25A - What's Next?

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market

1.     I think expanding my market to people who suffer from food allergens would be a good next step for my service.

2.     I got a few different responses back for what my business should do next. One of the answers was to make sure that the scannable menu is even marketed to chains that sell sweets. An example they gave was having a day where they want a donut or some ice cream. It is something they would like to track in their MyFitnessPal app easily as well. Without getting to involved in jargon, she explained that many people have a higher calorie intake that can handle a donut or three without ruining their day. Another person added that while its convenient to be able to scan the menu item directly, what if someone wanted to custom the meal. (I.E. Add broccoli substitute instead of French fries), would they have the flexibility to do this. This was a great point and something I would need to try and add on as another app feature.

3.     I am glad I had these interviews because I believe something that I can/would incorporate in the app is the ability to customize the option to calculate for substitutes. I think in order to keep a competitive advantage before other competitors try and jump in would be to do this, so this would need to be added now. Down the line I think expanding my market to reach customers that have food allergens would be smart.

I would offer a scanning tool through the app where you can scan grocery items and the restaurant menu to detect ingredients that you may have an allergen to.

New Market

1.     My new market is anyone 40+ who don’t normally track their food.

2.     I think its important as people get older to try and stay healthy for themselves and their families. Being healthy has many benefits. It keeps them out of the hospital ( lower or fewer medical bills) and gives them longevity. I think tracking their food would just give them the ability to be mindful to be healthy.

3.     I interviewed my parents for this one. My mom always “diets” but never really sticks to it. She is a nurse and is always running around at work. She said if a restaurant offers a scannable menu on their takeout menu that might make it easier to track while she’s at work. She just explained it would have to be very fast and easy for her to navigate through the app to stick with it. My dad on the other hand, wasn’t very interested at all. He has had colon cancer and knows what it is like to not be in good health. However, he said when he eats out its to enjoy his food, not to be health conscious. According to him, there is nothing in the app that would make him want to track his food.

4.     I can’t say I am surprised that a radically different market was not a fan of my app idea. My dad saw no benefit to him because he had no interest in tracking his food. My mom’s answers surprised me a little bit when thinking about including a barcode on even takeout menus. My new market is not as attractive as my existing market, and I wouldn’t switch it or really try to appeal to the different age market or try and convince people who are not interested in tracking food to track now.