This week’s topic is Ready, Set, Go (and
Grow)!: Launching and Growing a Social Venture. In the Nesta (the UK’s
innovation foundation) report Making it Big: Strategies for Scaling Social
Innovations, author Madeleine Gabriel states that “social innovations can
be said to have scaled when their impact grows to match the level of need.”
That’s precisely the approach the iCraft Path
team is taking with our venture. In our client presentation earlier this week, we proposed a multi-tiered model for
iCraft Path, with each version building off the previous version, not replacing
it. This technique for scaling the business will enable our client to gauge the
public’s interest level on an ongoing basis, and to respond accordingly.
The first
iteration we recommended for iCraft Path is to create an aggregator of existing
resources, and work with existing providers to make their services more
crafter-friendly. We think that our client is an excellent spokesperson for
crafters, and that she could be very helpful in working with resource providers
to make their programs more accessible to crafters. We recommend having the
website exist separately from her original venture, I Made it! Market, to
ensure that all regional crafters feel welcome, not only those currently
associated with IMI! Advertising fees
from relevant companies could be utilized to offset the cost of creating and
maintaining the site.
The second
version of iCraft Path would build upon the first version, but also offer
original content to members. Crafters are receptive to the idea of paying
inclusive membership dues, as opposed to one-off fees. Our focus group
discussions suggest that crafters are not willing to pay more than $100 for
such a membership. Our client might consider offering individual consulting
services as a resource. This version would rely on strategic partnerships with
other organizations – for example, being a member of iCraft Path could entitle
crafters to a discount at partnering organizations for classes or supply
discounts.
The final
iteration of iCraft path, Version 3.0, incorporates shared space into the
resource, including workspace, retail space, and community space. The financial
investment and risk of a shared space is significant, so we feel this version
of the venture should be approached with extreme caution, only once “effective
demand” (as phrased by Gabriel) has been generated.
We know that
creating sufficient demand for each eversion of iCraft Path will rely, to some
extent, on effective marketing by our client. One thing our team has struggled
with throughout this project is the idea of “need” vs. “want”. Do crafters
truly need the service that iCraft Path proposes to provide? If they say they
want our services, does that mean they will actually use them?
I decided to
look into how to approach this issue, through the article Need vs. Wants in Marketing. Based on Neil Kokemuller’s description of finding
the “dominant buying motivation of a customer to present the most persuasive
messages,” my inclination is to appeal to crafters’ emotional needs in
marketing iCraft Path: the desire for financial independence, validation of
talent, etc. could be taken into accounting in developing a marketing strategy.
Has anyone else run into this dilemma of need vs. want in developing
their ventures? If so, how have you gone about resolving it?
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