24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity.

The customers that I am marketing towards fall into three categories.

1. The first category which makes up most of my potential customers are soldiers who do not have transportation or prefer to use public transportation. This customer may not be able to afford a vehicle, not be able to afford insurance, not be able to drive or simply is trying limit his spending.
2. The second category are the families or soldiers. These families may only have one vehicle or no vehicles at all. These families are anyone that lives on or off post that is in need of getting around post.
3. The third category are DOD civilians. These are people who work on post that may be looking for a ride.

 What are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity?

• The main reason creating this opportunity is the fact that other means of transportation are not allowed on post.

How is this market define geographically and demographically?

• Geographically this market is currently limited to the base that I am located at. Demographically this market is young or new soldiers, families and DOD civilians.

How are customers currently satisfying this need? And how loyal are they to whatever they use now?

• Customers are currently satisfying their need by getting rides from friends, riding bikes or walking. They are very loyal to this because they have no other option.

How big is this opportunity?

• This opportunity has the potential to be used as a base-wide means of transportation. It can potentially replace some individuals transportation.

How long will the "window of opportunity" be open?

• This opportunity will be open until someone else does it. With how long the opportunity has been open, there seems to be no motivation from others to change it.

Innovation. 

The service I am offering to address customer needs is a bus system that will be brought on post for anyone to use that has access to the base. This will contain multiple buses that run 24/7 across the post. There will be stops along major neighborhoods, close to shopping centers, close to works and at all the gates across post. 

There will be 4 different ways for customers to purchase these bus tickets. All ticket prices will be the same for all people on post.

1) The first way to buy a ticket will be to purchase a one-way bus pass.

• $1.00

2)The second way to buy a ticket will be to purchase a day pass. This will allow customers to use the bus system for an unlimited time for 24 hours.

• $3

3) The third way to buy a ticket would be to buy a 20 ride pass. This will allow customers to ride the bus 20 times.

• $15

4) The fourth way to buy a ticket would be to buy a monthly pass. This will give them unlimited rides for the entire month.

• $40

Venture Concept.

Implementing a bus system will offer a means of public transportation for everyone on post that was once not available. Customers would buy this service because there are no other competitors and they are very limited on options. It will not be hard to get customers to switch as it is reliable and inexpensive. The only weaknesses would be accidental bus breakdowns or accidents. If this happens there needs to be a close bus and driver nearby to replace this broken bus.

My most important resource will be being able to relate to these customers and understand their needs because I once had this unmet need.

The next venture would be to implement a bus system at other posts that currently do not have a bus system or a quality bus system.

In five years, I would want to have a successful service at my current installation and be in the process of implementing these bus systems at other posts.