What's Next?

Existing Market

Step 1:

After being able to establish a pretty stable clientele, I would divulge further into our brand and mission by selling merchandise. Aside from the basic shirts and decal stickers, some of the merchandise may include accessories that is relevant to our service. Since we are focusing on self-defense techniques, some of the accessories could be key chains that can help aid with aggressors or mace bottles. We are not only focused on selling our brand, but selling our mission.

Step 2:

 I interviewed three of my customers, each of them from different classes I’ve taken on campus and based on the information I gave them on my business venture they seemed to agree with my next steps. Two of them specifically stated that I should divulge into having a greater online presence. I was originally relying on word-of-mouth with gathering up customers, but once the business begins to boom some more marketing our mission and brand will definitely be integral in putting the word out. I myself was hoping to maintain a cost-free marketing streak, but if it comes down to it and the business grows big enough I could buy a domain name, create a website, and potentially hire some brand ambassadors while I’m at it.

Step 3:

Upon interviewing these customers, it seems that I have done a decent job aligning my expectations with theirs. Albeit our specific expectations were a bit different, better marketing for the future seemed to be the common theme. I was thinking about tangible marketing, with selling T-shirts, key chains, decals, and mace bottles. They were more focused on maintaining and even upping our online presence through a user-friendly website, potentially a downloadable app, as a means to get the word out on a vaster scale.

New Market

Step 1:

I am currently targeting a very specific demographic, women between the ages of 17-30 living urban areas. A completely different market I could potentially target could be transgender individuals, whether they be men or women. This is an entire demographic of individuals that exhibits the same fears as my original market and could also greatly benefit from it.

Step 2:

What’s nice about this service is that although I specifically catered it to women and women of color, it can apply to people outside of that spectrum. Transgender individuals suffer from the very same fears as these aforementioned women. Therefore, there won’t be a need for many changes to incorporate this group of individuals. The crisis management education portion of these workshops will remain the same, but some of the self-defense techniques will have to change depending on the gender being taught. Differences in the physical body along with other anatomical features could be a game changer in teaching how to defend yourself against an aggressor.

Step 3:

I interviewed two individuals who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community and they are both transgender. They transitioned from a female body to a male one. Both interviewees had similar responses to my business venture. They both are still relatively new in their transitions and only started taking their respective hormones when they were in high school. They had an interesting perspective based on their previous experience as women. They both thought this business venture could help a lot of marginalized groups and were all for me expanding to other demographics. They both did mention that they remember having this fear more fervently when they were in their woman state. They do not feel that fear as much especially around people who do not know there are transgender men. Although it is still there, because hate crimes against transgender individuals is still very much alive, and most of the time they want their identity to be protected. In terms of shaping the business to better cater them, they would not want it to be advertised to the whole world as a means to protect the customers and business from potential hate crimes.

Step 4:

I never really thought about that way, but society is still very mixed on their opinion about transgender individuals. Most people are very confused about it and do not feel the need to protect these individuals. They seemed like the perfect demographic, different from my original one, that could still benefit from this service. I did not realize that there is a part of this market that wants their identity to be protected. In fact, advertising this service publicly to transgender individuals takes away from the safeness of this venture. It really opened my eyes to the different issues going on outside of women. Therefore, I think it might be a bit more difficult to explore this new market especially nowadays. Who knows how things will change in the foreseeable future.