Opportunity: College students around the world spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks that they only use for a semester. Many of those textbooks sit around and go unused. I want to change this and hopefully reduce the amount spent on textbooks with a give a book get a book program. The program would occur at the end of each semester when students are registering for new classes and finishing up old ones. Each participant will donate old books and receive books for their next semester in exchange.
Potential Customers: My target market currently is college students at UF, but can be expanded to fit markets at other colleges across the globe as they are also experiencing an increase in textbook cost.
Questions:
- What is your year and major/college?
- Have you ever been tempted to not buy a recommended book and just use supplements like Smokin Notes due to price of textbooks?
- How much do you spend on textbooks each semester?
- Would you rather use e-texts or physical textbooks?
- Would you be willing to participate in a give a book get a book program?
Interview Reflection: I will admit it felt very unnatural and almost infomercial like to film my interviews. During some interviews I ended up having to rerecord the interview due to laughter between myself and the interviewee. Although at the end of the five interviews I was excited to see a positive response to my give a book get a book program. I was scared many of the students were going to say no they do not use physical textbooks anymore and just prefer to use e-texts or supplements like Smokin Notes, but I was pleasantly surprised that a majority of the interviewees would rather use a physical textbook which would make my program a success. Students are spending thousands to get an education and all seem to have a similar interest in saving as much money as possible. The average student spends anywhere from $300 to $500 on textbooks and supplements each semester and with my program I hope to drastically change that number.
Hello Domenica,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great opportunity. I really appreciated how your throw in the questions to see if it would be a viable program. Great interviews. I am an online student, but will be attending the actual classes when I start my MBA program. I hope to see your program in full swing when I get there.
Good luck with the rest of your semester,
-Dallin
Please take a look at my blog as well. http://dallinj.blogspot.com/
Hey Domenica, I think this is a brilliant idea that can benefit college kids all across the country. Being a college student myself, I would love to see a program like this in action in order to save myself money for buying books. The only thing I think you should look into is e books and how they are becoming more common on top of standard textbooks. E books have to be purchased and can't be reused, but coming with an idea for exchanging E books on top of standard text books could take this even further.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my interviews and product idea here
http://zackmuf.blogspot.com/2016/01/customers-interviews-no-1.html