1. For this exercise, I chose to speak with AJ Latteri, chef and owner of The Loft 5 Catering and Event Planning on Anna Maria Island. I worked with her frequently throughout high school, and still do occasional events for her when I am available. As she is not in Gainesville and was unable to speak on the phone, I emailed her my questions for her to respond to:- Who do you think your target customers are? Do you believe they are the 20% that makes up 80% of your revenue?
My target customer is young brides in their 20's and 30's. This is definitely the 20% of my business that generates most of my revenue in that it has a snowball effect as many of these brides have young friends also looking for caterers for their weddings
- Where do you find your customers and how do you reach them?
- What are some issues/problems that your customers face?
Most of our clients' issues are finding a caterer to fit their budget and still deliver the custom experience that they are desiring.
- How big, on a scale of 1-10, is this problem in your customers' lives?
Many of our clients are dealing with planning a wedding. To those clients, the issue is a 9-10 on a 1-10 scale. The wedding planning often consumes their lives. Other clients are planning parties and in those cases it may vary from a 5-10 depending on the type of event they are planning.
- What are customers currently doing to fix their problems?
To fix this problem, we are finding that many of our clients are planning weddings earlier on so that they can have time to shop around and do the proper research to figure out how to meet their needs. Websites like Thumbtack and Gigsalad have become huge because of this. Online searches are huge also as we have generated many clients from our website alone.
2.
3. I believe that AJ adequately understands her target audience and what they are looking for in a caterer. She mentioned that clients want the best deal for the best price, which my interviews verified. They also echoed her statement that people want a custom experience, which was very important to my interview #3. Also, all of the interviewees mentioned that they would do research to ensure that they had found the best person for the job, and AJ said that she has joined multiple social media sites and online search engines for this very reason. Overall, I think that this entrepreneur has a pretty solid grasp on who her 20% is and what she needs to do to reach them and cater to their needs.
xoxo The EntrepreTraveler
Hi Marissa,
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty unique how you got a chance to interview your former boss. You were able to get solid information from AJ in regards to his 20%. The questions you made to the target customer base were on point. Good solid work on this assignment.
Please feel free to visit my blog post regarding the 80-20 rule which can be found in the below link:
http://felixalfaroent3003.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-80-20-rule.html
Marissa,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your article because I grew up on Anna Maria and actually know AJ. I also believe that she successfully is able to identify her target customer. She understands that her best marketing tool is the young brides and grooms recruiting their friends to also use AJ for their weddings. She also seems like she has a very good grasp on her ability to use social media to get more customers.
Hello Marissa,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I did not get the chance to complete this assignment so I cannot send you my blog post. I really enjoyed reading your post and watching the videos that you put up with the customers. You asked really good questions to the entrepreneur and customers and got very good answers in return. I agree with the last paragraph in your post, also, in that it seems that she understands the grasp of who her customers are.
I think you did a really great job with this assignment. I agree, your entrepreneur does seem to have a great grasp on her target customer and you did a great job speaking with some of them. Your interviews were great, they were very in depth and verified a lot of the information that AJ spoke about.
ReplyDeleteMarissa, I thoroughly enjoyed you post. Your decision to interview a former boss was very smart, as I'm sure it allowed you to be a little more candid than usual with your questions. Your boss seems to have a great grasp on the target market and how to capture them. I unfortunately did not get a chance to complete this assignment, so I do not have a link to share with you. But good luck on the rest of the semester!
ReplyDeleteHey Marissa, I think this was a wonderful post. I really enjoyed it. Your chosen entreprenuer seems to have a good handle on the target audience. Your interviews went well and you were very detailed in each portion of the assignment.
ReplyDelete