Marcus Manzoni ENT3003

Marcus Manzoni ENT3003 February 25, 2020 Halfway Reflection 1.To keep up with this course, my best strategy has been doing the assignments at the very beginning of the week. The assignments are mostly easy but they are definitely tedious and can be time consuming depending on the requirements, so I prefer doing them on a Monday or Tuesday just so they aren’t hanging over my head the rest of the week. 2.I have never really wanted to “give up” per se, but I have had times where I was frustrated with the class. The first was when for one of the earlier assignments I forgot to declare the comments I made for the post, which is a process I never had to do before and I was not accustomed to doing so. Even though I did the work, because I didn’t declare I lost points and that is frustrating. The second thing that has tested my compliance has been the assignments that require interviews. I do not enjoy these assignments because they can be a lot of work and I don’t like conducting...

Marcus Manzoni ENT3003 February 25, 2020 Reading Reflection 1: Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald’s 1. I read Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald’s by Ray Kroc and overall I thought it was a good book. I was surprised that Kroc first started out selling paper cups and this eventually led him to working in the food industry. I most admired Kroc’s willingness and ability to take chances. To be able to go from selling paper cups, to then selling milkshake mixers and then invest in a restaurant to start a fast-food franchise, I thought that was risky but incredible too. However, I least admired how Kroc just accepted that the paper cup company stole 60% of the profits from his contract with the multi-mixer company. This was a huge obstacle for Kroc because the profits he made was barely enough to live on. A second piece of adversity is when he opened the second McDonald’s location. He struggled with copying the recipes for the french fries specifically and that was the staple of...

Marcus Manzoni ENT3003 February 19, 2020 Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1 Through conducting my three interviews of a specific market segment (adult, shaves often, does not use electric razors) I was able to obtain valuable information regarding this market's need awareness and information search. Below are the summaries of my interviews for each element. For all three of my interviews, the interviewees revealed the exact moment they became aware of the need (for a sharper, cleaner razor to shave with), which was during a shave with a blade that felt too uncomfortable. Having three very similar responses feels like a good sign because I know the exact scenario in which a person will need a new razors. However, the issue with this response was that this may vary based on personal preferences. The average reusable razor blade will last about a week or about 6 shaves; however, It will be very difficult to determine if the majority of people actually buy a new razor every week. The ...

Marcus Manzoni ENT3003 February 19, 2020 Idea Napkin 1.I am a 20 year old, male, college student, originally from New York and I am now attending the University of Florida. I feel like some of my strongest skills include my work ethic, my determination, my vision and my social skills. I have also been able to increase my marketing talents through my internships with both a minor league baseball team and a start up sports news company. If I were to actually go out and start this business, I would want to make this my main priority. I have always longed to create something of my own and be my own boss, and although I have had, what I believe to be, some really good ideas, I feel like I have never really had the time/means to actually produce and sell the product/service. If I decided that the product I came up with for this class was one I was going to pursue, I would have to give it my full attention and do whatever it takes to sell the product and make money. My main goal for the p...

This is the link to my first elevator pitch video. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eeLw-E3hiSXBIc17aNHQ7h4jmw84Ah1c/view?usp=sharing

Marcus Manzoni ENT3003 February 11, 2020 Testing the Hypothesis, Pt. 2 In my interviews, I found a lot of the same/similar responses to the Who, What, Why questions. Instead of reiterating the same points five times, I chose to just summarize my findings for each question. Who : After conducting my interviews, I found that there are two main different types of people who would seem to fall into my product’s boundary, but actually do not. The first type is a person (man or women) who shaves regularly, but chooses to only use electric razors or disposable razors. While this product is good for reusable, non-electric razors, those who do not use those types of razors, even though they shave, fall outside the boundary. The second type I found is those who want/need to shave regularly but have the time/money to buy new razors, go to a barber shop and/or subscribe to a shaving kit service. These people will often resemble those in the boundary but their attitudes, behaviors and in...

Marcus Manzoni ENT3003 February 5, 2020 Solving the Problem 1. The problem that I am focused on solving is - razors not being durable (become dull and dirty very easily). My hypothesis for this opportunity/problem was that people who shave have an issue with the durability of razors because the razors become dull and dirty easily and quickly. 2. To solve this issue, instead of developing a more durable and easy to clean razor, I plan to design a product that effectively sharpens the blades and cleans them at the same time. The hope is that with this product, people will much less frequently need new razors and can save money by refurbishing their used ones. The product will resemble a case with a port to insert the razor, when the razor is attached, there will be a whetstone tipped device (good for sharpening knives) that slides across the blades and sharpens them. Because this would be automatic (so the user can have this running whenever they need it) it would be plugged into the w...

Marcus Manzoni ENT3003 February 5, 2020 Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1 Hypothesis/Opportunity:  Current razors are unable to remain durable for extended periods of time because there are no simple means of resharpening blades and keeping them clean. The Who, What Why:  Who: People who shave What: Razors are not very durable and become dull and dirty really fast Why: It forces people to continuously buy new blades/razors Interview 1: ‘The majority of the people who shave would have this problem. For people who don’t shave, this wouldn’t really be an issue because they would likely not have a need for a razor in the first place.’ ‘I feel like the blade sharpening aspect is better than the cleaning aspect. With proper care techniques, there are ways to keep a razor clean but it’s much harder to keep blades sharp’ ‘For those that do shave, it could become a hassle to have to keep spending money on new razors. Some people may prefer having a new razor all the time, but I pers...

Marcus Manzoni ENT3003 February 4, 2020 Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends Economic 1: Comfortable and sanitary public transit a.  https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/10/16/americans-public-transportation-trains-buses b. Since the use of public transportation is on the rise again (even though it is still lower than it has been in the past) there is an opportunity to make public transportation more enjoyable for the passengers. By making buses/trains cleaner, more comfortable and ultimately more enjoyable, people will be more inclined to take public transportation. c. The prototypical customer would be people who take public transit. A more specific classification could be people who live in a city and do not own a vehicle. Additionally if we were the ones making the buses, the city government would also be the prototypical customer in the case that they want to partner with our service. d. I feel like this idea would be relatively easy to exploit; h...