Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
You are now Justin Jenkins, Owner/CEO of The Founding Collegians. You have received a bunch of good feedback from your target market (thanks!). What do you do now? What is the first step/thing you would do with the input from yesterday’s blog? How would you prioritize the inputs? How would you rationally go about considering what to implement given the limited resources Justin has available to him?
Our class assignment next week in ENTR200 involves opportunity analysis - are any of the comments posted in yesterday’s blog opportunities as defined in the text?
For those who plan to die with millions in the bank (or race Porsches or S4s-if you’re TJ
), think Mind Maps to sort through the comments. Look here for background info on Mind Maps, and here for software to support mind mapping. There’s a five points bonus for each TEAM (one map per team, 5 point bonus for each team member) who sends me a link to a Mind Map they have prepared based on yesterday’s blog comments, prior to 0900 next Tuesday. Amaze me! 
Hank (Some fun below 
; I had a face lift!)
21 Responses to “Put Yourself In Justin’s Shoes”
- 1 Trackback on Nov 23rd, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I would skim the information for advice or commentary that is helpful and specific. for example, if someone gave him an idea for a new project or an improvement for and excising one, that is info i would use. The comments that compliment the idea an nicce, but they are not useful.
I would read through the comments and decide what could be useful and what is not. I would take the useful tips and create something even better than what was suggested.
If I got great feedback from my target audience I would print out the blog entries and go through each comment individualy. I would then look for patterns to see if more than one person had the same comment as someone else. This would show popularity and make it easier to prioritize the comments. Then once I know which ones are useful to me I would then implement them for a trial period into my business.
I basically agree with those who have posted before me. it would seem to be most benficial to just skim through the posts and judge what could be useful and what could be disregarded. If numerous people claim something about my product, it might be something to look into, whereas if only one persons posts a complaint or compliment about the product, it would be noted, but not made into one of my first priorities.
With all the great comments and the helpful suggestions I would just skim the responses for something useful such as new ideas or ideas on how to improve sales and marketing. With all the responses there would be no way of using everything but trying to improve the site could be something to look for. As for the negitive comments even if they were small could be taken into consideration but not necessarily looking for them because then again it is their idea and not everyone elses.
I would skim the comments and group suggestions into general categories of main ideas (ie, “Website design”, “Product ideas”, “Marketing”, etc). Then I would try to prioritize the suggestions within the categories based on how they fit in with the business plan. For example, if there is currently not enough revenue to finance adding more products to the line, then the ideas for the branded cups and ping-pong balls would probably go near the bottom to be considered when there is enough funding. Comments for website design or organization would probably go near the middle; it’s not an immediate necessity, but a well-designed professional looking website is more likely to generate sales than a website that looks like it’s not quite legit. Marketing would be the first priority of the general categories. I would then decide which method (flier-ing, ad in the Exponent, etc) would be the most cost effective and most lucrative and go from there.
Also, because I’m paranoid about the legal system, I would set up some way to at least attempt to limit sales to those 21 and over. Although selling beer pong racks isn’t the same as selling alcohol outright, it could be interpreted as encouraging minor consumption if minors were buying them. In order to do this, I might talk with one of my lawyer friends to see how I should go about it.
I would read the comments and as people said before go through the comments and see if any can be done on very little money. If so do those and go up the line and make changes that would benefit the company and make a larger profit.
I read some intersting comments here and Katie’s made me think about the branded balls and cups. Hank said that Justin has limited ressources and well yeah, it’s obvious that means Justin doens’t have a lot of money. So I looked up on the internet and found one company that makes branded cups and minimum order is 10.000 cups with a total cost of about 1000 dollars, the more expensive ones go up to 5000 dollars. So if Justin can spare a grand or two, he might be able to buy some cups and sell a pack of ten for 3-4 bucks or sonthing. Otherwise same thing Katie said: cups and balls low priority… atleast untill Justin makes some dough and he invests that money in new merchandise.
PS I couldn’t find any site/company that makes custom/branded ping pong balls… perhaps a hole in the market?
I would take a while, but hes going to have to sift through all the information to find the good stuff. I would especially look for suggestions about how to make the product better, and if any way possible to make them cheaper.
I think that I would look for critisims about how the product was being presented
and figure out how the best way to make imporvements to the site was. Since the
site is how I would be marketing and selling the product, I would try to make it as
appealing and user friendly as possible. I say this because it doesn’t matter how
good your product is if people don’t know about it or can’t figure out how to purchase
it.
All what I’ve read have been good comments, and I would like to make reference to Janam’s comment. Justin would not have to “spare” a grand or two, but simply reach his audience. With close to 40,000 students at Purdue, and about half being of age to play a game such as beer bong, you’re looking at around 15,000-18,000 students. Now all Justin has to do is raise his capital needed to get the word out about his company. All he needs is to give his target market an incentive to donate .25-.50 cents, now you’re looking at a starting capital of around $8000. The incentive I would give would be to give back to them. Maybe Boiler Beer Bong Balls at a football game or something of the sort. As Ben W. states, “It doesn’t matter how good your product is if no one knows about it.” I think Justin has a wide range of choice to choose from because he’s definitely found a perfect niche.
I would first take note to all of the similarities and start working on those. I would test a few different things and see how different people respond to the different products. Judging by this, you would be able to find out what would work and what wouldn’t in the long run. In the mean time, I would keep finding different ways to improve my product and make it more appealing.
I read Eric’s comment and I think a Boiler beer pong would be a very good strategy!
With the comments, I would look for criticism…CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Not the ones that just like to show some hate like “Hey Justin, your company skucs coz you went to this frat! And my frat was better than yours!”. And like everyone above me posted I would definitely prioritize them. I would first increase my poster collection, then market it at Purdue(like contests!), make Boiler ping pong balls, market them and so on. It would be about 2 months or so before I get a completely new website because I will not want to change when I have grabbed the attention of a handful of college students. This way, when the customer base is pretty big and they have gotten used to the site, I would revamp the whole thing and market that too. Like “www.thefc.com IS GETTING A MAKEOVER ON 08/28/2007!!! NEW SITE…SAME OL’ PONG!”or something humorous(I’m not a great comedian myself!). I would eventually shift my target audience to the female population using men with athletic bodies and all.
However, the first thing I would do is FIX SOME BROKEN LINKS ALREADY!!!!!
Do we have broken links on the site? If so…please let me know ASAP! Also, great comments again.
Right now we are focusing on the MARKETING side of the business. We have a little over 30k invested thus far in product inventory, research and development, legal fees, start up costs…..the list goes on forever.
We are now to the point where we need to be sure people know this product exists!! How can we get college students to know we exist (method must be financially feasible and responsible….ratio of dollars spent to dollars gained through sales needs to make sense).
How can we maket this in a cost effective way and get 5k plus college aged students to the website for purchase?
Should we host beer pong tournaments at local bars? Should we do give aways at sporting events? Free samples to fraternities and sorrorities?
How about getting samples to college newspapers in the hope that they write a story about us and give us massive free press?
Marketing……..marketing……..marketing. Need to get our product in front of the given “niche” audience.
Great feedback so far! Keep it coming!
Hmmm, that newspaper idea seems good. And I think that The Exponent would definetely do an article about you guys, since you’re Purdue alumni and The Exponent does seem to publish anythin interesting about former Purdue students. And you can always try to contact other university newspapers, especially those of universities that are known to party.
To Eric: I’m not really sure how many students are willing to donate a half a buck, it seems like a too tiny amount to take the effort. And besides pulling out a credit card for a company you’ve never heard about is not something a lot of people would do.
However that thing you said about football gave me an idea. One question: Does our football staium have a huge screen? Maybe if Justin can convince the people who control the big screen to put up a free ad on it, just as a favor since Justin and his friend were such enthusiastic Purdue students (and if needed Justin could give them a free rack or two). Now this would spread the word to a lot of people, NOT just Purdue fans but fans of the away team as well. It’s just an idea and Justin did say let’s try to make marketing as effective as possible. This could be really effective. What better place is there to advertise than on a big screen in front of thousands of people?
Oh and another thing. I read some comments saying the beer pong constitution poster may not be such a good idea because every college,frat,… has their own rule. Maybe you could sell custom made constitutions? I don’t know how much a poster would cost to make, but here’s the idea: you show people on the site what your constitution looks like. Then you give them the option to change whatever they want. That way everyone can have a constitution that satisfies them. And if needed, you could ask for a small extra fee.
I think the most beneficial thing for the owners to do is to read through the comments and fabricate a list of things to improve on, feedback from college students and things that they are doing well so that they can continue using these marketing techniques. This could ultimately benefit the company because as feedback continues to come in they can realize common trends and make changes based on the data collected.
Gathering from all the comments that have been posted I would say that your marketing could use some work. You have the right idea though. The idea of hosting beer pong tournaments in bars is great. Giveaways are always a nice way of getting some good PR especially on college campuses. Maybe take out an ad in the exponent once you’ve developed some new products.
Personally I would sell the product personally to campus stores like University bookstore, discount den and maybe you can put the Purdue logo on it (not sure if their are legal implications).
You’d be surprised how far talking to a few students about your product can go. News travels fast if you find the right avenues to sell your product. Maybe even go out one day to the bars and showcase your product and try to sell it to some people passing by.
Sometimes its the little things that take you far.
I believe the owners should sift through all of the responses they have gotten from the students, and make a list of the things that were believed to be good, as well as the things that would need improvement.
They should market more, like giving special discounts to Purdue students (to get the ball rolling) who would then tell their friends about the product. Getting out to the stadium when people are coming in for football games would be excellent marketing. Even just setting up outside some of the bookstores or shops around campus would draw the attention of the people who show up for football games and go shopping for Purdue apparel. That would help attract more customers than just Purdue students, and the idea may catch on more quickly.
I would prioritize my findings from our comments into areas of the business that need the most development and improvement. Obviously, it sounds like marketing is the issue most in question here. If I were Justin, I would have a brainstorming session using some of their original ideas, our ideas, and possibly bring in more Purdue students to add to the small-scale think-tank. This is a great way to get started in my opinion, and I believe some really creative and effective ideas could be born outside of the mainstream stand-bys of marketing/advertising especially at a college campus market like Purdue. I really thing the college dynamic adds to the marketing possibilities. Lets also keep in mind that Purdue is just one campus in their entire target market which is potentially all college students in the nation and possibly elsewhere. In my opinion, a very strong online effort is a key to their marketing success. Tap into the college culture online.
As far as his financial limitations, I feel it simply comes down to projected return compared to projected input. This step will probably take a little research.
Nirmala’s idea about the beer pong tournament is amazing. I also think that marketing the
product to us college drunkards more heavily would produce tremendous results. I had never
heard about a commercial rack or any other commercially produced pong products. But now that I
have, I want them all. More people know about these products, more people give feedback and
more profit is produced. Seriously, I’ve heard of these products once and am fully prepared to
buy one of everything.