On Wednesday's class we were asked to figure out who our market with respect to our ideas and I said it was the people without clean water in India. Well, this is a huge market of about 20-30 million people but these are also the people who cannot afford a clean drinking water solution in the first place. This led to a sort of ambiguity in my mind. Are these people really the market or are the people who can really afford this solution our market? The people in India are definitely those we want the solution to reach to but may not be the ones purchasing our product. A way to tackle this problem is to market it to hikers, trekkers and people who travel to developing countries from the US often. This way when they buy a bottle here in the US they will essentially donate one to someone in need in India or Kenya.
I think you always have to think about this trade off when you are trying to figure out a social venture. How is your product going to reach the people you actually want it to? For example, looking at the Tom's shoes model which is basically donating a show to those in need upon buying one in a store in the US. They knew they wanted to put shoes on people who cannot afford them and then came up with this business model. Sort of a "means to the end" kind of business plan where you are very focussed about your end goal and finding out a way to achieve it is just part of the process.
Thinking about it from another angle is thinking that the product dictates your market. If we build a portable single serve bottle (750ml capacity) we will have to sell it to people in the US in stores to individual hikers and trekkers. Also they get to donate a bottle to a family in need which they will feel very happy about and have a sense of satisfaction. I want to build a system where they get to track their donation and know where they are making a difference in the world. On the other hand if we build a more community oriented solution i.e. a system which purifies about 5-10 gallons at a time it would be a totally different approach of marketing and pricing and selling. Of course it would be portable too but in a different way to the 750ml bottle. You can ship this version easily to different places but cant take it with you in your bag. This option will have to be have to be sold to government agencies, charities, organisations that have employees working in places with lack of clean water for a short time and sold directly to the customer (the rural people in India). for the customer approach we will have to sell it to an entire community of families where each family contributes a bit and pays up the total cost.
A lot of thought has to be put into which direction we take finally and what solves the problem we are addressing the quickest. Till we can figure that out have a look at this TED speech by Dan Pallota about how we think about charities is totally wrong.
I think you always have to think about this trade off when you are trying to figure out a social venture. How is your product going to reach the people you actually want it to? For example, looking at the Tom's shoes model which is basically donating a show to those in need upon buying one in a store in the US. They knew they wanted to put shoes on people who cannot afford them and then came up with this business model. Sort of a "means to the end" kind of business plan where you are very focussed about your end goal and finding out a way to achieve it is just part of the process.
Thinking about it from another angle is thinking that the product dictates your market. If we build a portable single serve bottle (750ml capacity) we will have to sell it to people in the US in stores to individual hikers and trekkers. Also they get to donate a bottle to a family in need which they will feel very happy about and have a sense of satisfaction. I want to build a system where they get to track their donation and know where they are making a difference in the world. On the other hand if we build a more community oriented solution i.e. a system which purifies about 5-10 gallons at a time it would be a totally different approach of marketing and pricing and selling. Of course it would be portable too but in a different way to the 750ml bottle. You can ship this version easily to different places but cant take it with you in your bag. This option will have to be have to be sold to government agencies, charities, organisations that have employees working in places with lack of clean water for a short time and sold directly to the customer (the rural people in India). for the customer approach we will have to sell it to an entire community of families where each family contributes a bit and pays up the total cost.
A lot of thought has to be put into which direction we take finally and what solves the problem we are addressing the quickest. Till we can figure that out have a look at this TED speech by Dan Pallota about how we think about charities is totally wrong.
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