.
AMN 443
Product and Service Innovation
Assignment 3
Lecturer – Dr Ursula Bougoure
Tutor – Dr Ursula Bougoure
Student – Adam Smith
n10094296
Innovation – Mobile Application
Hungry Now
Never again will you walk past a food deal you would have wanted.
Table of Contents
Table of tables…………………………………. 3
Table of figures…………………………………… 4
Executive Summary…………………………… 5
Introduction…………………………………… 5
Market Analysis………………………………. 6
Target Market decisions………………. 6
ATAR…………………………………. 6
Product selection……………………………… 7
Product Innovation Charter…………… 7
Opportunity identification……………. 8
Concept generation and evaluation…… 9
Description of selected product………. 9
Service blueprint……………………… 10
Product Development…………………………. 11
Full Product Protocol………………….. 11
Design and development of the Product. 11
Product and Market testing……………. 12
Launch and Commercialisation………………. 12
Launch activities………………………. 12
Post Launch tracking………………….. 12
References…………………………………….. 13
Table of Tables
Table of Figures
Executive Summary
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the future capacity of the innovation of the mobile phone application Hungry Now. Great lengths were taken to consider the types of users, their wants and needs, financial forecasting, start-up cost and running costs of the venture.
One of the main principles that needed to be comprehended and understood is that the application Hungry Now was just designed as a catalyst, to speed up the identification of cheap salient deals that suit the customers needs and aligning that with the details of the provider and the information to promote the successful transaction, which hopefully leads to brand loyalty.
Successful insertion of this tool in to the market place becomes a win-win situation for consumers and providers alike, no longer will consumers miss out on a great deal on food, and providers will be able to unload food at a slight margin above cost rather than dumping food items that have expired their shelf life, especially foods with a short shelf life like items in a hot box.
The risk calculation involved the companies’ capacity to create and market the App. in quick succession and control the market in this given area of sales for at least 2 years till Hungry now created a positive financial return for the investors.
1.0 Introduction.
The project of the innovation Hungry Now began with brainstorming within a group of master’s students at Australia’s greatest business school (QUT, 2018). The group had to decide what they believed was one of the most prosperous ideas generated from the brainstorming. From approximately 15 ideas, the group shortened the list to 5, and we then each picked our 2 favourite ideas, with the idea with the greatest number of votes is the one we move forward with.
The idea was to solve two problems, the first was the unnecessary waste of food from commercial vendors, and the other was giving the general public access to food deals they may not have been aware of, usually at a reduced cost. The group was fortunate to bring a range of skills to the task including marketing, business knowledge, digital application creation, and a range of other necessary skills.
2.0 Market Analysis
2.1 Target Market decisions
Analysing the target market for consumers became pretty straight forward, I just chose people between the ages of 15-65 years (working age) (Scharpf, 2000) based in major capital cities. I plan to launch in Brisbane first, as a controlling factor to reduce initial start-up costs and to hone the digital success of the App. It was important to me that that App had a range of meal types to suit different diets and cultures.
Brisbane’s population in the demographic I was targeting is 1.6 million, but obviously we don’t expect to convert every person to a consumer, and the consumers we do expect to achieve, I don’t expect them all to join up at the start of the venture (release date).
2.2 ATAR
Awareness, Trial, Availability, Repeat.
The ATAR model (Crawford, 2015)below is calculated on our complete target market, after the successful trial in Brisbane, so this model also includes Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Any consumers outside this area would just be considered a bonus.
| Providers | Consumers | ||
| Awareness | 20.0% | Awareness | 10.0% |
| Trial | 20.0% | Trial | 10.0% |
| Availability | 80.0% | Availability | 88.0% |
| Re-use | 30.0% | Re-use | 30.0% |
| Total Percentage | 2.4% | Total Percentage | 0.26% |
| Total Providers | 300 | Total Consumers | 24,000 |
The model above depends highly on our ability to successfully market the Hungry Now app and secure providers, as this highlights the Awareness and the Availability (not so much to the App, but the availability of suitable deals on the app).
3.0 Product selection.
3.1 Product Innovation Charter
Background.
Hungry Now is a start-up looking to help both consumers of food and commercial operators in the food industry, mostly cafes, take-away shops all the way up to restaurants. By creating the App. Hungry Now, we look to create a connection between these two groups and allow consumers to find food deals they wouldn’t have found otherwise. This creates a saving for the customer and an opportunity for the commercial operator to clear out food which may be getting close to an end date or to use the App as a marketing tool to become more popular.
Focus.
The focus was really to create an opportunity. A large percentage of the people in our target market (15-65) are constantly on or with their phone. Using the technology of google mapping, we were able to use location-based software to locate the user, then display all of the deals in the area, and be able to break them down by food genre, coffee, Chinese, burgers etc. etc.
Goals.
Essentially, we wanted to embrace our catch phrase “Never will a hungry person walk past a restaurant deal they would have wanted”, but to do this we have to convert a lot of small business in to suppliers for our App, the market the App to consumers in our target market (15-65) and promote all of the benefits (Grimes, 2015) and the ease of use. We want suppliers to feel the benefits faster than they would have expected, which is, having customers in their store buying the deals within 30-60 minutes of the deal going live on the Hungry Now App.
Objectives.
Initially our team thought that a reasonable goal was to have 4000 users and 100 food and drink providers within the first 12 months, but me personal belief is we could at least triple this with cleaver engaging marketing, instore signage and product launches in the CBD and Fortitude Valley mall. I could even envisage consumers downloading the App inside providers shops at point of sale just to get the discount, which heuristically will entice them to be repeat users of the App Hungry Now. The repeat use is a big driver for us, and we would expect each provider to have at least 200 transactions per month just because of the App and the deals on it.
Guidelines.
- The full function and error free evolution of the Hungry Now App, and having it readily available from the Apple App store, and Google Play for Android.
- Getting deal providers on board and educated on how to load deals in to the App, set their location and training staff how to serve this new style of consumer.
- Market the Hungry Now App to consumers, promote the environmental feature of not printing out coupons and the benefit of convenience that deals are always around you.
- Reinforce the concept that is App is a scalable template that can be adapted to innovate other concepts like Clothes Now, Tradies Now, Fitness Now.
- Allow consumers to rate the deals they bought so that future users can identify more popular or tastier deals, and quality of service. I feel this is an important feature as it allows consumers to feel as they are part of the experience, and it helps highlight very poor-quality providers who we can eliminate from service.
3.2 Opportunity Identification.
Using the bothersome technique, it was identified that the two most bothersome issues are “forgetting to bring the coupon” and “finding the relevant deal”. Our App Hungry Now solves both of these issues with the built-in technology.
| List of problems associated with finding food deals | Problem occurs frequently | Problem is bothersome | A x B | Rank |
| Forgot to bring the coupon | 70.0% | 90.0% | 63.0% | 1 |
| Finding relevant deals | 83.5% | 70.0% | 58.45% | 2 |
| Missing out on deals | 70.0% | 40.0% | 28.0% | 3 |
| Judging the quality of the food offered | 50.0% | 50.0% | 25.0% | 4 |
| Not having received the coupon | 50.0% | 30.0% | 15.0% | 5 |
| Finding the location of the chosen deal | 10.0% | 40.0% | 4.0% | 6 |
3.3 Concept generation and evaluation
To evaluate the area in which we should focus the best use of the App Hungry Now, a Gap Map was created with the major competitors in the market place on it. The axis’s were divided in to the amount of deals available for the provider (Few or Many), and the time at which the offer can be used (Current deals or Deals available for future use). This was important in creating the Hungry Now App because we wanted consumers to be able to decide what they would like to eat while on the go, or while they are out and about.
While evaluating how the Hungry Now App should be positioned in the market place, the decision of the best gap to focus on was the most current deals and many deals. We want as many deals as we can possibly get available immediately.
3.4 Description of selected product
The Hungry Now application is a mobile phone-based software that allows consumers to find food deals where ever they are. By accessing the application, consumers can choose meal types by genre (burgers, salads, vegetarian, fine dining), or culture (Chinese, Yum Cha, Sushi or Mexican). Users of the application can even option to keep favourite providers. Once the genre is chosen, the deals in the selected radius (configured in settings) will appear on screen for the user to scroll through.
Each deal will show an image of the item, a small description, the price, and the average star rating the provider has accrued from 0-5 stars. Once the deal has been selected, a map appears on screen giving the consumer all of the information needed to guide them to the store to make the purchase, again removing another bothersome issue.
Step 1. Provider logs in to the Hungry Now website to register deal. Deal goes live.
Step 2. Hmmmmm, I’m Hungry Now J J J .
Step 3. Consumer downloads the Hungry Now application.
Step 4. Consumer choses a genre and selects a meal deal.
Step 5. Consumer follows the provided directions to find the deals location.
Step 6. Consumer enters store and shows app usage and pays for deal.
Step 7. Consumer inhales deal, OMG best ever, gives 5-star rating to provider via app.
Step 8. Consumer tells friends and workmates, Hungry Now becomes popular.
Step 9. When Provider runs out of a deal, they remove it from the Hungry Now website.
Step 10. Provider has new deals, becomes wealthy, buys BMW with the nice closing doors.
I am very confident in the transaction stages of the application Hungry Now. For smaller providers, it will be conveyed to them the importance of removing the deal from the website, so another bothersome issue of arriving to buy the deal but it has sold out. This type of activity could hurt the providers star rating.
3.5 Service blueprint
In addition to the processes above, a product support team will work in the background to field calls of complaint and sales enquiries from budding providers. This will also include some technicians in case the product has technical failure.
4.0 Product Development
4.1 Full Product Protocol statement
| Feature | Function | Benefit |
| Large buttons | Easy to use | Users don’t have difficulty pushing correct button |
| Fun name | Easy to remember | Application become iconic with buying food deals |
| Digital | Environmentally Friendly | Helps the environment by not wasting paper |
| Digital | Very accessible | Even new users can get the app straight away |
| Simple | Clear,Straight forward | No training required, step learning curve |
4.2 Design and Development of the product
Key features of the application Hungry Now are the large touchscreen buttons allowing easy to read functions. Crisp clear images are provided to enhance the purchase decision of the consumer and the NASA certified data encryption gives piece of mind for consumers who wish to import their bank payment information for on the go transactions at providers point of sale
4.3 Product testing and Market testing.
While most of the product testing has been ironed out during construction, our sales team that are constantly meeting with new would be providers are required to do random checks within 100m of the new providers location. This information is shown to the provider to show use of the Hungry Now application and any errors are sent directly to Hungry Now’s tech team back at the office.
Analytics are collected through the app showing hotspots for Hungry Now users including showing what type of deals are most popular. This information is passed on through our sales teams to providers to promote re-use of the Hungry Now website to post deals.
5.0 Launch and Commercialisation
- Launch activities
As discussed the launch is going to be in Brisbane, and we feel the best time is during food events such as the Greek festival, the French festival, and Chinese New Year. Obviously these three events are on different calendar dates which highlights that the launch will be rolled out over several months with supporting television and digital advertising.
- Post Launch tracking
Being a digital product, tracking the Hungry Now application will be easy as we will source data from the Apple App Store and Google Play Android, and we will also be collecting all of the live data with use of the inbuilt mapping system to show where hot spots are for users and the minimum, average and maximum distance travels to purchase a deal.
