25A - What’s Next?

25A - What’s next? 

Existing Market

In terms of expanding my existing service, I believe something to look to consider in the future is adding useful features in exchange for higher monthly subscription rates. In the future, some of the higher subscription tiers could include special benefits to help make a user’s life easier, such as including a weekly or biweekly meal prep kit box that would be delivered to the users door. While our initial offering already simplifies our app users’ lives tremendously, this meal prep box would do that even more so, as it would cut out the need for customers to have to decide on their own what to purchase at the grocery store or even go altogether, save for some perishable goods, like milk or meat for instance. 

Upon asking my potential customers what they would want to see in the future, the first individual stated that they would would like for us to expand past an app on a smartphone ad actually design and launch the same app for smart watches, like the Apple Watch. Another discussed having a feature that would enable us to predict what they would want for the following week’s meals based on their preference history and then have a service that would then proceed to order those ingredients for them on a food delivery app like Instacart. The third person stated that they would like for us to rollout food options based on the time of year, season, and if there happens to be a holiday that day; they also discussed having a repeated delivery of ingredients for the customer to prepare a meal with. 

Coupling my initial thoughts and prediction with my potential customer’s responses, it’s quite clear to me that if my initial service launch proves successful, I should really consider expanding into meal delivery kits. In accordance to how much my target demographic appreciates personalized experiences, these meal kits will be ultra-customizable, with options to have them sent on a regular basis based off of the customer’s established meal preferences and needs at the time. Beyond that, I should also consider expanding the app and service to offer smart watch functionality and feature limited time recipes based on the time of year in question. 

New Market

Up to now, I had only fully considered the young adult demographic when brainstorming my product offering. However, upon further thought and closer inspection, it’s clear to me that there is a clear opportunity to also target old consumers, specifically, those over the age of 60. While my service would enable and empower young people to cook provided their limited resources, in this case, my service would assist this demographic of older people by requiring less time and effort in the kitchen. Naturally, as one ages, one slowly begins to have less energy and physical capabilities. Often times, older people must have food either prepared for them by family members or caretakers or even have food delivered to them on a recurring daily basis from a local restaurant or catering company. 

Naturally, many people in this target market are not very comfortable with using digital apps due to sheer lack of experience and exposure to them as a result of their age. As a result, I would consider launching either a special app for those that are older in age or option an in-app option to make it more palatable for them to use. For instance, this alternate version could have larger text, simpler and more thorough instructions, and perhaps an option to have extended guidance as well. Beyond that, there is the potential for this market to simply partake in the food/ingredient delivery component of the business rather than engaging in the full service offering, as most of these individuals likely already have extensive food preparation experience, a lack of exposure to digital apps, and could have no interest in the full service functionality. A relative or loved one could also order a subscription or schedule recurring deliveries on the older person’s behalf. as well. 

While interviewing two people from this new potential target market, it was abundantly clear that the two of them had no interest in using and engaging with a mobile app. The first individual expressed this quite clearly, stating that he would consider solely the food delivery component, so long as it was easy for him to set up and subscribe to. The second person reinforced this idea and went on to say that she would really appreciate having food delivered to her home and would like for there to be an option for one of her loved ones to subscribe to the service for her. 

While taking a closer look at this option, it dawned on me that there is a real potential opportunity to expand the possible food/ingredient delivery component of the business to an older demographic. I was most surprised to learn that they would actually consider subscribing to a recurring service such as the one I have described. My assumption and expectation that they would most likely be either reluctant to engage with the app service or unwilling entirely was correct, as the two individuals I interviewed immediately shut down that idea and it seemed to be out of the question for the vast majority of those in this market, save for some that have more experience with app technology. 

This new market does have some serious potential to prove to be quite lucrative if I expand into the recurring delivery component of the business, however, I still believe that targeting young adults would provide for a higher degree of potential revenue and customers as it would allow for the most engagement and innovative functionality. I would in fact actually look further into targeting this market as a secondary source of revenue further down the line.