29A Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity:

The group of potential customers I would be targeting with my condom vending machines are the 18-23-year-old, Frat/Srat drinkers that frequent places at midtown and downtown. College bar scenes are known for underage drinking, close contact dancing, and casual hookups. The market is easily defined both geographically and demographically, the geographic market is the bars in which college students frequent and the demographic is strictly 18-23-year-old college students. There are no other products like mine that are currently on the market so the customer’s needs are only being satisfied if they previously purchased condoms, one of the challenges would be to get students to feel comfortable to even use the machine in the first place. But with proper placement of the machine student would have the privacy to buy a condom and play it safe. As long there are college student drinking there will be a window of opportunity for my product. 

Innovation:

My product is a condom vending machine that will be placed in a secluded area of local college bars as well as sorority and fraternity houses. Customers will be able to buy single condoms with a variety of flavors, sizes, and brands so that they can protect themselves in the spur of the moment ventures. One of the aspects that makes our product unique is that condoms will be payable with the student's ID number. With the swipe of a student’s Gator1 or by just entering their student ID into the keypad an active student will be able to purchase condoms without having to pull out their wallet.

Along with swiping your student ID customers can also purchase condoms through more traditional ways such as cash or credit cards. The machine will be stocked with popular brands like Trojan, Durex, SKYN, and Magnum. There will be differences in the price of the condoms depending on the kind you get, but prices will range from 1-2 dollars averaging a profit of about 50 cents per condom.

Venture Concept:

If we advertise the increase in STD rates and make the purchasing or condoms more casual then I do not think we will have an issue getting people to use our machines, but in order to get people more comfortable with the thought of purchasing condom in public we would have to spend time on campus marketing the vending machines so that people are comfortable using them. Right now, the only competitors are B2B stores like Publix or CVS, but people would have to purchase the condoms ahead of time, and my product is pointed at the people who have spontaneous hookups while intoxicated. The packaging and location of the vending machine are two of the most important components, the packaging is what draws in customers, and we would be packaging them as trendy as possible to attract the eyes of Frat/Srat kids. Location is arguably the most important part of the product, if the machine is placed out in the open then some customers may not be as willing to buy the condoms. Each machine will have to be placed in a secluded area of the bar, such as a back hall or bathroom so that people can have access to the machine without the eyes of dozens of partiers. The machine itself will not be like other vending machines, it will be slick and camouflaged almost. By giving the machine a smaller feel it will reduce the risk people will notice others using the machines. My business would stay small, so that gives off the feeling that was just like everyone else, big companies sometimes lose that feeling safety and similarity when dealing with customers. A group of 10-15 people working to repurpose old vending machines and to market on a college campus will be enough to get my business up and running.

My “secret sauce” would be my relationship with the UF Greek life and the managers at local college bars. Many of the employees at midtown are also members of Greek life on campus so having these circles overlap will be beneficial to me to network and to get my product in bars. It would be hard for an outsider to convince the owners and managers to introduce a similar product to their establishments, but since I have a prior relationship with them I could market our product better and I’ve already established a layer of trust with them.

After becoming a well-established business, I would like to dip into different forms of advertisement. Such as, popular school sayings on the condom wrappers or different types of memes that are trending at the time. Having these different designs on the condom wrappers would make it more appealing for our customers.

In five years, I want this venture to be well established and become a normal part of the college scene, hopefully, the business will be popular enough so that I can focus on finishing my schooling while still being able to work from home on running my company and keeping up with the trends of college students. This venture has opened my eyes to the many different aspects that come with putting a product on the mark so in the future I will have a more realistic view on what it takes to break out and create a new product.

Summary/what changed:

All of the feedback I got was good, none of it suggested a change in my product but as I began thinking about how awkward it can feel when I don't know what I want from a vending machine and how I feel like so many people are watching me at such a large machine. So I got the idea to slim down the machine to make it as discrete as possible. 

Picture:

this is the closest to what I see from my product.