25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market. 

I think the next thing for my venture is collaborations with influencers and skincare brands. I would have my team reach out to them to form a sponsorship deal where they promote us in a video or post and we pay them to do so. I would also offer a discount code for their audience. We would also reach out to skincare brands and promote them on our site if they would offer our customers a discount of some sort or some free samples. 

The first person I interviewed thought my venture concept was good and they couldn't really think of anything to do that we weren't planning to do. They think my ideas of involving influencers and brands are great, but hey advised me to only partner with people that truly liked our company and shared our core values. I agreed that this is something we should do. The next person said that we should hire someone to maintain the website and update it, whether that be the person who created it or someone else. They think partnering with influencers and brands is a great way to reach people who might not have otherwise heard of us. The last person I interviewed thought that we would benefit from advertisements on apps like Snapchat or Instagram. They really liked the idea of partnering with influencers. 

After everything is set up- the website is made, people are hired, and basic advertisements are put out, I expect to get some customers. From here, the goal is to increase exposure. I would start with Instagram and Snapchat ads, and move forward with those if they were successful. I don't expect to get a huge customer base quickly, and I know it will take time to build. Either way, once we have a significant following, I plan to reach out to brands first. I would want to start with smaller brands that needed our exposure, and work my way up to partnering with bigger and more well-known brands. 

Next, I would start trying to collaborate with influencers. Like the brands, I would start with people who had a smaller following to test the success of the partnership, and work my way up to collaborating with more popular influencers. I think smaller brands and influencers would be way more willing to collaborate because of their desire for exposure and sponsorships. As a small company, I would be more than willing to help them out , as long as I respected their personal brand and values. This is important to me because our brand is so focused on being welcoming and creating a personal experience for all of our consumers. I would want the people an brands I parter with to really reflect that in their content or products.

New Market.

I think the opposite market from mine is people who do not care about skincare at all. They have no current skincare routine and no real desire to have one. They might not have ever taken care of their skin before, or maybe they had but consider it frivolous or pointless now.

The welcoming nature of my website would draw people's attention. I think from then on I would want to focus on skincare in a way that is clinical and educational. There would be frequent reminders that everyone needs to take care of their skin. In my pictures on the website, I want to use people of all ages, races, etc., to show how diverse skincare is. I plan on constantly trying to reach this market of uninterested consumers to show them how important skincare is. 

The first person I interviewed really admired my venture concept, but said that as soon as they heard it was about skincare, they knew it wasn't for them. When I asked why, they said that they have never given skincare a second thought and that it would take a lot for them to do so. They think my outreach ideas are good, but suggested using experiences of people with preventable yet life altering skin conditions in my ads to sort of scare the customers into taking care of their skin. I know that something like this would probably work for some people but I couldn't really see myself doing it. The second person I talked to was present for my conversation with the first person, and they agreed with them. I told them I was hesitant to use this kind of marketing, and they understood. The second person also mentioned that I could try reaching out to these people directly through targeted advertising on Facebook. I think this would be a good idea of there was a good way to target people who are uninterested in something. 

Step 4:  Reflect, in two to three paragraphs, on what you learned about this new market. What surprised you the most? Were any of your expectations/assumptions correct? Does this new market, on second thought, appear to be as attractive as your existing market? And so on. 

I think what surprised me the most about the people in my new market was their positive attitude and willingness to help me figure out how to appeal to them. Of course, this might have been because they were people who I already knew, and maybe they would have been a little less willing if I had been a stranger. Nonetheless, I was thankful for their participation. I assumed that they might not have a lot of ideas because this is not something they typically think about a lot. I also figured that there wouldn't be much I could do to reach out to them. It is hard trying to get people interested in something they usually wouldn't be.

For this reason, I think the new market is almost more attractive than the existing one. My competitive nature makes me want to fight for their interest, and more importantly, their desire to take care of their skin. I'm really passionate about skincare, and I hope this passion can drive me to get through to the people who aren't so interested. I think maybe I can take some strategies away from my interviews, even though neither of the ideas really appealed to me. I could encourage my customers to tell people who aren't very enthusiastic about skincare to try my service. This is a kind of targeted advertising that I don't think can really be done successfully online. I can also maybe share some statistics about skin cancer or other conditions in my ads. This would be a less graphic and detailed way to accomplish what my first interviewee recommended.