Assignment 11: Idea Napkin No. 1

1. You. I first began following a vegetarian diet in 2006 and went vegan in January of this year. Having dealt with the difficulties of trying to find animal-free products at the grocery store for nearly half my life, I know the potential of this app and I know how to cater to the target market it will serve. I have a knack for understanding people. Maybe it's from studying psychology or maybe it's because I just love to conversate, but I'm good at getting people to open up to me. Because of this, I've become a great listener. Pairing these skills with my personal experience, I know this app is needed and its demand will keep growing as does the amount of people that forgo animal products.
   
2. What are you offering to customers? The animal-free food market has exploded in the past decade. 10 year ago, you were lucky to find a small selection of Morning Star products in the frozen food aisle at Walmart. Now, it seems a new product is being introduced every week at Publix. This is wonderful progress, but it's not happening fast enough. At least, not evenly throughout the country, so you're left to check the ingredients of each product as you go. Because of this, grocery shopping trips take longer, especially when you're a new vegetarian or vegan. This mobile app will streamline your grocery shopping experience and cut down the time it takes to get in and out of the store while also exposing you to a great variety of products you never knew were accidentally vegan. The app works by using your camera to scan the product's bar code and comparing it to the continuously updated database of products and their ingredients to quickly tell you if the product is safe to consume. The app will also feature a listacle section that will share vegan related news, like new product announcements and product sales.
   
3. Who are you offering it to? This product is for people that follow a vegan or vegetarian diet and are finding it either difficult to shop for suitable food products or are wanting to expand their food options outside of what they are used to purchasing. As young adults only make up about half of the vegan population (but most people report going vegan in their 20s), the target market will be people following a meat-free diet between the ages of 18-50. This age group was also chosen because the likelihood of this portion of the population owning a smartphone is incredibly high.
   
4. Why do they care? Being vegan doesn't mean you give up your taste buds. These people care because food is an integral part of American society. Almost everyone wants to eat food they enjoy and they want a variety to choose from. Being stuck to the still-too-small section of vegan foods at your local grocery store gets old fast. This app will allow them to go beyond the certified vegan label to try other foods, possibly old favorites, that they never knew they could have because the ingredient list is too complicated. The listacle aspect of this mobile app will also bring awareness to new brands and products that they can try. They'll also save time and almost everyone is down for that.
   
5. What are your core competencies? The biggest thing the competition lacks is ease of access. Other websites or apps that offer this service are glitchy, too complicated for the average person to comfortably use, and are outdated. This app will be the opposite. First and foremost, we will be focused on making our interface as user friendly as possible. We will also focus on keeping our app continuously updated so that new products are being added every day to make our database extensive. The integrated listacle feature will also set this app apart from the rest because it will be a unique hub for vegan news and product information. 

I think all of these elements work together to create a focused plan that has the prototypical consumer in mind during every step. My personal experience is what sparked this idea and fuels my desire to make a product that is unlike any currently on the market. I want to create a mobile app that will have people excited about trying a vegan diet and will rid them of feeling overwhelmed at the grocery store. I believe in this app's potential. I want it to happen someday.