Idea Napkin No. 1

1. You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

I'm a business administration major who is currently one semester away from graduating. I'm not really sure what my talents are but I'm an all-around type of person, which means I'm mostly average in regards to any particular subject. I interned at Sherwin-Williams over the summer where I gained a ton of experience with interacting with painters and contractors, setting up events and finding ways to bring in customers.

After graduating from high school, I began to aspire about having my own business, but I knew that college would be the best place for me to gather insight into what type of business. Now that I'm close to finishing, I could definitely envision myself working with some of my friends to create a social media app or something similar to the capabilities of Apple Pay.

2. What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).

With the product that I've thought of, I plan on offering the consumer more simplicity and convenience when they arrive at the drive thru. As soon as they reach a particular major fast food restaurant's drive-thru, such as Burger King or McDonalds, their phone will become in sync with the restaurant and begin to highlight the customers' options in regards to specials and meals of the day. The technology will only work when the customer pulls into the drive thru area within a certain range as to avoid any unnecessary activation of the app.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

My targeted audience will be those individuals who frequently use the drive thru service. These are the individuals who will most likely use the features of my product. People naturally cling to having various options, which is a notion that Henry Ford eventually came to realize. By expanding the food options to this particular demographic, the consumer will be most likely start to add on to their meal purchases.

It's comparative to the experience of shopping online versus the experience of actually being at a retail store. Websites are limited in nature by what they're able to show consumers, so retailers have come to realize the need to become more personalized and accessible. The result is something commonly known in the retail industry as Omni-channel. That being said, imagine if drive thru menus could become more accessible and personalized to each unique consumer.

4. Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.

Customers will care about my product because it gives consumers something that they wish they had more of: time. By eliminating the need to feel pressured into just picking a number and driving along, the product caters to the consumers' wants.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?

The biggest core competency that will set my company and its product apart from others would have to be the value that we offer on each fundamental level. I have both the drive and ambition to keep reinventing the wheel and not being afraid of failure, which will happen time and time again.

My Idea

I believe these five elements fit together with my product because each element described above involves an aspect of companionship. Of course, in this case, the companionship will be between the consumer and their phone. I think its safe to say that most people, whether they admit it or not, have a hard time functioning without their phone nearby. So I think its just another added benefit to be able to use your phone at any fast food restaurant drive thru. I picture the college student leaving from their class and heading to In-N-Out to create a burger that uniquely fits his/her preference. Or, even the mother of three heading to Chic-Fil-A and passing around her phone as her kids pick and choose exactly what he/she wants (no more screaming in the backseat).