venture concept and analyze what I can do to improve it. Looking through I noticed a few grammatical errors, although some sections were in depth. I felt that I needed to add more in a few sections to give the audience a better understanding.

 What I added:

I added on to the packaging section just to give the audience a better idea of what kind of product this is and show how I would like to present it to others. I feel the packing can make this product exclusive if I make it elegant and modern.