Assignment 25A What's Next?

Existing Market

I think what's next for the Smart Collar is to get a few different designs of the collar which could be done using a 3D printer. I also need to talk to someone who is familiar with building apps that can be used on any smartphone. I'm fairly certain I could find the right people to help me with this at UF. Having access to UF and what they offer might be a valuable resource I didn't consider in the past.

The first person I talked with was actually a fellow student who reached out to me after seeing my elevator pitch which I presented. He asked if the Smart Collar was real because his dog had got loose a few weeks back and he spent 8 hours looking for it before he finally located the dog. He explained to me that a collar a dog could wear would be very helpful for anyone whose dog might get loose and wander away. He was very interested in my idea and suggested that I might want to market this to veterinarians who could use the Smart Collar as an alternative to getting their pet implanted with a chip. He told me he thought I needed to create a physical replication of my idea so I could get better feedback from potential customers even though it might not be what the finished product looks like in the end.

The second person I spoke with suggested that I might want to market my Smart Collar by using the local TV cable provider as a way to advertise it. He also mentioned that customers might want the Smart Collar to be waterproof so it could be used on pets that are allowed to go outside for extended periods of time.

The third person I spoke with suggested that I test market the Smart Collar in select locations before investing a lot of money on producing a large quantity which might not sell as good as I thought it would. She also mentioned that with other options like a security camera or baby monitoring device I have to make sure to price it correctly so people will not always go for the cheapest way to get the same results for these other options.

Reflection:

The feedback I received was very helpful as far as expectations I thought I had. I was very surprised someone thought the Smart Collar was already on the market. Thus I know there is a need for this product. I also never thought about it having to be waterproof so that is something I must consider and make changes to accomplish that. The price also needs to reflect what additional benefits the Smart Collar provides without giving the customer a cheaper inferior option to choose from.

I also discovered that there are many other ways to market my product. The one that stuck out was targeting veterinarians. I never thought that pet owners may be leery about implanting a chip into their pet and by giving the veterinarians another option to offer to people who want to do this could be huge. Also, test marketing the Smart Collar in a selected location makes sense because I would actually see how much interest there is in it. Using cable TV advertisement is another thing I never thought of.

New Market 

A totally different market I could target would be pet owners who have a dog strictly for security. People who own junkyards or towing companies, for example, would have a dog used for security when the business is closed at night. People might also have a security dog at their house who stays outdoors all the time.

For people who own dogs strictly for security, the Smart Collar could be used to detect what goes on after hours. Are there people snooping around? Did someone manage to avoid the dog and break in? If so the Smart Collar would be able to show the owner that with the 2-way camera and microphone. Owners could receive an alert on their phone when something unusual happens, and the dog starts barking for an extended period of time.

The first person I spoke with is a pawnshop owner here in Gainesville. I explained my idea and was told that the entire property is under video surveillance 24/7. The dog he has is just used to warn off potential threats by being vocal. He did not seem to think I needed to improve the Smart Collar because his security needs are met with 24/7 video recording that is saved and backed up in case something did happen when the pawnshop was closed.

The second person I talked to is a dog owner in my neighborhood who has a dog which he keeps inside a fence surrounding his house. He was interested in my idea and stated that many times at night the dog might start barking, and he has to go out and check on whats going on. He does not have 24/7 video surveillance so he thinks that the Smart Collar could be useful to him if it had a way to send an alert to his phone if the dog did start barking so he could see whats going on without having to go outside. The Smart Collar would somehow have to be modified so it would be capable of sending an alert to the owner's phone and I have no idea how complicated that might be.

Reflection:

I thought this new market was a good idea. I even thought police dogs might have a use for the Smart Collar. What I learned about this new market is that people who own a dog for security at their business use the dog for vocal purposes only and rely on good quality 24/7 surveillance systems. So the dog is really for show more than actual security.

I can confidently say that this new market is not as attractive as my existing market. If I had chosen police dogs as my new market, I think it would have been a better idea than the security dog market. If police dogs were to use the Smart Collar, I wouldn't have to modify it to send alerts because if a police dog was sent into an area, the dog handler could see what the dog is encountering just by using a smartphone.